(East-West Question) David R. Chan: How did a state banquet 50 years ago change the landscape of Chinese food in the United States?

　　China News Agency, Beijing, March 10th: David R. Chan: How did a state banquet 50 years ago change the landscape of Chinese food in the United States?

　　Author Ren Yumeng

　　Since Chinese immigrants set foot on the coast of California in the mid-19th century, Chinese food, mainly Cantonese, and adapted to the local tastes, took root in the United States.

Today, there are countless Chinese restaurants in the United States.

And this change is inextricably linked to the visit of US President Nixon to China 50 years ago.

　　David R. Chan, a third-generation Chinese immigrant who can't speak Chinese and can't use chopsticks, has recorded nearly 8,000 Chinese restaurants.

This American Chinese food observer recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions" column. Based on his own experience, he explained the development stage of Chinese food in the United States and Nixon's "ice-breaking trip" to China changed the pattern of Chinese food in the United States.

　　The following is a summary of the interview transcript:

　　China News Agency reporter: As far as I know, you didn't eat Chinese food when you were young.

As a third-generation Chinese immigrant who can't speak Chinese or use chopsticks, how did you start this "Chinese food journey"?

　　David R. Chan:

During my childhood, I rarely ate Chinese food.

I was born in 1948. At that time, there were only 150,000 Chinese Americans in the United States, while the total population of the United States was 150 million. It can be seen that the Chinese community is a very small group. unfamiliar.

Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco, USA.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan

　　At the same time, many second- and third-generation Chinese immigrants have become highly localized in an era of severe racism against Chinese in American society.

I came from an early immigrant family from Taishan, Guangdong, and I was no exception, so I had less exposure to Chinese food, and I couldn't form the muscle memory of using chopsticks.

In terms of language, my parents did not allow me to learn Chinese in order to ensure that I was fluent and pure in English and would not be discriminated against by others.

　　My interest in Chinese food developed gradually.

In the late 1960s, when I was a senior at UCLA, I signed up for the first Asian Studies course offered by the school, and I became really interested in the unique history of Chinese in America, and began to delve into Chinese Americans.

Later, although he suspended his research and writing on Chinese history, he still went to eat at authentic Chinese restaurants as much as possible, visited the Chinese community in the United States, and continued his exploration and pursuit of Chinese culture.

　　Since the 1980s, I have been recording Chinese restaurants in the United States, and as of now, there are 7,850 Chinese restaurants on the record.

　　China News Agency reporter: Food seems to be the only connection between you and your own source culture. In your opinion, what stages have the development of Chinese food in the United States gone through?

　　David R. Chan:

From a vertical perspective, the development of Chinese food in the United States has a clear dividing point; from a horizontal perspective, American Chinese food has formed two different systems with the changes of the times - American Chinese food and authentic Chinese food.

　　Taking time as the axis, the first 100 years of Chinese immigrants to the United States was the budding stage of Chinese food in the United States.

In the mid-19th century, California's "gold rush" triggered a wave of Chinese immigrants to the United States. At that time, the Chinese immigrants were mainly composed of relatively homogeneous Toishanese-Americans.

But as more Chinese made their living on the West Coast, locals blamed the Chinese for the decline of the American economy, which eventually led to the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

　　Thus, for over 100 years, beginning in the mid-19th century, Chinese food in the United States was strictly Cantonese.

At the same time, the early Chinese community in the United States was largely under "racial segregation," a closed area that was isolated, culturally isolated from mainstream American society, and far from the Chinese cultural area.

Therefore, the traditional Taishan diet representing the taste of the early immigrant hometown has been continued and preserved.

　　However, the social environment at the time also led to the inevitable Americanization of Taishan cuisine.

In the early 20th century, as more and more Americans visited Chinese restaurants, food tastes had changed according to local preferences, and dishes such as chop suey, fried noodles, fried rice and hibiscus eggs came into being.

　　In the process, Americans are also adapting to the taste of Chinese food in reverse, and they are gradually accepting Chinese-style methods of chicken, beef and duck.

In big cities like New York, Americans' craving for Chinese food quickly became fashionable.

Around the 1920s, this "pseudo-Cantonese food" became popular across the United States, and this was the prototype of American Chinese food.

A Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, New York, USA.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan

　　China News Service: In 1965, the Immigration and Naturalization Act was promulgated, and the number of Chinese immigrants increased. How has the status of Chinese food in the United States changed?

　　David R. Chan:

The implementation of the "Immigration and Naturalization Act" opened the way for Chinese immigrants to come to the United States, and also changed the status of Chinese food in American society at that time. The simple "Taishan cuisine" was upgraded to a rich and diverse Cantonese-style food. , the development of Chinese food in the United States has entered the second stage - the rising stage.

　　After the immigration policy was revised, the first batch of Chinese immigrants mainly came from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and immigrants from various mainland provinces did not start to come to the United States in large numbers until the early 1980s.

Cantonese-speaking Hong Kong immigrants tend to make their homes in the familiar, Cantonese-inspired Chinatown.

The food they bring is still dominated by Cantonese cuisine, but their variety is more diverse, injecting new vitality into traditional Taishan cuisine, and bringing a change to the stagnant Chinese cuisine in the 1970s.

　　The arrival of immigrants from Taiwan also played a huge role in promoting the development of Chinese food.

They first represented the first batch of non-Cantonese Chinese immigrants to the United States, and the Chinese food they brought was also groundbreaking—in the broad category of American Chinese food, they drew a clear line of demarcation between old Cantonese food and non-Cantonese Chinese food.

　　Until around 1970, non-Cantonese-style Chinese food became popular, and General Tso's chicken, hot and sour soup, mushu meat, rice cracker soup, and Kung Pao chicken became common dishes in American Chinese restaurants.

Cantonese classics like sweet and sour pork loin, beef with broccoli, fried noodles and fried rice are equally popular.

On the evening of August 16, 2020 local time, a Chinese restaurant delivered dishes beside the street in Flushing, New York.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan

　　China News Service: In 1972, when US President Richard Nixon visited China, the picture of him having a Chinese meal with then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was broadcast simultaneously across the United States.

Did Nixon's "chopstick diplomacy" play a positive role in the further integration of Chinese culture represented by American Chinese food into mainstream society?

　　David R. Chan:

The state banquet attended by Nixon during his visit to China can be regarded as a catalyst for the complete remodeling of Chinese food in the United States, and it undoubtedly played a role in promoting the authentic and diversified Chinese food in the United States.

At that time, the table for the two was not the chop suey and wontons in soup that Americans are familiar with, but authentic Peking duck and other types of Chinese dishes.

　　Nixon's visit showed Americans a new light on Chinese food, and diners want to taste authentic Chinese food.

In Manhattan, diners are even crazy about Chinese food.

Three months after Nixon's visit to China, the Hunan Restaurant landed in Manhattan with astonishing success.

News of the restaurant's opening made television headlines in Manhattan and quickly spawned a number of restaurants of its kind.

　　In recent years, the impact of the expansion of the Chinese middle class and increased immigration from the mainland on Chinese food in the United States can be compared to the impact of the 1960 amendments to the U.S. immigration law.

In the past ten years, thousands of Chinese students have studied in American universities, making authentic Chinese food further developed in the United States.

There are often Chinese restaurants near American colleges and universities that enroll Chinese students.

　　This also provides the opportunity for a large number of Americans who have never been exposed to authentic Chinese food to experience Chinese food culture.

Today, the American public is increasingly accepting authentic Chinese food, more and more non-Chinese diners are dining in restaurants in Chinese communities, and more and more authentic Chinese restaurants are starting to open and operate outside of traditional Chinese areas.

In 2002, Beijing held the "Journey to Peace and Cooperation Exhibition" to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nixon's visit to China and to review Sino-US relations.

Visitors are stopped by a table set with tableware that was used in Nixon's dinner.

Photo by Chen Yi published by China News Agency

　　China News Service: In addition to the appeal of the food itself, will Nixon's trip to promote the normalization of Sino-US diplomatic relations also help reshape American diners' perceptions of Chinese food?

　　David R. Chan:

The answer is yes.

Before Nixon's visit to China in 1972, the political atmosphere between the United States and China continued to evolve.

In the U.S. political environment at the time, the aftermath of McCarthyism lingered, and the Vietnam War that lasted until the 1970s further increased the possibility of direct U.S.-China conflict. As a result, the two parties took a tough stance toward China, especially the Republican Party.

　　In this context, the visit of the Republican President Nixon, who had long held a tough stance against China, can be described as a "political earthquake", breaking ideological barriers and changing the development direction of Chinese food in the United States.

　　Suppose that some Americans who sneered at Chinese food because of the Cold War and tensions between the United States and China began to embrace Chinese food culture with a more open and inclusive attitude as the two countries re-engaged.

On February 3, 2021, local time, at the entrance of a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco, the United States, the outdoor dining area surrounded by isolation devices has welcomed several tables of diners.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan

　　China News Agency reporter: Compared with the food culture of other parts of the world, such as Italian food, Mexican food, etc., what is the status of Chinese food in the United States?

What is the most popular type of Chinese food right now?

　　David R. Chan:

Chinese food, along with Mexican and Italian food, has been one of America's diners' favorite ethnic dishes for decades.

At present, there are about 50,000 Chinese restaurants in the United States. Although the number lags behind the Mexican restaurants with 55,000 stores, the popularity of Chinese food is evident given that there are 30 million Mexicans in the United States and only more than 5 million Chinese.

　　In the United States today, Sichuan hot pot is the most popular among diners, followed by milk tea shops and tea rooms, followed by Cantonese restaurants, morning tea shops and Hong Kong-style cafes.

Shanghai local cuisine, Taiwanese cuisine, Northeastern cuisine, Shaanxi cuisine and Beijing cuisine are also very representative.

　　China News Service reporter: The Spring Festival just passed, what food traditions did your family keep to celebrate the Spring Festival?

What is the special significance of the Spring Festival reunion dinner for Chinese in the United States?

　　David R. Chan:

Today, the way the Chinese celebrate the Lunar New Year and the importance they place on the New Year is very different from what it used to be.

　　In my case, as a child, we didn’t have time to celebrate New Years because our relatives lived apart and the elders in the family ran the grocery store and worked 7 days a week.

It wasn't until after our parents retired that we started celebrating the Chinese New Year with big family gatherings a few weeks after New Year's Day.

　　Unlike me, my wife came to the United States when she was 5 years old, and her family was used to celebrating Chinese New Year.

Therefore, after getting married, the wife has been holding New Year's Eve dinner.

I remember the first New Year's Eve meal I had with chicken, fish, oysters, nostoc and tofu soup.

We also occasionally schedule a "dine out" sometime after the new year.

　　As far as I know, even in first-generation immigrant families, the way Chinese New Year is celebrated is changing.

First, because Chinese New Year is not a national holiday in the United States, it can be difficult for families to get together for a traditional meal when New Year's Eve falls on a weekday.

Now, most Chinese women also have their own jobs, and their family members are distributed in different regions. Therefore, Chinese tend to have dinner together on the first weekend of Chinese New Year, and the New Year's Eve dinner at home is replaced by gatherings in Chinese restaurants.

(over)

　　Interviewee Profile:

　　David R. Chan, a third-generation Chinese immigrant, a Chinese food observer in the United States, and the first "Internet celebrity eater" in the United States, now lives in Los Angeles.

So far, I have tasted the dishes of nearly 8,000 Chinese restaurants, and recorded and created Chinese restaurant files.

He can't speak Chinese and can't make chopsticks. He embarked on the road of Chinese food exploration because of his Chinese cultural identity.

Over the years, David R. Chan has explored and popularized topics such as the history of Chinese food in the United States and the evolution of Chinese immigrant communities in the United States. He has written more than 100 articles on the Morning Post, CGTN, etc. He also participated in the filming of the documentary "The Search For General Tso" (The Search For General Tso), which introduced Chinese cuisine.