CCom mm munityy GGarrden
By Isaabell Gerbig
Contents Page 4 Page 5 Page 10 Page 14 Page 16 Page 22
Letter to the Editor Mapping My Way Downtown Invisibility and Foreignness: A Symbiotic Relationship? A Tale of Two Chop Sueys Homesickness: Tastes and Tribulations Bibliography
I’ve I alwayss been interested in the iron ny that hum mans are so obsessed o
with caategorizing things t into discrete entities, yet little to nothing can c be y and clearly y separated into clear cleanly categorries. It is forr this reason n that I decided d to concenttrate my pro oject on fusion of o all kind -- the interm mingling off variouss cultures an nd cuisines.. Because f of thiss class, I tried to limit of the focus it to Assian fusion, whether it is cross culturall exchange between Asian culturess or with no on-Asian cu ultures. Most of what we studied s was about displac ed Asian cu ulture, espe cially in n environm ments. The compleetely foreign n between th he dominan nt and the tension minoritty groups arre especially y potent in these arreas, and it is in this in ntersection that interesting can n happen to o food culture. In I this projeect, I delve into ideas of authenticity and d experimen ntation, foreign nness and in nvisibility, hypocrisy h and app propriation,, as well as translation and coo oking. Look king back att all the trips wee took in Ph hiladelphia,, New York City, C and Baarcelona, it was w clear that theere were maany instancees of Asian fusion juxtaposed j with effortss to maintaiin traditionaal practices. Some places put p more efffort into maintaining their cu ultural heritage, and oth hers looked up to innov vation and creativity. c It depen nded heavilly on the history of the placce, as well as a the recep ptiveness of the locals who became b con nsumers of this foo od. I also talk about a literatture dealing g with comin ng to termss with one’s foreign fo herittage. Floweer Drum Song by y C.Y. Lee is a perfectt example
of thhe conflict tthat results from tryingg to keepp tradition, while also w wanting to assim milate into this new soociety. Mucch of thhe plot interrsects with our trips to varioous Chinatoowns and too Barcelonaa, so these two ideass were woveen together into one piece. The thirdd article disscusses choop sueyy, a once poopular dish that is now almoost non-existent. This dish was onne of thhe first sym mbols of Asiian-American idenntity, as it w was a sourcee of strugglee betw ween traditioon and innoovation, butt also representedd the comm modificationn of Chinnese culturee to suit Weestern palates. I discuuss the hyppocrisy withhin Americaan society in how they vieweed chop sueyy and in turn, Asiian immigrants and Asiaan-Americaans. Finally, I reflect onn my first interrview with Frank, the m manager off Sangg Kee Asiann Bistro. I tthink about Vennuti’s “The T Translator’s Invisibilitty”, and how this cooncept was very clearlyy pressent throughhout the enttire intervieew, thouugh never exxplicitly staated. In factt, I did nnot even nootice that thhis idea was relevvant until fu further reflection, at whhich poinnt I realizedd that food aand languagge are iin a symbiootic relationnship that cannnot be separrated. All in alll, ideas of ccultural fusiion, transslation, andd food are innterconnectted; theyy should nott be viewedd as discretee entitties, but rathher an interrconnected netw work of relaationships thhat rely on one anotther. Just likke the way a garden is a netw work of relaationships thhat can’t bee sepaarated out innto discretee categories, so are tthe themes discussed in this zine. Gardden’s and fo food are webbs of life!
Mappping My W Way Dowwntown When W explorin ng a new area in a foreign place, it can be beneficcial to get lostt and just wander arround withoutt focusing too o much on where you u are going. In n order to fully appreciate the path th hat was taken n, however, it would be interesting g to be able to o look back on o the journey y and see th he bigger pictu ure. LiveTrek kker is useful in this sen nse as it makees it possible to t document the path taaken and photos, notes, reccordings and videos alo ong the way. As A a result, itt becomes easier to see s the similarities and diffferences amongst various v cities.. Though the three cities where we did this projeect (Philadelp phia, New York and Barcelona) differed d enorm mously in layout and d size, it was interesting to o see how there weree similar find ds in all three areas. They were som mehow tied tog gether through h the things we soughtt out and the things t we leaarned in class,, making fo or intriguing parallels p betw ween the threee trips.
The firsst trip we took k was to the Philadelphia P Chinatow wn. We went in n without a sp pecific end goal in miind, mostly because Gracee, Connie and I were all pretty familiaar with the lay yout of it and d wanted to o approach it with w a criticall lens in mind d. We went into the Philaadelphia Chin natown wanting to o look for thee distribution of Chinese to o non-Chineese restaurantts, which we thought t was an importtant aspect in how Chinatown, and in
effecct Chinese im mmigrants, aree viewed by ‘outssiders’. In loooking for thesse restaurants,, we chosse to go alongg the most poppular and mosst popuulated routes, which is whyy we walked down the m main street annd along a streeet that essenntially markked the bordeer between thee commerciall and
residdential area. B Because we w were familiar w with the llayout of this Chinatown annd knew wheere to lookk for the most restaurants, oour map was a veryy clear and tiddy T-shape. W We did not gett lost durinng this walk, and it is eviddent from the m map that we had a purppose and did not stray too muchh from it. Hoowever, thouggh this was noot a projeect that pusheed us to exploore foreign areeas, it still made us lookk at Chinatow wn differently.. Therre were indeeed more non-C Chinese restauurants than we could couunt, along witth many non-Chinnese Asian vissitors Chinatoown. This possed manyy questions aabout the histoory of Philaadelphia’s Chhinatown, beccause it seemeed as thouugh this Chinaatown was a llot more diverrse comppared to otheer Chinatownss that we had encoountered before. Afteer getting backk from the ouuting, I was cuurious abouut why this Chhinatown difffered from othher Chinnatowns. Som me research innto the beginnnings of thhe Philadelphiia Chinatownn compared too the New w York Chinattown, for exaample, showedd that the P Philadelphia C Chinatown caame about muuch moree recently, wiith real expannsion (from Eaast and Southeast Assians alike) onnly beginningg in the 11960s. The N New York Mannhattan Chinaatown, on thhe other handd, started gettiing populatedd durinng the late 199th century, duuring a differrent wavee of migrationn where moree Cantonese peopple emigratedd into the US. Because the migrration to the P Philadelphia C Chinatown waasn’t as hoomogenous as to New Yorrk Chinatownn, this makees it much moore open to alll types of Assian storees and restaurrants because there isn’t a
dominant identity to maintain. m That said, Chinese reestaurants stilll outnumber any other ethnic gro oups, which iss perhaps why y it is still considered a ‘Chinatow wn’ above all else. In any case, the distribution d of Chinese and d nonChinese reestaurants in Chinatown caan be confusing g and even misleading to th hose who are not familiiar with these specific cultu ures. Visitors must be made m aware off the diasporaa in Chinatow wn such that peeople are awaare of the distinction ns between vaarious Asian cultures, c as this could d lead to ignorrance and furtther discriminaation against Asian Americans in general.
Our exp perience and findings for the t New York Chin natown trip were w different because of the strateg gy that we em mployed, but they t still boree some simiilarities to wh hat we observ ved in the Philadelph hia Chinatow wn. Stephanie,, Connie and I were all unfamiliar with w the New York Y Chinatow wn, which meaant that we did dn’t know where thee most populaated areas werre, nor did wee know whaat to look for in this Chinattown. We knew thatt we had to go o back to the Museum M of Chinese in n America (M MoCA) from Golden G Unicorn (the dim sum restaurant) to o meet the class, so with w that in mind m we decid ded to just walk in th hat general dirrection but fo ollow whatever we were interrested in purssuing. We were interrested in com mparing the Ph hiladelphia Chinatow wn to the New York Chinatown and were look king for similaar themes thro oughout both areas. It was w interesting g to note that many of the basic storees appeared in n both Chinattowns: bubble teaa chain storess, Cantonese bakeries, b
freshh vegetable m markets, and ccountless dim sum placees were all paart of both Chhinatowns. In the New w York Chinattown, there w were also plennty of non--Chinese storees, such as the Korean beaauty storee that we founnd or the manny Japanese raamen placees that we passsed by.
Howeverr, because of tthe sheer sizee diffeerences betweeen both Chinnatowns, theree weree bound to be some differeences. The Neew Yorkk Chinatown was evidentlyy larger and m much moree residential, though there were still stoores that catered towarrds tourists. T There were plenty of soouvenir shopss as we walkeed down varioous streeets, but none oof them seem med to sell souvvenirs that weere specific too Chinatown. A few pplaces were sselling fans orr traditional Chinnese garbs, buut the majorityy of things beeing sold were not Chiinatown relateed. Another obseervation we haad was that w we also heard a lot moree Cantonese bbeing spoken,, and many off the clerkks that we spooke to preferrred to speak inn Canttonese. This, once again, tiied back to thhe histoory of how thee New York C Chinatown caame to exxist and how tthe original w waves of imm migrants who eestablished thhis Chinatownn weree mostly Canttonese. It is cllear just from m walkking around thhat these Canntonese immiggrants creatted a strong cculture withinn this Chinatow wn that has lasted to this day. Thee distribution oof non--Chinese restaaurants isn’t aas great as it iis in the P Philadelphia C Chinatown, but there weree quite a few w Asian fusioon restaurants, many of theem koshher or vegetarrian. In a wayy, because of tthe histoory associatedd with the New w York Chinnatown, there was a need too create a stroonger cultuural identity w within the Chiinatown, which may be why theree weren’t as m many non-Chiinese storees. Of course,, it would be iinteresting to track how the distributiion will changge in the com ming
years, witth waves of diifferent immigrants entering and a settling in nto Chinatown n or with the increased commercializzation of the area. Our O third projeect was on a completely c different continent c and d area of the world, w Barcelonaa. Though thee project didn’t involve a Chinatow wn or LiveTrek kker, I still fo ollowed the same strattegy of headin ng in a generaal direction but just fo ollowing whattever path cau ught my eye. I was also o looking for a restaurant th hat served Chinese food, fo because I was curiouss about how Barcelonaa would comp pare to New York Y and Philadelph hia, especially y since Barceelona had a smaller Chinese populaation. My frieend who lived in Barcelona B sugg gested one caalled Mosquito (which happened to be on n the list Karaa sent out). It is an Asian n fusion bar/reestaurant thatt serves ‘Ch hinese tapas’.. While waitin ng in the ridiculoussly long line, I found out th hat Mosquito actually has h two other counterparts, Grasshopperr (a ramen bar) b and Red Ant (a noodle bar). All off them are Asian-inspire A ed, and are sprread throughou ut the city. Affter talking to the waitress, it seemed that there waasn’t any partiicular reason (that she knew k of) for why w all these restaurants were nam med after inseccts, but what they t all had in commo on was that th hey all offered d a variety of different ales a and beerss. The odd co ombination off Asian foo od with variou us types of Eu uropean brews creates an enviro onment in wh hich the aim is not to recreate the ex xperience of eating e at an Asian resttaurant, but to o provide a caasual and ‘inauthenttic’ introductiion to Asian fusion f cuisine. In n addition to that, t the waitrress told me that Mosq quito has gonee through various transform mations, from Indian, I to Jap panese, to now Chin nese dimsum. Though Mossquito’s main focus may y be Chinese dimsum as of the momentt, it is clear that these oth her Asian and d Spanish influencess have truly made m ‘Chinesee tapas’ into something g of its own. While W ‘Chineese tapas’
may be a way of ttranslating dimsum to Spaanish custoomers who arre unfamiliar with this stylle of eatinng, it is also aan example off how the foodd serveed at Mosquitto has actuallly become a nnew type of cuisine.
All three of these projeects involvedd mappping our jourrney of lookinng for Chineseeinspiired foodstuff ffs in places w where Chinesee cuisiine was not thhe native cuissine. This led to the ddiscovery of m many differennt Asian fusioon placees and the reaalization that authenticity iis ultim mately relativee to each persson’s interrpretation. It w was interestinng to see how w over the ccourse of the semester, witth our increassed undeerstanding of Asian-Ameriican cuisine, tthe way that we encoountered Asiann-Spanish cuiisine also changed. Theere was alwayys a commonn strugggle between keeping true to the traditioonal way of cooking aand being innoovative, usingg the resouurces at handd in the foreignn country whhere the ddishes are being cooked. Itt seemed that,, in all thhese places, iff the innovatiion and changge was purposeful annd well-inform med, then this was conssidered as an aappropriate w way of changiing Chinnese culture. H However, if thhere was an expeectation of an ‘authentic’ eexperience (i.ee. it was marketed as ssuch) and thee dish did not reach thesee expectationns, then this iss considered
disrespecttful and misreepresentative of Chinese culture. Moreover, M it was w clear from m the absence of a Chinaatown in Barccelona that th he freedom to innovate was w a lot morre present. Beecause the Chinese cultural c identity was a lot leess present and prevaalent in Barcelona, the need d to preserve this culturral identity was evidently not n as great. As a resullt, the ratio off Asian fusion n restaurants to traditio onal Asian resstaurants was much larger
there than n in both Ameerican Chinato owns. It seems thaat the larger po opulations off Asian immigran nts to the Unitted States help ped preserve this more ‘authentic’ fo ood experiencce, while at the same time t providin ng a demand for f a taste of what they y ate back hom me. It was onlly after studying the t history off how Chinato own and Asian Am merican cuisin ne came aboutt that I was able to seee these conneections, which h was enlighteniing and surpriising.
Foolprooff Ways to Map Effecctively S Step 1: Find an End Desttination IIf you find yoourself havingg to explore a large uunknown terrritory, start byy finding a destination tthat is a walkaable but relatiively far distaance aaway. This way, you’ll havve some guidance and a general direection, but youu shouldn’t liimit yyourself to following the ppaths that Gooogle M Maps sets outt for you. S Step 2: Trustt Your Gut F Find things thhat pique yourr interest. If yyou see a ccool store acrross the street or down a raandom aalley, don’t heesitate to folloow your line of sight uuntil you encoounter whatevver you are innterested iin. Oftentimess, these intereesting things ccan be ggateways intoo better underrstanding an aarea iinadvertently.. In Barcelonaa, for example, tthough the maain streets aree beautiful, it is a city oof alleys. Gett tting lost in thhe alleys is a rrite of ppassage that eeveryone shouuld experiencce at lleast once, annd living to telll the tale will win yyou quite a feew brownie pooints. S Step 3: Don’tt Be Afraid tto Rewalk Paaths S Sometimes foollowing the ssame path is pplaying iit safe, but rew walking the same path cann also hhelp you noticce things thatt you may nott have ooriginally notticed the first time. It’s nott likely tthat you will bbe able to waalk every streeet in the N New York Chhinatown, so bbacktracking every oonce in a while and seeingg patterns alonng streets ccan really help lp you gain unnderstanding of that pparticular areaa. S Step 4: Find a Concept W When trying tto map an areea, it is inefficcient and uunproductive to try to mapp every street. Instead, ffocus on one specific idea or concept annd try to ffurther delve into that ideaa. Interested inn kosher C Chinese food?? Keep countt of how manyy there aare, where theey are locatedd, or what clieentele tthey attract. C Can’t stay awaay from the bboba cchain stores? Figure out what else they sell. F Focusing on a specific ideaa will help maake aanalysis a lot easier later on. S Step 5: Takee lots of snapsshots, record dings, vvideos, and text notes! B Because we liive in the digiital age, it doesn’t m make sense too merely burnn the things yoou see iinto your mem mory...Capturre it with yourr phone iinstead! This way, you’ll bbe able to see where aand when youu saw this objject and perhaaps the pphoto will revveal a detail thhat you hadn’’t ooriginally seeen. Always takke advantage of the ttechnology yoou have.
nvisibilitty and Fooreignneess: A Syymbioticc Relationship? In At firsst glance, inv visibility and d foreignneess are two unrelated u terrms; they aree not tied by b any anton nymous relattionship, norr by any sy ynonymous definitions. d However, H they do share s symbollic commonaalities. Invisibiliity and foreig gnness are closely c related, in n that they both b seek to separate the Other thrrough variou us means of exclusion. e Invisibiliity hides from m the publicc eye, and foreignneess labels oth hers who aree not of one’s sam me backgrou und. These tw wo concepts intersect on the groun nds that inviisibility can be a protection from foreign, whiile simultaneeously stifle foreignnesss in any particularr society. These two themes are seen in both b the fictional world of Flo ower Drum Song S and in our 360’ss real life ex xperiences in n the Philadelp phia and New w York Chin natown, as well as Barcelona. B It shows that no n matter what culttural contextt the area has, the struggle between b visiibility/invisiibility and familiaritty/foreignness is universsal.
Inviisibility as P Protection fr from the Forreign One of thhe most inteeresting porttrayals of thee foreign andd the invisible in Flow wer Drum Soong is the loocation of thee restaaurants that tthe characteers frequent thro ughout the nnovel. It wass mentioned seveeral times thaat Chinese restaurants haave channged their diishes to caterr to the tastees of Ameericans (for e.g. Chop Suuey), makingg thes e dishes ‘forreign’ in the eyes of receently emiggrated Chineese like Mayy Li. In the nnovel, restaaurants that offer authenntic Chinese food are ggenerally abbove or underground, theeir exis tence made known onlyy through woord of mouuth. It seems as though inn order to presserve the auth thenticity of the Chinese cuis ine, these reestaurants muust be ‘invissible’ to thhe general puublic, so as nnot to be infilltrated with A American innfluences. Inn this casee, invisibilityy is a protecttion from thee fore ign. Similarlyy, the invisibble divide betw ween Chinatoown and thee rest of San Franncisco servess as a protecction from thhe fore ign. Old Maaster Wang is unwilling tto crosss the divide,, choosing innstead to staay in
Chinatow wn where he feels most comfortable. c . Though the t barrier iss technically invisible, the prejudice it represents is not. Through C.Y. Leee’s characterization of Old Master Wang, it is obvious that t he is justt as discrimin natory against American ns as American ns are towarrds the Chineese. American ns view the emigrated e Chinese C as foreignerrs to their lan nd, just as Chinese think k of Ameriicans as foreeigners in Ch hinatown. The invissible border around Chin natown representts where two o foreign gro oups collide.
On O our trips to t the variou us Chinatow wns, it was clear c that therre was a divide beetween Chinatown and th he rest of the city. In I New York k, where Ch hinatown borders Little L Italy on n Canal Streeet, we could obv viously see the t differencce in architectu ure, window w displays, an nd store fronts between the tw wo immigran nt areas. Thee effort (on n both parts)) to distinctiv vely mark their own n areas with their own cu ultural indicatorrs is obvious, especially because b
bothh populations had large iinfluxes of imm migrants and had to creatte a strong idenntity in the faace of discrim mination. Creaating a stronng identity noot only helpeed imm migrants uniffy to form a community, but also helped to diifferentiate tthemselves ffrom otheer minority ggroups. In this sense, thoough theree is no physiical, visible barrier betw ween Chinnatown and Little Italy, tthe aestheticc
diffeerences are eextremely nooticeable. Morreover, on ouur MoCA Chhinatown touur, the ttour guide cllaimed that C Chinatown w was still in the proceess of expandding, threateening to taake over Litttle Italy as thhe invisible barrrier continuees to shift. Thhis invasion is definnitely evidennt, as we saw w some Chinnese storees on Little IItaly’s side oof Canal Streeet (marrked clearly with Chinesse signs plasstered acrooss the front)). Though thhe threshold iis invissible and is cconstantly changing, it sstill creaates a distancce between ttwo cultures that are fforeign to onne another. On a diff fferent note, in another exam mple about iinvisibility aand foreignneess from m Flower Drrum Song, Chhang still usses invissibility as prrotection froom the foreiggn, thouugh not to prreserve his C Chinese origiins. In faact, while thhe restaurantss stay invisibble to mainntain their auuthenticity, C Chang keepss his acaddemic past ‘iinvisible’ (byy throwing aaway his P Ph.D. degreee) in order too better fit innto
American n society. Ch hang realized that his degree was w seen as a threat by wh hite American ns and was preventing p him h from getting a decent job. Therefore, when w he acted as though t the degree d were invisible and pand dered to Ameerican expecctations of the Chineese as servicce workers, his h life supposed dly became easier. e In this sense, Chang wanted w to bettter assimilatte into the foreign American A socciety, which h is why he made onee aspect of his h life invisiible. We W also saw this on our Chinatown C and Barccelona trips, where w certaiin aspects off Chinese culture c weree kept invisib ble in order to attract foreign clieentele more easily. e While paandering to th his foreign audience, a these resttaurants are able to preseerve those aspects of o their cultu ure that the fo oreign audience may not hav ve understoo od. Howeverr, conversely y, by not allo owing foreign audiences a to be exposed to more ‘uncomfo ortable’ aspeects of Asian n culture, this also doesn’t allow w for full accceptance and integ gration of on ne culture intto the other. In fact, th his is where invisibility becomes b a solution for f navigatin ng clashing cultures, c and this is i how invisiibility becom mes an indicatorr of the foreig gn. For exam mple, at Mosquito o, the ‘Chineese tapas’ plaace in Barcelon na, it was clear that they aimed to introducee dimsum to non-Asian consumers. c For this reason, r they purposely excluded things su uch as chickeen’s feet or red r bean pastries, as these wou uld perhaps not n be as popular as a their otherr options. Beecause of this, som me iconic feattures of dimsum were kept invisible, and iff these consu umers were to ever seeek an autheentic dimsum m experiencee, they wou uld be surprised by the much m larger list of options. As a result r of keep ping certain aspects of o Chinese cu ulture invisib ble to suit the palatees of non-Ch hinese, they inadverteently took aw way an opportunity for some peo ople to try neew things an nd encounterr the foreig gn.
Invvisibility as aan Indicator of the Forreign Perhaps the most obvious exampple of invissibility is thee discussionn of germs. O Old Masster Wang, thhe representation of a tradiitional Chineese man, doees not believve in thes e “invisible animals” (207). He believes that the cause off his cough iis a result off a coldd in the throaat and heat inn the lungs, and not tthese invisibble creaturess that foreignn (Weestern) mediccine talks abbout. In this ccase, invissibility doess not serve ass a protectioon agaiinst foreigneers; rather, it represents a funddamental diffference in iddeologies. Wesstern medicinne is based oon new disccoveries and innovative ttechnology, whille Chinese m medicine is bbased on cennturyold ppractices. Olld Master W Wang equatess thes e microscoppic, invisiblee germs withh fore ign, unfamilliar medicinaal practices. He wouuld rather folllow the advvice of the docttors that he iis familiar w with and deal with thinggs that he caan see. This mirrors his percception of Am mericans as well. In terms of identity ccrises, invissibility and tthe silencingg of minorityy grouups can also indicate a loost foreign cultuure. Many tiimes, in tryinng to assimillate into American m mainstream cculture, imm migrants sacrrifice their ow wn culture, feariing that it w would prevennt them from fittinng into Ameerican societyy. This silennce is a forrm of invisibbility, as nott being outsppoken abouut this culturre makes it less visible too thosse not familiaar with it.
Overall, O foreiignness in Fllower Drum Song hass an interestin ng role. Thee characters are from a foreign lan nd, yet living g in an environm ment where th hey are surro ounded by familiar customs c and d traditions. This T makes them view w the peoplee who are bo orn on American n soil as foreeign, despitee the fact that they are the oness who have immigrated to the US S. In order to o combat thiss unfamiliaarity, invisib ble restaurants and barriers spring s up to create a diviide between traditionaal Chinese cu ulture and liiberal American n customs. However, H inv visibility is also used d to signify th he mysteriou usness of foreign id deas, and to further emphasize foreign concepts c and d contrasting belief systems. Invisibility becomes an indicator off foreign id dentities and d foreign trad ditions, hidden to o better fit in n. Flower Drrum Song serves ass a representaation, in thiss sense, of the Asian n-American struggle to find f their own iden ntity.
IDE EALIZED VIEW W
UNF FORTUN NATE REALITY Y
After thin nking about ho ow to expand d on the chop suey research thatt we did, I waas confused ab bout how to expaand on it and visualize v whaat we learned. I decided to makee a comic abo out the duality y of chop suey y in the Ameerican socio-cultural contex xt, because we w ran into a lot off conflicting accounts a of ch hop suey as a dish. On thee left sside, I have po ortrayed the idealized version of how Ameericans view chop c suey. In this column, chop suey is view wed in a positive light, almo ost exoticized d. It is seen ass the qquintessential Chinese dish h in the United d States, and is lauuded for its siimplicity, versatility, and overall o afforrdability. How wever, it is alsso viewed as a lowly, cheapp and dirty diish. In some contexts, c it beecame a repreesentation of how h white Am mericans view wed Chinese immiigrants. Many y believed it to t be filled wiith rat meat or offall. It became viewed as a method through h which the moneey-hungry Ch hinese made enormous e pro ofits. All of thesee misconceptiions shaped th he way non-C Chinese view wed Chinese im mmigrants, an nd gave rise to the stereotyping and discrimination d n against Chin nese immiigrants. Neveertheless, chop p suey maintaained its popuularity among g non-Chinesee consumers until u the late 19800s, and was ussed by some to t represent one o of the firstt trulyy Asian-Amerrican dishes. Its I position in n between Chinnese and Ameerican cuisine makes it a veeritable fusion n confu fusion. A Tale T of Two Chop Sueys In thinkin ng about how to visually reepresent this dichootomy betweeen the two perceptions of chop c suey, I decidded that the best way to do o this would be b to take the samee phrase and put p it in differrent contexts to make it both a complimen nt and a criticiism of chop suey. s In the first bbox, for exam mple, the fact that chop sueey can be madee from leftoveers is one of its i selling poin nts; it is econnomical and does not requirre any speciall ingredients otherr than “Chineese sauce”, forr the most parrt. Unfoortunately, thee flip side of this t means that some peopple think that even e unwanteed leftovers arre used: offall, fish bbones, babiess, etc. These kinds k of attitu udes towards chopp suey are porrtrayed in mov vies and otherr forms of masss media, whicch evidently only o reinforce negative stereotypes about Chinese peop ple. Thereforee, the essencee of chhop suey is deebated and disstorted by con nsumers and by A American pop culture. Chop p suey is only y viewed posittively when itt benefits the majority grou ups or when it is apppropriated an nd exoticized by white Am merican houssewives (Coe 2009). As succh, depending g on the consuumer and the intended aud dience, chop suey s made from m leftovers can n either be vieewed as convenient and resouurceful, or dissgusting and unsanitary. u In the seccond row, I waas hoping to capture c a simillar idea. Chop p suey is an in ncredibly verssatile dish. We llearned throug gh all our reseearch that theere isn’t one speciific recipe forr chop suey, nor n are there core c ingreedients that ap ppear in every y chop suey dish. d In fact, as I sstated earlier, chop suey was w invented on o the basis that a meal could be made out of smaller po ortions of leftovvers.
Chopp suey is mereely an umbrellla term for anny assorted vegettable stir fry ddish. I would argue that chhop suey was labellled the way itt was in orderr to commodiify a certain type oof stir-fry, annd to profit offf of the exoticcization of Chineese culture. B But, this is alsso interesting because theree is a ddichotomy in how much chhop suey was valued. Somee hautee cuisine Frennch restaurantts offered it on their menuss at higgher prices, w while some resstaurants offeered it as theirr cheappest dishes. T This once agaiin shows how w, in order to servee a specific puurpose, chop ssuey is regardded different in varrying contextts. If a restaurrant wants to offer ‘exotic’’ foodss to its custom mers, it will give chop sueyy a higher statuss than if it weere marketed as cheap imm migrant food (Chenn 2014). Percception and m marketing are essential to how A Americans viiewed chop suuey. In the lastt row, I wanteed to explore hhow chop suey was a conduiit through whhich white Am mericans perceeived Chinesee culture. In reeality, chop ssuey is one off manyy dishes serveed at Chinese restaurants, w which is why I drew w a generic ddish on the lefft side. Howevver, chop suey also comes aalong with stereotypes abouut Chinese and A Asian immigrrants in general, which is w why I decided d to draaw a stereotyppe of a Chineese man on thhe right side. I also cchose to havee this man sayy that chop suuey was his favorrite dish, becaause I felt as tthough the poopularity of chop suey throughhout the 20th century shapeed a lot of what non-Chinesee people thougght that Chineese people ate. T Through lookiing at the NY YPL and the L LAPL archivves, it was clear that even in non-Chineese restauurants, chop ssuey was soldd. This meantt that chop suey’’s popularity w went beyond Chinatown aand the Chineese food spheere, and was pprobably a lott of people’s first eencounters with Chinese fo food. Chen claaims in his introdduction, “Choop Suey: The Big Mac of tthe PreMcD Donald’s Era”,, that chop suuey became suuch a popular, easilyy consumablee cheap dish bbecause this aaligned with how tthe Chinese w were viewed: convenient aand catered towarrds more affluuent white Am mericans. Beccause food is so cloosely tied witth identity, the perception oof Chinese food as cheap andd of low qualitty due to chopp suey definnitely could haave shaped annd fueled neggative stereootypes about Chinese peopple. All in all, chop suey is a controversiial and difficcult topic to sttudy because of the varyinng perceptionss of whhat it is and w what it represeents. The dishh itself was acceppted by manyy white Ameriican housewivves as an exoti c and easy m meal to cook, yyet it also couuld have aggraavated racial ttensions throuugh its portraayal in the medi a. This strugggle between bbeing a dish thhat does not accurrately represeent Chinese cuulture, yet nott being comppletely Ameriican is perhapps why chop ssuey was coineed as one of thhe first Asiann-American diishes. In beingg neither Chinnese nor Ameerican, a new state was createed to satisfy tthis limbo phaase of being bboth Chinese-and A American-infl fluenced. Thuss, while chopp suey did aggraavate racial teensions, it alsoo helped usheer in a new accepptance of beinng neither norr.
First generation immigran nts are often n seen as oveerly traditionnal and resisttant to the neew ways of life l in their host h countriees. What freq quently go uunacknowleddged are the changes thaat occur durring the proccess of reloccation. No on ne is immunee to the effeccts of a channging environm ment, not eveen the most stubborn s of people. p Withh these channges often coomes a sensee of nostalgiaa for the familiarity of the homeland.. In this sensse, food is offten the easieest way to saatiate that longing for the past, p as “not only does it articulate noostalgia for a homeland,, but it also hhelps to compo ose and recom mpose cultu ural and histo orical boundaries”(40). F For many, noot just any ddish could sattisfy this dessire; it was often a simplee, everyday dish that theey hadn’t neccessarily appreciatted much back home, bu ut is now a reepresentationn of comfortt and familiaarity. Frank is the manager m of Sang S Kee Assian Bistro, aan Asian fussion restaurannt. As a firstt generatio on Chinese im mmigrant who has found d himself in the midst off the restauraant business, he has a lot to say aboutt food and vaarious types of comfort ffoods that reemind him annd other new w immigran nts of home. In this interrview, he disscusses how adaptation aand an open mind are keey in being ablle to better appreciate a liffe in a foreig gn country, aand how imm migrating to the United States tau ught him mu uch more abo out Chinese culture thann he had everr could havee imagined. ________ __________ ___________ __________ _______________________________________________ Q: Thank k you for acccepting to bee interviewed d today. To start off, I w was wonderinng what you did to help you cope with h having to move m to an entirely e foreiign country. Did you havve any typess of comfort food f that you u ate back in n China that you kept retturning to, oor kept attem mpting to recrreate yourself?? A: When n I first camee to the Uniteed States, I was w excited about all thee different tyypes of foodss offered here. h I wanted to try them m all! For thee first two m months, I barrely ate any C Chinese foodd. After all,, I hadn’t eveer had a chan nce like this to explore sso many new w types of cuuisine. As yoou probably y know, at that time Beijiing wasn’t especially oppen to foreignners, so it was difficult tto even get a good hamb burger. In th he U.S., I cou uld eat thosee juicy hambburgers everyy day if I waanted to. Howeverr, after the first two mon nths, the noveelty wore off ff. I no longeer craved friees and begann to crave boiiled vegetables and rice instead. Thee vegetables here in the U U.S. are alw ways coveredd in some sau uce, but I jusst wanted sim mple vegetab bles, cooked Chinese-styyle. I wasn’t especially interested d in cooking g when I wass in Beijing, but I soon fo found out thaat if I didn’t cook myselff, then I wo ould never fiind the taste that I was seearching for .
Q: When n you started d cooking forr yourself, diid you find tthat the dishees you madee were comparab ble to the on nes back in Beijing? B A: Of cou urse not! Wh hat initially bothered b mee was that evven the mostt basic vegettable, spinachh, was diffeerent. But I didn’t d come to the U.S. expecting e to find the exaact same ingrredients thatt were avaailable in Chiina, so the vegetables weere still mannageable. Whhat I didn’t eexpect was hhow difficult a problem riice would bee. The probleem was everry dish I madde just tastedd a little odd, no matter what I did to make m it auth hentic. Then, one day, I ssuddenly reaalized that whhat all thosee dishes haad in commo on was that I had eaten th hem with ricce. I was coooking rice that I had bougght from the American su upermarket in a pot on the stove, verry different from how I did it in Beijjing with a ricce cooker. When W I finally y found out what the prooblem with m my food wass, I didn’t knnow what to do! d Imagine, a Chinese man m without proper rice?? It’s like a G German mann without prooper beer! I kn new immediiately that I had h to get so ome relativess in China too send me a rrice cooker. I went out to Chinatow wn and lookeed especially y for long grrain rice, whiich is more ssimilar to Chinese rice r than thee Western sh hort grain rice. It made a big differennce, and to thhis day I’m sstill using thee same rice cooker. c I defi finitely think k that my ricee cooker was the reason I was able tto survive here h for so lo ong. Q: Since you’ve been n here for alm most 20 yearrs, do you fiind that you still have the same craviings, or have your y tastes ch hanged in faavor of Amerrican food? A: Well, I think the answer a is preetty obvious consideringg I work at ann Asian Fusiion restaurannt. Tastes neever are and never have been b static. Even E thoughh certain fooods like rice do bring mee more com mfort becausse they remin nd me of hom me, that doeesn’t mean I only appreciiate authentiic Chinese food. f In factt, I find the “Chinese” “ fo ood here mucch more inteeresting thann the food I aate in Beijing, which w is parrtly why I en ntered the resstaurant busiiness. In Chiina, there aree age-old waays of preparring tradition nal types of food, f whereaas here, the rrules surrounnding what cconstitutes ggood Chinese food f are a lo ot more lax. I’m able to combine c myy knowledge of what Chiinese food iss with whaatever inspiraation I find — even mixing betweenn different tyypes of Asiann cuisine. It’’s a newfound freedom th hat can only happen with h this new tyype of cuisinne.
Q: Do yo ou ever worrry that Amerrican percepttion of Chineese cuisine w will be skew wed by what yyou offer in your y restauraant? A: My main m concern is to make the t food we serve taste ggood. Beyonnd that, it doeesn’t matter to me perso onally what Americans A see as Chinesse food, as loong as they hhave a good impression of it. Nowaday ys with the constant c cultu ural exchang ge between C China and thhe rest of thee world, it reeally
is difficu ult to define the t line betw ween true Ch hinese food aand Chinese fusion cuisiine. I mean, even defining the borders of China pro ove to be a challenge, c soo how can wee categorize any dish cleeanly and easily? Regardless of that facct, though, iff a customerr asks for a ddish to be maade the way it is in China,, our chefs do d try to replicate the tasttes you wouuld find in Chhina as closee as possiblee. ———— —————— —————— ————— —————— —————— —It seems like with cou untless first generation Chinese C imm migrants, no matter wherre they emiggrate to, rice seeems to be a very essenttial part of th heir lives. W With Frank, fiinding the peerfect rice foor his meals waas a way of coping c with homesickness. It was a ggood way too help him sttay in touch w with his roots,, but more im mportantly itt helped him m better copee with the traansition to livving in a new w country. Frank said th hat he liked having the knowledge k thhat if he wannted to, he ccould recreatte the taste of home h whenev ver he wanteed to. Howev ver, he soonn found out thhat the moree time he speent exploring g different ty ypes of food, the more he realized thhat he has ann appetite forr more dishees than just Chinese dishes. Defne Karaosmano K glu cited in her article “Rememberinng past(s): T The constructtion of cosm mopolitan Istaanbul throug gh nostalgic flavors”, whhere she disccusses how thhe past is asssociated “with forgetting, while the present is tiimeless withh no memoryy and historyy” (51). In contrast c to th his, Frank haas not entirelly forgotten tthe past, butt creates a neew present bby combinin ng the two. He H does not believe b that deviating froom the tradiitional is a looss; rather, hhe views it as a a sort of in ngenuity and d a demonstrration of creeativity. Moreoveer, Frank sees Chinese fo ood not as a discrete andd exclusive tyype of cuisinne, but as existing on o a cline beetween tradittional and modern. m He aalso points ouut the probleems with defining a certain typ pe of food ass a static entiity; even in A Asia, what is consideredd “Asian” food is ever-chan nging. For example, 50 years y ago, Bubble B Milk Tea had nevver even beenn heard of. Today, itt serves as th he classic rep presentation of Taiwanesse ingenuityy in one drinkk. What oldeer people may m miss abo out Taiwanesse cuisine is vastly differrent from whhat younger generationss miss. He believ ves that categorizing diff fferent foods into distinctt categories can stifle thee amount off
creativity y that can occcur with foo od. When preesented withh a place wheere so many different cultures come c togeth her to form a nation, it seeems like a w wasted opporrtunity not too draw inspiratio on from otheer cultures an nd create a new n form of fusion cuisinne. In his intterview, Fran nk also indirrectly toucheed on the inteernal and exxternal flowss of Chinese cuisine. Within W China, the constaant internal flows f of imm migration andd emigrationn create an eeverchanging g definition of o “traditionaal” cuisine. Outside O of C China, the meeeting point of Chinese immigran nts with foreeign culture also a creates an external fflow of foodd exchange. This culturaal exchangee is not necessarily a neg gative thing, as it providees a new waay in which C Chinese-
American ns are able to o communiccate their inteegration intoo American society.The mixture of American n ingredients with Chineese ways of cooking c andd flavoring addequately m mirrors the American n influences that have sh haped Chinese immigrannts over the yyears to becoome more American nized, while still maintaining their Chinese C rootss. Through tthis minglingg of culture, a new and improved cu ulture is born n, where peo ople caught iin between aare able to piick and chooose the best parts p of each h culture to represent r theemselves. Frank’s Authentic A Ch hinese Rice (A Staple fo or Transitionn) Ingredien nts and Mateerials: Long Grain (Jasm mine) Rice, F Fresh Water, Rice Cookeer
http://ww ww.wikihow.com/images//4/44/Cook-R Rice-with-C Chicken-Brotth-Intro.jpg 1. Pour out desired d amou unt of long grain g rice. 2. Wash rice thoroughly.. When wateer becomes tooo murky, ddrain water aand add in freesh water. Rin nse and repeaat until water is relativelly clear.
http://cra azykoreancooking.com/ssites/default/f /files/RWCRA AB01.JPG 3. Drain wateer completelly. Add in frresh drinkingg water.
4. Measure out o enough water w so that when the toop of the fingger is touchinng the rice, w water reaches firrst knuckle.
http://p-fstt1.pixstatic.ccom/506b1916fb04d60a 430013fc._w w.1500_s.fit__.jpg 5. Put lid on rice cooker, and cook un ntil finished. 6. Rice shoulld be sticky enough so th hat it can be scooped out ut in clumps w with a chopsstick, but not mu ushy. Allternate Method (to makke Congee)
1. Wash and rinse rice, as a directed eaarlier. 2. Put in twicce as much water w as befo ore. Water leevel should ggo up almosst to the secoond knuckle. 3. Add in a selection of scallions, s gin nger, garlic, minced porkk, shrimp, veegetables, annd salt to tastte. 4. Cook in rice cooker un ntil it it finisshed. Â
Reflectionn abouut the rice recipe Dearr Frank, Following g our interviiew at the beeginning of tthis year, I hhave been stuudying aboutt autheenticity and food translattion. I’ve tho ought a lot aabout how yoou used rice to cope withh your homesickneess, and how w you becamee the translaator of ingreddients into diishes when you came c to the United U Statees. Though you y may not have had alll the ingredients or the toolss you wanted d, you did wh hat you coulld to replicatte the dishes that remindded you of homee. In Venuti’’s text “The Translator’ss Invisibilityy”, Venuti disscusses our ttendencies aas consu umers of boo oks, movies,, and other trranslated pieeces, to ignoore the transllator and foccus on th he message being b translaated. I have thought a lott about how yyou focusedd on comp paring the taastes of the riice from bacck in Beijingg and the ricee that you m made here, annd thoug gh we treated the translaator (you) as though you were invisibble, when I llook back at our in nterview now w, I realize that t you werre aware of tthe translatorr’s faults sinnce the begin nning. You were w aware that t your taste was not sttatic; it wouuld change annd evolve ass you lived l here lo onger and weere exposed to t more foreeign foods. Y You realizedd that as the transslator of old recipes r to neew dishes, yo ou were not an objectivee third party. You were activ ve in the proccess of transllating. It was obvious thhat you had tto make channges and thaat theree was no possible way to o make an ex xact, perfect translation oof your origiinal recipe foor rice to t the new dish that you aimed to maake. I thoughht this was vvery impressive, becausee thoug gh it wasn’t explicitly stated in your interview, yyou were deffinitely awarre of what faultss there were with the middleman of this exchangge of culturees. What Ven nuti discussees is that the translator ooften has to m make decisioons about whetther to transllate the text literally l or to o do a thick translation, which is sim milar to how a cook k can decide to use the ex xact same ingredients annd method orr to use theirr creative judgm ment and maake changes to the recipee. The more I think abouut it, the morre similaritiees I see between traanslating a teext and cook king. In orderr to succeed in either traanslation or cook king, it’s necessary to hav ve a strong command c annd foundation of skills, eeither in langu uage or in cu ulinary meth hods. Both arre forms of aart that can bbe based on aan indissputable piecce of text (a novel n or a reecipe), and reequire the m mastering of iinterpretive skillss. Oftentimes, with both translation and a cookingg, the final prroduct is nonn-replicable.. With h each try, a new n productt comes out, sometimes for the betteer, sometimees for the worse. Because it i is an art, itt can be praccticed over an and over agaiin, but ingennuity and creattivity are esssential to botth crafts. I found th his interestin ng because I had never thhought theree to be muchh of a conn nection betweeen words an nd food, yet there is mucch more thann I can list. I think that thesee two art form ms mirror eaach other and d yet are alsoo very interttwined, whicch makes forr intereesting analysis. Ultimatelly, I am glad d that though h I may not hhave noticedd the idea of bboth the transslator’s invisibility and th he intersectio on of translaating and coooking, whenn I look backk on ou ur interview,, I see that th hese ideas diid pervade thhroughout thhe entire disccussion. Eveen if it wasn’t w expliccitly stated, it was still present p and rrelevant to w what we weree talking abou ut. In this sen nse, this prov ves how interconnected tthese ideas aall are, and itt would defin nitely be inteeresting to taalk to you som me more aboout these toppics! Best,, Isabeell
Bibliography Chen, Yong. “Introduction: CHOP SUEY, THE BIG MAC OF THE PRE-MCDONALD’S ERA”. “Introduction: CHOP SUEY, THE BIG MAC OF THE PRE-MCDONALD’S ERA”. Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America. Columbia University Press, 2014. 1–7. Web. Coe, Andrew. Chop Suey. Cary, GB: Oxford University Press, USA, 2009. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 28 April 2016. Edulescu, Ana Maria. Barcelona Sunset Light. Digital image. Fine Art America. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://fineartamerica.com/featured/spain-barcelona-sunset-light-ana-mariaedulescu.html>. Fusion: Mixing Cultures and Traditional Foods. Digital image. State Hornet. McLatchy Tribune, n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.statehornet.com/culture/fusion-mixing-cultures-andtraditional-foods/article_141d9ae6-d033-11e3-b0970017a43b2370.html?mode=image&photo=0>. Ressler, William. Chinatown-Philadelphia. Digital image. William Ressler. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://www.williamressler.com/ChinatownPhiladelphia.html>. Ward, Sarah. Chinatown. Digital image. Creative Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. <http://creativedictionary.blogspot.com/>.