Table Of ContentAMERICAN CHINESE
RESTAURANTS
With case studies from the USA, Canada, Chile, and other countries in Latin
America, American Chinese Restaurants examines the lived experiences of what it is
like to work in a Chinese restaurant.
The book provides ethnographic insights on small family businesses, struggling
immigrant parents, and kids working, living, and growing up in an American Chinese
restaurant. This is the fi rst book based on personal histories to document and analyze
the American Chinese restaurant world. New narratives by various international
and American contributors have presented Chinese restaurants as dynamic agencies
that raise questions on identity, ethnicity, transnationalism, industrialization, (post)
modernity, assimilation, public and civic spheres, and socioeconomic differences.
American Chinese Restaurants will be of interest to general readers, scholars, and
college students from undergraduate to graduate level, who wish to know Chinese
restaurant life and understand the relationship between food and society.
Jenny Banh is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Fresno in
Anthropology and Asian American Studies. She received her BA from UCLA, her
MA from Claremont Graduate University, and her PhD from the University of
California, Riverside. Her research focuses on Asia/Asian American studies, cultural
anthropology, and popular culture. Her current research is on restaurants, barriers/
bridges to minority college students, and a Hong Kong transnational corporation.
She has previously published “Barack Obama or B Hussein” (2012) and “DACA
Spaces” (2018), and co-edited Anthropology of Los Angeles: Place and Agency in an
Urban Setting (2017).
Haiming Liu is a Professor of Ethnic and Women Studies at California Polytechnic
University, Pomona, and received his doctorate from the University of California,
Irvine. He is an expert on Chinese herbalists, food, restaurants, globalization, and
migration. He has authored F rom Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of
Chinese Food in the United States (2015) and The Transnational History of a Chinese
Family: Immigrant Letters, Family Business (2005), and numerous journal articles and
book chapters on Chinese Americans.
C\
Taylor & Francis
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AMERICAN CHINESE
RESTAURANTS
Society, Culture and Consumption
Edited by
Jenny Banh and Haiming Liu
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Jenny Banh and Haiming Liu; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Jenny Banh and Haiming Liu to be identifi ed as the authors of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Banh, Jenny, editor. | Liu, Haiming, 1953– editor.
Title: American Chinese restaurants : society, culture and consumption / edited by Jenny Banh
and Haiming Liu.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese restaurants—Social aspects—America. | Cooking, Chinese. |
Chinese—America—Social life and customs.
Classifi cation: LCC TX945.4 .A64 2019 | DDC 641.5951—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019017390
ISBN: 978-1-138-59986-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-27316-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-48549-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To my mother Nancy Banh (n ée Ngo) (cid:9179)(cid:7953)(cid:17269), father Chuck
Banh (cid:12053)(cid:16420)(cid:12789), sister Christina Banh (cid:12053)(cid:28223)(cid:8360) and all global
Chinese restaurant families.
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Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
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http:/ /tayl o ra ndfra n ci s.com
CONTENTS
List of Contributors xi
Foreword xvii
Sidney C.H. Cheung
Acknowledgments xix
Jenny Banh
Introduction xx
Jenny Banh and Haiming Liu
Key Terms xxvi
PART I
Social Analysis 1
1 Creating and Negotiating “Chineseness” through Chinese
Restaurants in Santiago, Chile 3
Carol Chan and Maria Montt Strabucchi
2 From Chinese Donuts to Leek Cakes: Navigating Los
Angeles Chinatown’s Golden Waters 26
Frances Huynh
3 Feeding Prejudices: Chinese Fondas and the Culinary
Making of National Identity in Peru 44
Patricia Palma and José Ragas
viii Contents
4 Selling Donuts in the Fragmented Metropolis: Chinese
Cambodian Donut Shops in Los Angeles and the Practices
of Chinese Restaurants 62
Erin M. Curtis
5 Talk Doesn’t Cook Rice: Chinese Restaurants and the
Chinese (American) Dream in Ohio 75
Anthony Miller
PART II
Culinary Histories 87
6 Surveying the Genealogy of Chinese Restaurants in Mexico:
From High-End Franchises to Makeshift Stands 89
Yong Chen
7 Live at the China Royal: A Funky Ode to Fall River’s
Chow Mein Sandwich 105
Oliver Wang
8 Under the Banner of Northern Chinese Cuisine:
Invention of the Pan-China Cuisine in American
Chinese Restaurants 121
David Y. H. Wu
9 Oriental Palaces: Chin F. Foin and Chinese Fine Dining in
Exclusion-Era Chicago 136
Samuel King
10 Chop Suey, P.F. Chang’s, and Chinese Food in America 155
Haiming Liu
PART III
Person-Centered Narratives 169
11 Chinese Restaurants and Jewish American Culture 171
Jacob R. Levin
12 Last Tango in Argentina 187
Cheuk Kwan
Contents ix
13 Chinese Restaurant Kids Speak About Labor, Lifeways,
and Legacies 202
Jenny Banh
14 Chinese American Chef Ming Tsai: Life of East and
West Hybridity 213
Jenny Banh
15 Culinary Ambassador Chef Martin Yan Speaks: Life,
“Authenticity,” and the Future of Chinese Restaurants 218
Jenny Banh
PART IV
Comics 227
16 Prologue: What Number Did We Get? 229
Written by Isha Aran
Illustrated by Karl Orozco
#372 and #1 A Winning Combo 233
Written by Isha Aran, Daniel Tam-Claiborne,
Sophia Park and Julian Tucker
Illustrated by Karl Orozco and Sophia Park
#249 Dim Sum Drama 236
Written and Illustrated by Isha Aran
#818 First In Our Hearts 239
Written and Illustrated by Amelea Kim
PART V
Visual Analysis 243
17 A Visual Habitat Study for Chinese Restaurants in
a California Conurbation 245
Nicholas Bauch and Rick Miller
18 Redefi ning and Challenging the Boundaries of Chinese
Cuisine: A Visually Based Exploration of Uyghur
Restaurants in the United States 259
Christopher Sullivan
