Essay Sample on the Role of Chinese Restaurants and Food in the Development of Culture in American Society

Introduction

Restaurants have to be a crucial component of the American experience, for more than a century. Restaurants have provided Americans the opportunity to experience various tastes, ethnic communities, and social groups. In the process of searching for affordable, quicker, and interesting cuisines, Americans have ignored the normal racial prejudices and exposed themselves to a variety of culinary and cultural practices. Between the years 1870 and 1930, Chines restaurants gained many customers who were not of Chinese origin despite their being social and political hostility against them.

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Until the 1960s, Chinese food was known as chop suey in the United States. Most of the Chinese restaurants were called chop suey houses. Food can be classified as a cultural tradition. Chinese food is very popular in the United States and shows how an Asian meal was transferred and grown in American society. The restaurant business is an important component of the Chinese American experience. It is traced that since the early twentieth century a large number of immigrant Chinese ventured into restaurants as proprietors and restaurant workers. The customer base included over twenty percent Americans (Hamming, 2009).

A majority of the Chinese immigrants learned the restaurant business in the United States when the other forms of jobs were unavailable to them. The Chinese immigrants became victims of racial discrimination, especially after the introduction of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The large concentration of Chinese in the restaurant business is a symbol of how racial discrimination moved the Chines to lowly service occupations (Marger, 2015).

This text intends to show the roles that Chinese cuisines have played in the development of culture in the United States. The text focuses on the influence that Chinese restaurants and food have on the cultures and culinary customs between the Chinese and other ethnic groups in the United States. As the Chinese integrated into American society, some of their cultural practices remained and others disappeared. Chinese food is a special case of such customs and practices because what is known as the popular chop suey in America emerged to be very different from what is there in China. The ingredients, cookery, and the flavors changed so as to suites the local demands. The Chinese restaurant business has come out as the symbol of the Chinese existence in the United States (Hamming, 2009).

In this section of the text, we discuss the role that Chinese food play in enhancing cultural and culinary development in the United States.

First, Chinese restaurants and foods are popular among people from other ethnic backgrounds and thus bring together people of different cultures together. In the 20th century, the Chinese food industry grew rapidly because of the increased popularity of chop suey. Chop suey was a perfect meal to have in lunchrooms, cafeterias, and other fast-food restaurants. This leads to growth in the number of Chinese restaurants and the restaurants because popular that they appeared in renowned films and was even celebrated on a song. Chop suey had become popular among the Americans and many had ignored the racial prejudice that they had and crossed into Chinatown to taste the chop suey (Barbas 2003). Chop suey became even more popular as many first and second generation Chinese Americans moved outside the boundaries of Chinatown where the communities were ethnically diverse and opened restaurants that served chop suey. The desire of having chop suey grew that it surprised Chinatown and got more support of an increased number of white consumers. In 1920s chop suey was very popular that consumers started requesting for the product in restaurants that were not Chinese. This leads to restaurant owners and chefs who did not know the recipe for making chop suey to search for the recipe (Barbas, 2003). Therefore, Chinese foods bring people from diverse ethnic backgrounds with the purpose of exploring the culture and understanding it.

Second, Chinese restaurants and foods influence the cultures of other ethnic groups that live in America by making the groups change their cultural customs and practices. Ethnic groups normally define their customs from the components of their traditional practices that include religion, ceremonies, dressing, music, and food. However, ethnic groups may also be influenced by foreign practice into incorporating a practice into their customs. In New York City the Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe especially their children and grandchildren have included eating Chinese food into their customs and practices (Levine, 2005). In New York, there are several cuisines that include Polish, Russian, Romanian, and Lithuanian but the Jews prefer Chinese over all these. Chinese food is preferred by the Jews first because the Jews found that way the food is prepared and served was more attractive and less threatening compared to the other non-Jewish food. Some of the ingredients that are used to prepared Chinese food are somewhat similar to those used by the Eastern Jews. Second, Chinese food is viewed by the Jews as multicultural therefore the food was viewed as stylish and modern. Lastly, the New York Jews from the second and third generations eat chines food together and was, therefore, had become part of their normal lives (Levine, 2005). In conclusion, Chinese restaurant and foods provide the room for cultural and culinary crossings between the ethnic groups that reside in America.

Third, Chinese restaurants and cuisines are used as a way of getting into the other ethnic American communities thus reducing resistance against the Chinese presence in America. In general, the Chinese are viewed as people who hold high ranks in education, employment, and income (Marger, 2015). The Chinese, Asians in general were viewed as threats to other ethnic groups in areas of education and employment. Chop suey and other Chinese American recipes in the start of the twentieth century became popular during a time that anti-Asian views were intense. The Americans were motivated to adopt the Chinese cuisines into their meals and culture. This, therefore, means that Americans had no option but to accept the Chinese into their communities because of their desire to taste the cuisine. Many Americans felt comfortable having the Chinese as preparers and servers of food instead of having them in mainstream business and social settings. The Americans, therefore, accepted the Chinese because of their recipes and the Chinese food industry grew more in America that it was introduced in non-Chinese restaurants. Many white American midwives who prepared chop suey took the opportunity in exploring Asian cultures and art even though they were only interested in Chinese cooking. The Chinese restaurants later updated their menus to include dishes that are even more authentic (Hamming, 2009). Therefore, Chinese restaurants and food improved the relationship between the Americans and the Chinese, by enabling the Chinese to penetrate and integrate with more communities that are American.

Finally, Chinese food changes with the trends and the taste of the local people which culinary crossing since they have to accommodate the local tastes hence making the Chinese modify their culinary customs. Chop suey has American culinary origin even though it is a Chinese recipe. The American customers wanted Chinese dishes that they believed to be genuine, while the Chinese proprietors wanted to include the American tastes in their dishes. The authenticity of chop suey was locally made up in America, despite being accepted as a genuine Chinese dish. Through this, the Chinese were able to adapt to their new social surroundings and made new identities and customs that somehow matched to the local Americans. Therefore, Chinese food leads to culinary crosses since the Chinese modify their customs in order to accommodate the desires of the local Americans.

Conclusion

Chinese restaurants and dishes play a huge role in enhancing the cultural and culinary crosses between ethnic groups that reside in the United States. The most common of the dishes is the chop suey. Chinese restaurants and the dishes are the major symbols of Chinese presence in the United States. Chinese cuisines play the following roles; first, they bring people of different ethnic backgrounds together the Chinese and the other ethnic groups. Secondly, the Chinese cuisines also affect the cultures of other ethnic groups who incorporate the Chinese dishes into their customs and practices. Third, the Chinese are able to get in and integrate with the other American ethnic groups through the cuisines, and finally in order to adapt to the changes in taste of the local Americans the Chinese modify their cuisines thus bringing culinary crossing.

Works Cited

Barbas, Samanth. ""I'll Take Chop Suey": Restaurants as Agents of Culinary and Cultural Change." Journal of Popular Culture (2003): 669-683.

Haiming, Liu. "Chop Suey as Imagined Authentic Chinese Food: The Culinary Identity of Chinese Restaurants in the United States." Journal of Ameican Transitional Satudies (2009): 5-10.

Levine, Gaye Tuchman & Harry. ""Safe Tryf" New York Jews and Chinese Food." Jornal of Contemporary Ethnorgraphy (2005): 3-9.

Marger, Martin. Race and Ethnic Relations American and Global Perspectives. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2015.