The clinking of porcelain cups, hollers of waiters and waitresses, and squeaking of dim sum carts harken back to the familiar joy of entering a Chinese restaurant.

But as I enter this Manhattan Chinatown edition, a quick glance at the menu reveals a series of unfamiliar dish names to the seasoned Hong Kong restaurant-goer:

Chop Suey. General Tso’s Chicken. Chow Mein.

While their names make sense in direct translation, the backstories of these foreign Americanized dishes reveal a deeper history of Chinese adaptation, assimilation, and attempts at cultural preservation.

A short history of Chinese immigration to the United States

The 1840s and 1850s Goldrush drew many Chinese people to the United States in pursuit of better economic opportunities. Similarly, the 1960s building of the Transcontinental Railroad provided another employment opportunity for Chinese laborers, who were often assigned the most dangerous jobs. However, white laborers viewed the Chinese as “unwanted foreign competition” and eventually enacted restrictive and racist laws to deny Chinese people from immigrating to the US.

1882 marks the start of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first act to prevent an ethnic group from entering the country. This ban included the wives and children of laborers already living in the country and reflected the ongoing anti-Chinese sentiment. While this act was repealed in 1943 during WWII, it represents an important plot point in the storyline of Chinatowns and the integral role that they play in preserving the culture, history, and identity of Chinese people in the United States.

Food as a tool for assimilation

When Chinese immigrants first moved to the United States, many occupied roles in the service sector—namely, the restaurant and laundromat industries. Because most immigrants were denied official jobs outside their communities, they had no choice but to create their own.

However, since Chinatowns were often viewed as dangerous places that became economically marginalized, Chinese restauranteurs had to adapt their styles to cater to the tastes of their American audience.

Chop Suey exhibit at the Museum of Chinese in America, New York

One dish, Chop Suey, is especially emblematic of this adaptation and attempts at cultural survival. Translated into Chinese as “mixed bits”, chop suey is a uniquely American dish that combines meat, eggs, and vegetables and is served with stir-fried noodles or rice. While it doesn’t exist in China, it was created as a dish to be familiar and comfortable enough for Americans to enjoy.

As the first point of entry for most Americans to appreciate Chinese culture, Americanized Chinese food represents a means of survival. The most successful Chinese restaurants were not the ones that offered the most "authentic” food, but the ones that provided the best renditions of Americanized Chinese food catered to Western tastebuds.

Chinese food has become most popular when completely separated from Chinese culture and people, and it is continuously used as a strategic tool to fight exclusion and preserve the Chinese legacy. It represents a source of survival and resistance that carries on from the diaspora’s legacy of exclusion and remains an important cultural centerpiece today.

Chinatown as a site of cultural preservation

Today, Chinatown remains an important enclave for Chinese people in American cities, honouring their fight for survival and resistance. Chinatowns are viewed as “communities of resilience” that reveal histories of identity as a nation and provide a site of belonging and connection for people who may otherwise feel excluded.

However, these communities are also suffering from rapid gentrification, with displacement by commercial developers becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence. Moreover, the prevalence of xenophobia and Asian hate crimes exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic has increased segregation and even micro-segregation between Chinese residents and newer populations in the neighbourhood.

One prime example that illustrates the hardships faced by Chinatown is the case of Washington, D.C. Founded in the 19th century, D.C.’s Chinatown has been described as “dead Chinatown” due to the ongoing displacement of Chinese businesses and stores as a consequence of gentrification. As Chinatowns often share zip codes with high-income neighborhoods, it is also harder to qualify for loans through the Small Business Administration designed for those affected by economic injury.

In losing these restaurants, Chinese communities lose access to an important part of their culture. Not only does protecting these places protect an important home for people, but it also preserves a part of culture that has shaped American identity for centuries.

The right to culturally appropriate food

The food justice movement is typically recognized for its efforts to rectify disparities in food access along racial and socioeconomic lines. However, in addition to being nutritious and affordable, food must also be “culturally appropriate” to satisfy this term.

This is because food can be a way to sustain cultural traditions, especially among immigrant communities. Food is a way for people to reclaim their heritage and revive aspects of local culture.

However, as seen in the case of Chinatown in DC, rapid gentrification is leading to the displacement of small local grocers, particularly those selling culturally significant foods. In the early 2000s, most Chinese grocers had to close down, leaving low-income elderly with a lack of access to essential ingredients to sustain their cultural traditions and making it increasingly difficult for communities to celebrate their identity through food.

Chinese food as cultural preservation

Noodles from Xi’an Famous Foods in New York

Food is deeply connected to culture; especially in Chinese culture, food is at the heart of many important traditions: on New Year’s Eve, we eat fish (in Chinese, the word “fish” resembles “surplus” phonetically) to symbolize abundance; on New Year’s day, we eat noodles to manifest longevity; and on elders’ birthdays, we eat peach-shaped buns to symbolize a long life.

In Chinese culture, food is inextricably linked to community. A meal symbolizes harmony, and this shared experience is emblematic of a culture which prioritizes family and closeness. To us, enjoying food is enjoying our culture, and enjoying our culture means appreciating all that entails—including family, friendship, and love.

This is one reason why it is so important to support small local businesses—especially those that serve communities with a distinct culture and history. Supporting these businesses is a way to preserve the traditions and culture that are tied to the place and honour the generational challenges faced to get to where they are.

Beyond directly supporting these businesses, cultural preservation can also look like advocating for legislation that protects these businesses against the effects of rapid gentrification and a pandemic-induced economic crisis.

Chinese food in America is more than the mixed bits of “chop suey”; rather, it is an amalgamation of people and experiences that represent the turmoil of immigration, assimilation, and adaptation of an unwavering cultural community. Part of appreciating Chinese food involves recognizing its complicated history, and the first step in doing so is ensuring that its origins are preserved.