Cheap and tasty chop suey12/13/2023 ![]() However, the writing is dense and very academic, so if you're looking for a casual read rather than a scholarly study based on a theory of American society advanced by an outsider that most Americans might consider heretical, you might be disappointed. The bottom line is that this is a well-researched book with several interesting ideas on a subject that has been long overlooked. It's only for a couple of pages, but clashes dramatically with the tone and high-quality research of the rest of the book and is really out of place. There's also one brief diversion late in the book in which Chen attempts to talk about fast food that should not have been included at all, which seems more to like the product of trying to fit into academia's clueless social agenda (with poor, unscientific sources ranging from Eric Schlosser to PETA). Despite his excellent research, I felt that a lot of the history itself lacked depth I didn't come away knowing much more than I'd already learned via Wikipedia many years ago. It wasn't supposed to be the focus of the book, but I found this thesis a lot more interesting - and true - than most of the actual history that Chen digs up. While I did learn some things about the history of Chinese restaurants in America, I think Chen's most valuable commentaries are based in his underlying thesis that America is a consumption-driven culture based in the ready availability of food. Still, unlike many books in this category, Chen's personal interest in his research area and his lack of concern for white intellectual conventions makes for a much better presentation than similar works in this mold. Chen's research is highly impressive, but he often gets bogged down in details that obstruct the flow of the story he's trying to tell, and the book itself is not nearly as focused as the title makes it sound. This book exemplifies Chinese scholarship in English: technically flawless, but very dry and often lacking in personality. ![]() Those who engineered the epic tale of Chinese food were a politically disfranchised, numerically small, and economically exploited group, embodying a classic American story of immigrant entrepreneurship and perseverance. They effectively streamlined certain Chinese dishes, turning them into nationally recognized brand names, including chop suey, the Big Mac of the pre-McDonald's era. The rise of Chinese food was also a result of the ingenuity of Chinese American restaurant workers, who developed the concept of the open kitchen and popularized the practice of home delivery. They chose quick and simple dishes like chop suey over China's haute cuisine, and the affordability of such Chinese food democratized the once-exclusive dining-out experience for underprivileged groups, such as marginalized Anglos, African Americans, and Jews.The mass production of food in Chinese restaurants also extended the role of Chinese Americans as a virtual service labor force and marked the racialized division of the American population into laborers and consumers. Americans fell in love with Chinese food not because of its gastronomic excellence. Chinese food's transpacific migration and commercial success is both an epic story of global cultural exchange and a history of the socioeconomic, political, and cultural developments that shaped the American appetite for fast food and cheap labor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Chop Suey, USA is the first comprehensive analysis of the forces that made Chinese food ubiquitous in the American gastronomic landscape and turned the country into an empire of consumption. By 1980, it had become the country's most popular ethnic cuisine. ![]() American diners began flocking to Chinese restaurants more than a century ago, making Chinese cuisine the first mass-consumed food in the United States.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |