Juliet Fang
Northwest Asia Weekly
Xiaolongbao, a Chinese soup dumpling that originated in Jiangsu Province. (Photo by Juliet Fang)
Like many first-generation immigrant children, my elementary and middle school years were troubled by a strong desire to give up my Chinese ancestry and embody the platonic ideals of “American” children. I avoided the clothes my mother brought from China, which made me lose my Mandarin practice, and most importantly, rejected my food. Hiding my dried squid under the greasy cafeteria table, I was completely embarrassed by pinching my nose attracted by my “stinky” food.
But now, my “ethnic” snacks and foods from snacks—Habi mustard peas, Dandan noodles, rice crackers—have spread to the shelves of any well-stocked grocery store. Dried seaweed as a snack is the norm, so-called “challenging” foods (ie fish sauce, kimchi, and sushi) are now very fashionable and have aroused the curiosity of many chefs and food bloggers.
In fact, according to market research firm Euromonitor Information Consulting, Asian food is the fastest-growing dish in the United States. With this hype, since John Bender’s comment on Claire Sushi in The Breakfast Club (“You won’t accept a man’s tongue, but you will eat that?”), We have come a long way. However, as a young Chinese American who is still seeking to understand the complexities of his racial identity, I have reservations about this newly discovered embrace.
What puzzles me most is how people eat dumplings while turning a blind eye to the person who asked them to do so. The demand for Asian food has grown along with Asian hate crimes. Since the first quarter of 2020, hate crimes against Asians reported in the first quarter of 2021 have increased by 164%. Previously, the historical surge in hate crimes in Asia was mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Asian grandma and grandpa were spit, kicked and bleed on the streets of Oakland and New York City until they cried, the whole country wondered if there would be a Boba shortage.
According to Andrew Coe, the author of “Chopsticks: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States,” the picking of Asian culture began with the first Chinese immigrants in San Francisco who established a successful restaurant called “Chowder House” . Delicious food is not enough to ease the tension between Chinese immigrants and white Americans. Soon, the accusation that the Chinese are responsible for the reduction of wages and employment opportunities triggered unprecedented anti-Chinese sentiment.
Chinese moon cakes with red bean paste and egg yolk (Photo: Juliet Fang)
Blood, violence, and hatred reached its peak in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibits “Chinese and other Asians” from immigrating to the United States-this is the only thing in U.S. history that prohibits all of a specific race or ethnic group. Laws of Member Immigration to the U.S.
Even if the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act lifted the ban, it was not until President Richard Nixon’s infamous trip to Beijing and the gastronomic wave of the late 2000s that the curiosity of Asian cuisine, especially non-Chinese cuisine, was promoted. delicacy.
In a country that refuses to recognize Asians as Americans, the American acceptance of Asian food is a story of assimilation, racism, cultural resilience and centuries of history. My food becoming a trend means that one day it will become obsolete and be left in the cemetery of Roasted Alaska and Banana Foster. And because sipping dumplings is much easier than solving one’s prejudice and judgment, I am worried that customers will pat their backs when they leave a dim sum restaurant, because they try to pronounce “xiaolongbao” half a time and fill in the surface. Nibbling chicken feet while filling their stomachs is invalid because of their racial sins.
Simply eating food from another culture does not mean that one has become a racial pioneer of cultural adventure or begins to understand the nuances of what Asian Americans mean. This is just a Band-Aid solution that solves all kinds of ways, whether consciously or not, it fuels the power of systemic racism and makes many people feel unwelcome. It was this racial simplification that first made the experience of Asian Americans in the United States so silent.
Regarding the experience of Asian Americans, the United States has a lot to learn, of course, it’s not just food. However, despite all the shortcomings in the fashion of the dishes, seeing my friends’ younger siblings show and talk about their pho and chicken adobo on Zoom without fear, their excited hands almost spilled the food on the keyboard On, I still smiled knowingly. I hope they will be extremely proud of their hometown as they grow up, and if anyone opposes them, they will bravely eat their favorite food.
Juliet can be at info@nwasianweekly.com.
