Chinese Food and the Model Minority

Paper Summary:

This paper is an exploration into the world of the Chinese restaurant. It looks at the ethnic compromises and paradoxes inherent in creating a Chinese restaurant in America, for Americans. It shows how in every English-speaking country from England to Canada, Chinese food is a huge business and how for many immigrants it is one of the only businesses ready and willing to take them in. It examines how most Chinese restaurants strive to present themselves as cultural representations where the American connoisseur can have a legitimate cross-cultural experience.

From the Paper:

"The cultural concessions of the Chinese food industry, and the strange love-hate relationship between mainstream America and Asian minorities are relatively well documented, if often only in passing. In a lengthy essay regarding "Racist love" (that is, the way in which exoticism and positive stereotypes can hurt a minority), Tiffany Loui suggests that America has a long history of romanticizing Asian cultures to their detriment. She records the way in which all Asians are lumped together in the modern American parlance, despite the fact that the differences between regions is in many cases more pronounced than those among European cultures. (For example, the gastronomical, social, linguistic, religious, and economic differences between mainland China and Japan are far greater than those between France and England, and that says nothing of the many provinces within China alone) This is something that can be noticed also in Chinese foods: almost all relatively affordable Chinese restaurants, especially those which do take-out, have extremely similar menus."

More papers on Chinese Food and the Model Minority:

• Term Paper # 139515 : "Chinese Labor and the Canadian Pacific Railway"
• Book Review # 8133 : "Chinese Sports and the Values of Taoism and Confucianism"
• Narrative Essay # 149462 : "My First Taste of Chinese Food"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: