By Victoria Chin
Dim sum and designer knockoffs aren't all New York City Chinatown has to offer. The MoCA's “Have You Eaten Yet?” exhibition showed how much more there is to the Chinese restaurant than fried rice and fortune cookies.
New York City Chinatown is characterized by its constant masses of people, variety of languages being shouted all at once, Louis Vuitton's on every street corner, aroma of raw fish -- oh, and how could we forget -- the dozens of restaurants with authentic, mouthwatering, and inexpensive Chinese food. But hidden on the corner of Mulberry and Bayard Street, in a rather nondescript building, is the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA). Housed in a former elementary school, the MoCA just concluded its exhibit on one of the key symbols of Chinese culture in America: Chinese restaurants.
In conversation with a Chinatown resident, or any Chinese speaker, someone has to pop the inevitable question, “Have you eaten yet?” This phrase is a standard Chinese greeting, and can be interpreted as the English phrase, “How are you?” Thus the title of the MoCA's display emerged. Formally known as Have You Eaten Yet?: The Chinese Restaurant in America, this exhibit offered a chronological examination of the perspectives and evolution of Chinese restaurants in America, complete with menus, myths and facts about Chinese food, and historical context for each time period.
The first Chinese restaurants emerged in California in the mid-1800s, during the Gold Rush. Chinese immigrants from the Guangdong (Canton) Province came for mining opportunities, and opened what were first referred to as “chow chows”. Chinese food was initially despised by Americans, as were the Chinese people, because they were blamed for the spread of contagious diseases. Chinese restaurants became increasingly pervasive by the end of the 19th century for three main reasons. The first, unfortunately, is that they prevented Chinese people from participating in any mainstream or profitable occupations. Restaurants also served as an ethnic resource for immigrant communities, providing a sense of kinship, a link to their lives in China, a location for trade, and self-employment benefits for owners. Lastly, food traditions and the art of cooking are highly esteemed in Chinese culture.
This early portion of the exhibit offered vintage postcards, political cartoons, and a variety of restaurants' menus, matches, and ashtrays. The late-19th century political cartoons were perhaps the most memorable items in the entire exhibition, for their in-your-face racism. Images from mainstream publications such as The Wasp and Harper's Weekly featured caricatures with slanted lines for eyes, buckteeth, and flies all around. The collection of menus on display came from an impressive variety of American cities, including Salt Lake City, Denver, Miami, and Detroit, along with the prominent Chinatown locations like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Racism against the Chinese was evident even in menus, some of which employed accented Chinese to describe their dishes (for example, “flied lice” instead of “fried rice”). A 1940s menu came from a place cleverly called the "Led Lobster Lestaurant".
Mainstream attitudes toward the Chinese began to improve in the 1940s when China became America's ally during World War II. Chinese food was then viewed as the “exotic yet affordable” cuisine. Viewpoints once characterized by hatred evolved into a fascination for everything Chinese. Souvenir photos from Chinese restaurants grew in popularity, as did Asian-themed nightclubs. China Doll, a nightclub in New York City, even capitalized on Americans' fascination with the image of an exotic Asian woman.
Chinese food broadened its horizons in the 1970s, after the passing of the 1965 Immigration Act. Immigrants flooded onto U.S. shores from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and various provinces throughout China. Cantonese-style food faced competition from increasingly popular Szechuan and Hunan cuisine. The first upscale Chinese restaurants also emerged in the 1970s, serving both to secure a place for Chinese food in the realm of fine dining and to command more respect for the time-honored traditions. Today, we are blessed with Chinese fast food chains like Manchu Wok and Panda Express.
The exhibit also featured personal anecdotes about Chinese restaurants, an audio section with songs that celebrate Chinese dishes, and brochures with recipes for fortune cookies and chop suey. The display was confined to one room, but the multitude of small keepsakes, colorful array of menus, and variety of media more than made up for the small space. It was like an interactive larger-than-life history textbook -- sans the tedium -- because of its comprehensive gaze into this oft overlooked portion of Chinese-American culture.
The Chinese restaurant has become an integral part of our society. Like it or hate it, you've definitely tried Chinese food. (But really now, what is there not to like about wontons or chow fun?) What once was considered the "cuisine of the despised minority" has become an American staple. The MoCA successfully revealed the Chinese restaurant's struggle for acceptance, though it needs to work on its own acceptance in Chinatown, as many residents are not even aware of the museum's existence. Attention to the museum is paradoxically diminished by the subject of this exhibition. They're everywhere. Today, the Chinese restaurant stands proudly as an institution that may one day be more 'American' than the beloved apple pie.
Have You Eaten Yet?: The Chinese Restaurant in America ran from September 14, 2004 until June 30, 2005 at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas on 70 Mulberry Street in New York, NY.
For more information, or for a list of the MoCA's current exhibitions, visit: www.moca-nyc.org
Published: Thursday, July 7, 2005
