A unique and thorough examination of the origins and development of Chinese restaurant food in the U. S. (and Canada, for that matter)by food historian Anne Mendelsohn.. She starts with a detailed history of Chinese immigrants in the U. S. starting from the mid 19th century to provide a context for understanding the significance of Chinese restaurant food and how it is prepared, using "chop suey" as the foundation and emphasizing the cooking method (chow, which came to be awkwardly translated as stir-fry) rather than the dish, chop suey, which in reality is not a specific dish with a set of fixed ingredients as providers of recipes imply.

Contrary to the rise of popularity of Chinese-Americanized food over the past century, it is important to note that it was derided and rejected initially because of its unfamiliar ingredients, cooking method, and unpleasant smell, at least to westerners. With the rapidly growing Chinese, and other Asian populations in many cities, newer Chinese restaurateurs are no longer finding it necessary to tailor their cooking to suit nonAsian tastes as in the past. Cuisines from many regions of China have arrived to compete with the original Cantonese dishes.

rocksmiles's comment, June 28, 2018 6:26 AM

Cool

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From www.hrmm.org - October 27, 2020 2:54 PM

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A fascinating story of two different goals of social contact on steamboat excursions to recreational facilities between Chinese immigrants and white citizens in NYC at the height of Chinese Exclusion and anti-Chinese feelings.

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From www.sapiens.org - May 14, 2018 8:17 PM

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"Chinese became the single largest immigrant group to flood California during the gold rush, and it didn’t take long for frustrated white, American-born miners to blame them for depressed wages. While miners of all ethnicities struggled and toiled in the mountains and valleys of California, Chinese miners resourcefully integrated technology like the water wheel, formed cooperative groups to more efficiently mine, and earned a reputation for hard work. Most galling to American-born miners, however, was Chinese miners’ tendency to send their profits home to the families they left behind; they lamented that the Chinese were carrying off the wealth of their nation to a foreign land. Politicians passed taxes and legislation targeting Chinese involvement in the gold industry as part of a growing anti-Chinese sentiment."

After the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese fishers were especially hard hit. The combined forces of discrimination, exorbitant taxes, and exclusionary legislation triggered an abrupt decline in their abalone trade. New immigrants were barred from entry into the United States, and many Chinese fishermen aged out of the industry or abandoned the pursuit as local and state governments passed additional laws and taxes, under the pretense of conservation, to fully legislate out Chinese communities.

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From www.youtube.com - April 1, 2018 5:02 PM

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A tour of the taoist temple in China Alley in Hanford in the heart of the central California farmland where there were once 600 Chinese, many railroad workers for So Pacific RR, but only a handful of Chinese there in 1972 when this film was made

with Richard Wing, the cook for General George Marshall in WWII and later started his world renown 'chinois' restaurant, Imperial Dynasty.

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From nevadamagazine.com - March 15, 2018 11:49 PM

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Chinese were in Reno as early as the 1850s when the Comstock Silver lode was discovered. When the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, Chinese railroad workers had to find other work, and some settled in Reno forming a Chinatown with hand laundries, cafes, gambling halls, or domestic work.
White fears of cheap Chinese labor in work on an irrigation canal led to violence.
In 1908, Chinatown was leveled as it was regarded as a moral and physical hovel due to presence of opium smoking and prostitution.
Eventually, the Chinatown made a small comeback as attitutdes toward Chinese improved in the mid-20th century.

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From explodinghistorian.wordpress.com - March 10, 2018 11:25 AM

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An excellent discussion of how to teach history, using 2 examples of alternative ways of "framing" or contextualizing historical events, a book by Yin about Coolies , illustrated by Chris Soentpiet (Puffin Books, 2001) and My Uncle Martin’s Words for America by Angela Farris Watkins, illustrated by Eric Velasquez (Abrams, 2011) two very different books, with a few features in common.

"Coolies begins with a young Chinese American boy and his grandmother in the present. They’re celebrating the Ching Ming festival in which they honor their ancestors. The first illustration shows them in their living room. The large television, their contemporary clothing and furniture all mark the scene as contemporary. Yet their ethnic identity is also marked by the Chinese-style statues, decorative flourishes, and ceremonial shrine on the table. The grandmother presents the remainder of the story as a tale of “our ancestors,” so that the boy will not forget. The book ends with the pair completing their ceremony of paying respect to their ancestors."

"My Uncle Martin’s Words for America" also begins with a child, Martin Luther King’s niece, who narrates the story. The first two pages of her narrative anchor the reader in contemporary African American achievements, before moving back in time to describe King’s activism. “Before America elected its first African American president…before African Americans became astronauts, or Hollywood directors, or billionaires, America was a very different place.” I really like this approach, since it does not foreground the violence or disrespect of the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras.

Second, both books name specific past injustices and describe concrete responses." In Coolies, the brothers Shek and Wong join with other workers to protest poor work conditions and pay. Though the protest is unsuccessful, the pair perseveres in their loyalty to each other and their family back in China. My Uncle Martin’s Words for America describes several key protests in which King participated, and presents them in chronological order. The book draws a connection between public protest and a key legislative or judicial change that it informed, and it uses those stories to highlight King’s “Words”: love, nonviolence, justice, freedom, brotherhood, and equality.

In 1869 newspaper photographers widely circulated images of the celebration of the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah. Notably, despite the arduous labor performed by Chinese workers to complete the railroad, and the fact that many of them who died in the process, most images from the time omit their presence.

Coolies redresses this visual absence. Soentpiet’s beautiful painting reimagines this scene from the perspective of Wong and Shek, who share in the pride in this accomplishment. The image literally reframes and recenters the story of the transcontinental railroad, so that it is about the people whose labor was crucial to the project, and their bonds of family and affection.

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From chinesecanadian.ubc.ca - February 24, 2018 4:57 PM

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Not Chinese American, but Chinese Canadian, and even then about the Atlantic side of Canada, but wonderful account by Albert Lee about earliest Chinese in Halifax and the maritime regime, skillfully blending in personal documents and stories about his ancestors with a more general account of Chinese Canadian history. The story is similar to that for Chinese in many American cities.

See also this account of his family history written for a general audience of Canadians

https://saltscapes.com/food-drink/2118-chinese-canadians-on-the-east-coast.html

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From www.youtube.com - February 11, 2018 3:13 PM

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On April 28, 1869, a few days and a few miles short of the historic completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, 8 Irish and scores of Chinese workers laid 10 miles of track in a single day, a feat unmatched since.

The Black Irish Band, which performs Celtic and Americana folk music, paid tribute in song, to their accomplishment.

For documentation of this historic achievement:

http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/Ten_Mile_Day.html

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From www.sixthtone.com - January 24, 2018 11:24 PM

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"In its heyday, the Haikou Pier witnessed the exodus of tens of thousands of Taishan County residents. Local instability, overpopulation, and a dearth of economic opportunities incentivized Taishanese to seek economic opportunities abroad. The Haikou Pier, built in 1853, ferried Taishanese to larger ports, including Hong Kong, from which they would continue their journeys abroad. By 1901, around 200,000 Taishanese people — then one-quarter of the city’s population — resided abroad, with 60 percent living in North America."

"Since the 1770s, Taishan has relied heavily on remittances for its development. Qiaokan, or magazines for Chinese expatriates, maintained connections between overseas villagers and their hometowns. The landscape of Taishan’s villages is inscribed with traces of overseas Chinese wealth: water towers, electric generators, concrete driveways, ceremonial pagodas, and traditional archways. Most recognizable are the region’s diaolou, or “watchtower houses,” built as a fusion of Western and Chinese architectural styles to protect against bandits."

"According to the U.N. nomination, overseas Chinese began sending yinxin around 1860, with the oldest extant yinxin dated 1883. Over 160,000 documents have been preserved. In addition to renovating the Haikou Pier, the Duanfen government will erect a two-story, 512-square-meter “Silver Letter Museum” to memorialize the correspondences."

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From www.restorationexchange.org - January 5, 2018 5:45 PM

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Omaha,NE once had a Chinatown with a On Leong Tong, or association hall, between the late 1930s until the late 1950s. Unlike branches in large cities such as New York and Chicago, the Omaha On Leong was not involved in bloody "tong wars" with other tongs such as the rival Hip Sing Tong.
The Omaha branch occupied the second story of a building originally housing a non-Chinese laundry.

see aso:
http://www.omaha.com/living/former-hub-for-omaha-s-early-chinese-community-is-recognized/article_926c76ae-5ee4-5cb0-9d14-e2ff0fe96d08.html

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From chinaplus.cri.cn - November 30, 2017 11:20 PM

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Historians, archeologists, and other scholars in the U.S. have made significant discoveries about the role of Chinese immigrants in completing the western branch of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869.

Less is known about how scholars in China view this major achievement of Chinese emigrants to the U.S. (and Canada) to work on railroad building. This link provides one such view, and provides some information and viewpoints that were unfamiliar to me.

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From chimericaneyes.blogspot.com - November 4, 2017 11:40 PM

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An informative and unique encyclopedic database of "famous, forgotten, well-known, and obscure visual artists of Chinese descent in the US compiled diligently by Alex Jay. He includes many original biographical documents such as immigration and census records as well as graphics of the artist.

Right hand column lists chronologically from 1861, followed by artist names in alphabetical order.

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From www.youtube.com - October 30, 2017 8:35 PM

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A brief overview of the history of Chinese immigration in the U. S. that explains the different patterns and motivations for Chinese to leave China at different times.

Part of a series produced and narrated by Dolli Li. for AJ+, the online documentary series for Al Jazeera Media Network.

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From www.youtube.com - December 11, 2020 6:18 PM

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From www.buzzfeednews.com - February 7, 2020 1:49 PM

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From www.sfsdhistory.com - May 13, 2018 3:39 PM

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By the 1870s, opposition to growing Chinese immigration led to passage of laws aimed at discouraging more from coming. In 1873 a law made it illegal to live in quarters with less than 500 cubic ft. per person..It was soon followed by a queue ordinance requiring Chinese men to have their queues, a cultural tradition, cut off. One Chinese sued because of this indignity,

"California Supreme Court Justice Stephen Field decided the case in an opinion that had a far reaching and historic impact on the rights of Chinese immigrants. Justice Field ruled that the Queue Ordinance was a form of additional punishment within the “cubic feet” law, which the Board of Supervisors did not have the authority to enact. The judge also ruled that the law was clearly aimed at the Chinese and was therefore a violation of the right to equal protection under the law for “all persons,” not merely “all citizens.” Finally, because of the specific disgrace imposed upon the Chinese, the law was deemed a form of “cruel and unusual" punishment. Justice Field’s decision was cheered by the Chinese community, but jeered by many others. “The San Francisco Wasp” again lampooned the topic with a drawing of Justice Fields dressed in Chinese clothing and sporting his own queue. It showed him in “Justice Field’s Barber Shop,” braiding the hair of a Chinese man, under a picture of Sheriff Nunan having just finished using a scissors to clip a queue."

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From www.youtube.com - March 17, 2018 1:53 PM

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Talk about Chinese American pioneers in entertainment!

Dorothy Toy and Paul Wing faced many barriers but succeeded for many years as a tap dancing duo.

Filmmaker Rick Quan has produced a documentary, Dancing Through Life: The Dorothy Toy Story, celebrating the career of the now over 100 year old Dorothy Toy that will be shown at the Chicago American Museum of Chicago on April 21, 2018.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/screening-of-dancing-through-life-the-dorothy-toy-story-tickets-43895138541

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From tshaonline.org - March 15, 2018 1:17 PM

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Overview of the history of Chinese in Texas starting around 1870 when 250 Chinese who had worked on the transcontinental railroad that was completed in 1869 came to work on the Houston and Central Texas railroad.

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From www.laphamsquarterly.org - February 27, 2018 3:05 PM

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A section of Andrew Urban's new 2018 important book," Brokering Servitude" that details the process by which Chinese immigrants, especially boys, were selected for domestic service (houseboy) by people with privilege such as diplomats, missionaries, and the wealthy. Chinese servants were prized because it was believed they would be more reliable and capable than the Irish, the other main source other than freed slaves. Chinese domestic servants gained certain advantages, being under the sponsorship of white people with money, status, and influence that let them get an immigration pass even during the Chinese Exclusion era. They also had more opportunity to learn English and American customs, living in a white household, that helped them considerable later when they left domestic service.

It came as a big surprise to me that I learned (elsewhere) that in 1870, the number of Chinese domestics was third highest, exceeding the number of laundrymen.

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From www.youtube.com - February 11, 2018 3:23 PM

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An original song by Black Irish Band member Patrick Michael Karnahan in honor of the Chinese immigrants who labored on the Central Pacific Railroad, but have often been overlooked for their contribution to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Historians state that a Chinese worker died for every mile that was built.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Southern_Pacific_Bulletin/Ten_Mile_Day.html

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From www.library.hbs.edu - January 31, 2018 1:09 PM

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Invaluable resource for understanding the context in mid 19th century Canton that existed at the time of the Chinese diaspora to many parts of the world.

“Business is too important and interesting not to be chronicled somehow,” Albert Heard wrote. He was referring to his family’s firm, Augustine Heard & Co., which reigned among the largest American trading houses in China in the mid-nineteenth century. The company was active from 1840 to 1877 under the direction of Augustine Heard and his nephews John, Augustine II, Albert, and George Heard.

The Heard papers, one of the largest collections of business records relating to the nineteenth-century China trade, present a look into momentous events concerning Sino-Western relations as well as the day-to-day activities of American traders in the treaty ports.

The topics in the list of contents are all accessible online.

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From masscapture.ca - January 14, 2018 12:51 AM

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"This project examines an extraordinary collection of Chinese Canadian head tax certificates known as CI 9s in order to understand the relationship between surveillance and the production of non-citizens in Canada. The CI 9s constitute the first mass use of identification photography in Canada and tracked the movements of thousands of Chinese migrants in the early half of the twentieth century.
Mass Capture is a project that analyzes the construction of non-citizens in Canada through the exploration of Chinese immigrants documented between 1910 and 1953 under the “Chinese Immigration 9” (CI 9) certificates."

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From www.christianitytoday.com - December 3, 2017 12:25 AM

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In the 1920s, the Chinese American population had relatively few Christians in the U. S. Mabel Lee, daughter of Lee To, the pastor at the First Chinese Baptist Church in New York City, assumed his role upon his early and unexpected death in 1924. A graduate of Columbia University with a PhD in economic history in 1921, she was a community leader, and suffragist, for more than 40 years and led this church which still exists.

Under her leadership, she helped make the Chinese mission a self-supporting and independent congregation by growing its membership and raising support from the wider community.

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From bluegraychinese.blogspot.com - November 4, 2017 11:54 PM

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Fascinating stories of Chinese in the US who fought, on both sides, in the American Civil War. The National Park Service published a book, Asians and Pacific Islanders and the Civl War, in 2015, which is featured, but the blogger, Alex Jay, includes detailed accounts of the experiences of other Chinese men who fought in the war.

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From smithsonianapa.org - November 1, 2017 1:18 AM

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Wong Ar Chong, a 33 year old Boston merchant was an "unsung hero" who articulated an eloquent set of arguments agains the exclusion of Chinese immigrants sent to a sympathetic abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison.. His pleas did not succeed, and in 1882, led to Senator James G. Blaine, (Maine, R) the Chinese ExclusionAct was passed.

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From m.facebook.com - October 20, 2017 6:34 PM

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NOT about Chinese in the U. S. but this oral history project in Birmingham, England about the British Chinese community bears strong similarity to the issues that Chinese faced in the U.S. and other countries over the past 150+ years.oral history project in Birmingham, England about the British Chinese community bears strong similarity to the issues that Chinese faced in the U.S. and other countries over the past 150+ years.

There is an excellent video on this page,.

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Chinese American history

Chow Chop Suey - Food and the Chinese American Journey | Columbia University Press

Steamboat Excursions in the Era of Chinese Exclusion

How Chinese Immigrants Built—and Lost—A Shellfish Industry

The Last Temple (1972) China Alley, Hanford, CA.

The Rise and Fall of Reno's Chinatown

Teaching the Past in the Present

Being Chinese… by Albert Lee | Chinese Canadian Stories

Black Irish Band- Eight Irish Workers

How the ‘Home of Overseas Chinese’ Is Memorializing Emigrants

REO Uncovers Tie to Omaha's Former Chinatown - Restoration Exchange Omaha | REO

The View of Chinese railroad workers in America - As Seen in China

Chinese American Eyes

Why Chinese People Came To The United States | AJ+

December 2020: Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Marketplace

Iowa’s Oldest Chinese Restaurant Is Now The Weirdest Fusion Pizza Place You’ll Visit

S. F. 500 cubic ft. space law and the Chinese Queue Ordinance

Dorothy Toy Fong

TEXAS CHINESE | The Handbook of Texas Online|

“Better Than a Lazy American Husband”

Black Irish Band- "Men of Iron" (Tribute to the Chinese Railroad Worker)

A Chronicle of the China Trade. The Papers of Augustine Heard & Co., 1840-1877 - Harvard Business School

Mass Capture

Chinatown's Suffragist, Pastor, and Community Organizer

The Blue, the Gray and the Chinese

Rediscovered: An Eloquent Chinese Voice Against Exclusion | Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center NOW

British Chinese Heritage Project