COMMENT | Chinese food in the US - vilified and Americanised

COMMENT | The political and economic tensions between America and China have been simmering for years. These tensions are also reflected in the evolving ways both cultures perceive the other’s cooking and eating practices.

In ‘The Fortune Cookie Chronicles’ (2008), Asian-American writer Jennifer Lee explores the clashes between Western and Asian tastebuds and taboos.

For in America, Chinese food is loaded with cultural ideologies and identities most Asians would find alienating.

Historically, when Chinese immigrants arrived in the US during the late 1800s, the way they looked and cooked inflamed cultural tensions that marked differences while reinforcing the supposed ‘superiority’ of Western culture.

Lee observes that Western cooking styles like baking and boiling are largely tidy if ‘passive’ activities.

Meanwhile, Chinese cooking is a...