Jennifer 8. Lee - The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Chinese Food in America (July 26)

[cgao]

A former New York Times reporter, Jennifer 8. Lee is a producer of The Search for General Tso and The Emoji Story (formerly Picture Character), both which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festivals. She was also an executive producer for The Price, which premiered at SXSW, and an associate producer for Give Me Liberty and the Emmy-winning Chasing Coral. She is also the author of the New York Times-bestselling book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (Twelve, 2008), which established fortune cookies are originally Japanese. Jenny graduated with a degree in Applied Math and Economics from Harvard. 

Lecture 1

 

 

Lecture 2

 

 

Readings

New York Times articles by Jennifer 8. Lee

• For Some Chinese-Americans, Thanksgiving Is for Wedding Receptions
• The fortune cookie's origin: Solving a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside a cookie
• For Immigrant Family, No Easy Journeys
• Waiters, Cooks to Go
• Chinese Restaurants Are Closing. That’s a Good Thing, the Owners Say

Optional Resources 

• The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, by Jennifer 8. Lee
• The Search for General Tso
• Ted Talk: The Hunt for General Tso  

 

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[David Millians]

The complex social and victual encounters that produced contemporary Chinese food in the USA are fascinating. I really enjoy the way Lee digs deeper into the known story to find the many narrartives and accidents underneath. I would enjoy hearing more discoveries, and I would love to be able to travel to various parts of Asia to explore the people and histories behind the elements of a cuisine that is seemingly so well known. I look forward to hearing stories from my classmates!

[Jorge Maldonado]

I am amazed at the perseverance of trying to find the history of this particular item. As a complete outsider from the culture, I am finding perplexing to find out the detail presented in the presetations. Sometimes, we go out and eat different types of food but do not really thin about the history of it. Cannnot wait to learn more! 

[Lauren Collins]

As I said in the workshop today, I was really struck by the line in Jennifer's talk about how the rephrase "as american as apple pie" should really be "as american as chinese food. It was really cool to hear about Chinese restaurants in the American West, especially Montana and the Dakotas, and the way that while much of Asian American history has been erased in communities restraunts hold some of that material culture, even if the food isn't well regarded. I really appreciated the discussion on all of the different manifestations of Chinese and broader Asian cuisine in the U.S. today and perceptions of it amongst different groups.

[Xiaohong Lin]

During the workshop, someone brought up the dog meat eating question. I have been asked many times whether Chinese people eat dog meat. Here, I would like to recommend a Ted talk related to this topic. Authentic Food Choices by Melanie Joy. 

After watching this video, the question for me is not why some people eat dogs, it turns into why people of different cultures choose to eat certain kinds of animals. Everyone cares about certain animals around the world, meanwhile, we choose to eat certain kinds of animals. In this video, it mentions the psychology of eating animals. For me, my biggest takeaway is the question Melanie asked :

Have you ever wondered why you might eat certain animals but not others?

Have you wondered why you haven’t wondered?

For me, I never think of these questions, as Melanie says, eating animals is just a given. But we have the choice to be vegan or carnism.

 

 

[clay dube]

I agree completely with Jenny and Lauren that Chinese food is American food. I do hope others take up the challenge of identifying towns where Chinese immigrants were a key part of the early boom town history phase. The Museum of Chinese American History in NYC had an exhibition some years ago which drew on menus from Chinese places over the decades.

Lauren cheered for Butte during our session. It had a population of 24 in 1870, but more than 30,000 by 1900. That's a boom town.
https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1900/bulletins/demographic/33-population-mt.pdf

I've spent a bit of time in Billings, talking to a company there that was eager to court business from China. In 1890, Billings had 836 residents and in 1900 3,221, nearly quadrupling (it's now the state's biggest city). But the census report linked to above doesn't break down the population by ethnicity. More digging needed. In 2019, Billings had just 942 persons of Asian descent out of its 110,000 residents. The Asian share was likely much larger a century-plus ago. Below are two pictures highlighting the Yee Sam Lee rooming house, which is still standing.



These images were published by the Billings Gazette: https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/yee-sam-lee-and-billings-chinatown/article_272c5cd6-d725-5ab7-a77c-b8bb5c6c862a.html

Missoula-based Greg Standberg has included some background on Chinese in Montana in his blog: http://www.bigskywords.com/montana-blog/a-history-of-montanas-early-chinese Standberg notes that 10% of the state population was Chinese in 1870, but that by 1880 it had fallen to 5%. Despite this, the Chinese Exclusion Act was adopted in 1882.

One interesting symbol that you'll see in Billings is at the old train depot (now a wedding destination and restaurant).

Yes, the railway company adopted the yin-yang symbol. According to the various sources, the railroad's chief engineer saw it at the Korean Pavilion at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 and adopted it. It was Korea's first appearance at such an Expo.

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2012/07/02/features/Headed-for-Expo-2012-Road-to-Yeosu-begins-at-the-1893-Chicago-fair/2955445.html

 

[Rachel Wang]

 

This recipe for General Zuo Chicken is from one of Fu Pei-Mei’s cookbooks (the copy I have was published in Taiwan in 1988 but her TV shows and cookbooks date back to the 1960s and there are numerous editions). Among a certain generation, Fu Pei-Mei was regarded as the Julia Child of Chinese cooking. Netflix made a mini series based on her life: What She Put on the Table.

As you can see, this dish seems to have a legendary status outside of America as well.

This recipe for General Zuo Chicken is from one of Fu Pei-Mei’s cookbooks (the copy I have was published in Taiwan in 1988 but her TV shows and cookbooks date back to the 1960s and there are numerous editions). Among a certain generation, she was regarded as the Julia Child of Chinese cooking. Netflix made a mini series based on her life: What She Put on the Table.

This dish seems to have a legendary status even among some Chinese outside of America….

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[Megan Hsiao]

The lecture and the readings about Chinese Food in America are very interesting and captivating. It is very inspiring to learn that the history of American Chinese food reflects immigration and what America is. In Jennifer’s lecture, she mentioned that there are more Chinese restaurants in American than all the major fast food restaurants combined, plus Chinese food is the most pervasive food in the continents. I have never realized that Chinese food will be so influential in terms of its developments. Jennifer also brought up another interesting point about the Chinese exclusion act, the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States based on race. Although there are many immigration reforms since then, xenophobia has been an important social issue, which has become more serious during the COVID outbreak. Additionally, I also learned a lot from the video about fortune cookies, especially that they actually originated from Japan. I would plan to use the lecture videos in class to show how Chinese food is related to immigration in America.

[clay dube]

PBS has a series called Somewhere South about food. One episode on dumplings features a Korean American chef in Durham and Chinese families in the Mississippi Delta. One of the people interviewed noted that the community used to have MANY Chinese markets. The program includes a visit to a collection of Chinese grocery store artifacts and a visit to a still-operating store (kool-aid pickles anyone?).  https://www.pbs.org/video/dumpling-dilemma-wxy3aj/

NPR also reported on the Mississippi Delta Chinese: https://www.npr.org/2017/03/18/519017287/the-legacy-of-the-mississippi-delta-chinese
 

 

[Megan Hsiao]

Thanks for sharing the PBS program and the NPR podcast! Great resources for classroom! 

[Cervantes Lee]

China has eight major regional cuisines, such as Cantonese, Szechuan and Jiangsu, most distinctive due to factors such as availability of resources, climate, geography, history, cooking techniques and lifestyle. I think we also have the 9^th – American Chinese cuisine consumed by over 330 million people in the U.S., probably have the similar population base to Cantonese food.  Panda Express may be attributed as one defining brand under American Chinese cuisine.

[David Millians]

We always have a unit on dumplings, and these links will fold into that nicely, like a delicious filling! Thank you.

[Angela Granata]

I immensely enjoyed Ms. Lee! Not only was she informative but humorous as well! I loved how she not only talked about the food but the history and culture behind the food. She not only explained what society expected but what she expected as an Asian American! I enjoyed listening to her when she explained how different cities/states had their "share" of favorite chinese foods and how they are different........and I laughed when she talked about the holidays how the Jewish families would eat Chinese during Christmas (day) meal time. I have many Jewish friends and I can attest that many of these friends tell me about their favorite Chinese restaurant (usually a mom-pop place) and their favorite dish to order!

Thank you Jennifer! I will now go buy me a War Su Gai!

[Sonja Mason-Briscoe]

I really enjoyed this seminar. I have had the pleasure of eating Chinese food in many of the cities Ms. Lee talked about. I have experienced awesome Chinese food in Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and San Francisco and even in Canada I would definitely agree that in each of these cities the food is a bit different and they seem to have their favorite seasonings and different styles like Cantonese or Szechwan. I hope to experience Chinese food in some of the other major cities Ms.Lee discussed to see if the food options are based on the regions the Chinese who migrated there were originally from. It such a fascinating topic.

[Sonja Mason-Briscoe]

I am so surprised by the possibility of Fortune Cookies. I too appreciate the tenacity Ms. Lee has had in researching the truth.

One part that really resonated with me was the possibility of Fortune cookies not only being introduced by the Japanese but that the US made them popular. Moreover it appears that right in Los Angeles this craze for the Fortune cookie was born.

"But prior to World War II, the history is murky. A number of immigrant families in
California, mostly Japanese, have laid claim to introducing or popularizing the fortune
cookie. Among them are the descendants of Makoto Hagiwara, a Japanese immigrant who
oversaw the Japanese Tea Garden built in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in the 1890s.
Visitors to the garden were served fortune cookies made by a San Francisco bakery,
Benkyodo.
A few Los Angeles-based businesses also made fortune cookies in the same era: Fugetsudo,
a family bakery that has operated in Japantown for over a century, except during World War
II; Umeya, one of the earliest mass-producers of fortune cookies in Southern California, and
the Hong Kong Noodle company, a Chinese-owned business. Fugetsudo and Benkyodo both
have discovered their original "kata" black iron grills, almost identical to the ones that are
used today in the Kyoto bakery."

This is completely fascinating.

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