Chop Suey

“It has taken the American public a long time to swallow its chop suey,” noted a reporter in 1908 on the mounting popularity of Chinese food in America. 1 In- deed, it had been largely shunned by American consumers for almost fi fty years after its initial landing in California. This dramatic turn of events for Chinese cooking came as a result of two new developments: (1) a profound demographic and socioeconomic transformation of Chinese America, and (2) the extraordi- nary expansion of the American economy. At the conjunction of these develop- ments is Chinatown’s metamorphosis from a target of intense racial hatred to a popular tourist destination.

The growing appeal of Chinatown among non-Chinese leisure and pleasure seekers was not a development to rejoice over in Chinese American history. This phenomenon followed the destruction of most of the once-thriving rural Chinese communities, and the subsequent urbanization and occupational marginalization of the shrinking Chinese population.

At the same time, turning the United States into a global power, the fast- growing economy at home generated more wealth and leisure as well as a swell- ing army of tourists, hungry for new things to see and to savor. A steadily increasing number of these travelers, especially those in the lower-middle and working classes, went to Chinatown to sightsee. It is in Chinatown that many American mass consumers discovered Chinese food.

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T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S 93

T h e A m e r i c a n E c o n o m i c E x p a n s i o n

The quickly improving U.S. economy and standard of living in the late nine- teenth century prepared a larger economic context for the spread of Chinese food. Analogous to the economic miracle taking place in China in the late twen- tieth century, in the last three decades of the nineteenth century, U.S. manufac- turing increased at an annual rate of about 8.7 percent, and the economy at about 7.4 percent (fi gure 3). 2 Measured in 1985 USD, the American gross do- mestic product per capita increased from $2,254 in 1870 to $3,757 in 1900 and $4,559 in 1910. 3 During World War I, the United States became the world’s largest creditor and leading export nation. 4

Needless to say, the economic expansion did not equally benefi t all social classes and racial groups. From 1923 to 1929, another period of economic pros- perity, the share of total income received by the wealthiest 1 percent increased by 35 percent while the wages of unskilled workers actually declined. Still, many groups benefi ted from the economic growth. In the years after 1890, for example, the white elderly saw their incomes rise sharply. 5

f i g u r e 3 The grow th of the GDP ( gross domestic product) of the United States, 1877–1921. (U.S.

Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1957 [Washing ton,

D.C.: Government Printing Offi ce, 1960], 143)

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94 T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S

Charles S. Maier has correctly pointed out that America “began its ascent to global power in the late nineteenth century pursuing its industrial vocation.” 6 That ascent was also accompanied by soaring consumer desires. With more money in their pockets, a great number of Americans developed a lust for lei- sure travel. The middle and upper-middle class joined the wealthy in trips to see the world. After the Civil War, a few visits to Europe within a lifetime be- came a sign of the American bourgeoisie, including an education tour for ado- lescents and a requisite wedding trip. 7 The lower echelons of society also sought to jump on the bandwagon of leisure travel. The sociologist Dean MacCannell sees the turn of the twentieth century as the beginning of mass tourism. His focus is on “the international middle class,” but in the United States the leisure travel craze also reached less privileged groups like immigrants and minorities. 8

Unable to afford the time or money for long-distance travel, less-fortunate segments of society took short and inexpensive excursions within American cit- ies, and these trips became increasingly popular around the turn of the century. Although the “raw, young American cities were barren of classical history and art,” they had certain attractions to offer. 9 Among them were the ethnic com- munities with exotic appearances and smells. The decades-long political and me- dia focus on “the Chinese problem” had turned Chinatown into an exoticized urban ethnic community, one that emerged as a popular destination of urban excursions. 10 In an article about New York City’s ethnic communities, Forest Morgan pointed out in 1910 that “in all New York the most bizarre and interest- ing colony is of course Chinatown. . . . This is a great locality for sightseers.” 11

T h e E m e r g e n c e o f C h i n at o w n a s a To u r i s t A t t r a c t i o n

The emergence of Chinatown as a tourist site embodied a profound transfor- mation of the demographic and occupational character of America’s Chinese population, altering the meaning of Chinatown for white Americans and the Chinese alike.

This transformation took place on three fronts. The fi rst was the disappear- ance of Chinese communities in small-town America. For many people, the word “Chinatown” invariably invokes the Chinese settlement in large cities. But for years after the Gold Rush, the American Chinatown existed in both small towns and big cities. Things changed quickly after the early 1870s, when the anti- Chinese movement became more intense and violent, and garnered widespread support throughout society. Signaling the beginning of a long-lasting wave of

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T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S 95

anti-Chinese violence, an anti-Chinese riot broke out in Los Angeles in 1871, resulting in the deaths of nineteen Chinese. 12

In what Jean Pfaelzer insightfully calls “the forgotten war against Chinese Americans,” the anti-Chinese movement did not succeed in eradicating the en- tire Chinese presence, but it destroyed about two hundred Chinatowns in the Pacifi c Northwest and drove out their residents by the end of the 1880s. 13 The Rock Springs massacre in 1885 reveals the level of anti-Chinese brutality and the acquiescence it received. In one of the worst racial riots in American his- tory, fi fty-one Chinese laborers, who worked in the coal mines along the Union Pacifi c Railroad in Rock Springs, Wyoming, were killed. 14 While the perpetra- tors went unpunished, the survivors of the ruined Chinese community were forced to leave. In 1887, more than thirty Chinese miners perished in another massacre that took place in Oregon’s Hell’s Canyon Gorge on the Snake River. The criminals, who “robbed, murdered, and mutilated” the Chinese victims, remained free of convictions. 15

As the survivors of such attacks in small towns moved to Chinese communi- ties in cities in both the West and the East, Chinese America began to be urban- ized. In 1880, those Chinese living in cities with a population of at least 100,000 represented only 21.6 percent of the Chinese population. That amount grew to 71 percent in 1940. 16 For the Chinese, then, the transformed Chinatown in the American metropolis was no longer merely a cultural, socioeconomic center within Chinese America. It had come to epitomize Chinese America.

The second signifi cant change in Chinese America was its occupational con- centration in the service sector of the economy. This was largely because the anti- Chinese forces that ravaged small-town Chinese communities also pushed the Chinese out of the more profi table occupations, such as mining and manufactur- ing. By 1940, restaurant jobs had become one of the two main lines of work for the Chinese.

The third transition occurred in the minds of Americans, for whom China- town shifted from primarily a target of hatred to an object of curiosity, and from a place of danger to a site of pleasure. For much of the second half of the nineteenth century, a host of white Americans—including labor union mem- bers, public health offi cials, politicians, and reporters—had concertedly created the image of the Chinese as a grave threat. In a widely distributed and cited pamphlet, the prominent physician Arthur B. Stout regarded the Chinese com- munity as a potential cause of the physiological “decay of the nation”; 17 others depicted Chinatowns in cities like San Francisco as dark places of immorality and sources of sexually transmitted diseases and epidemics. 18

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96 T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S

The nineteenth-century American city itself was not a very desirable place. “Walking into an American city in the mid-nineteenth century,” the historian Catherine Cocks tells us, “was an act fraught with moral and political peril.” 19 But in the minds of white Americans, walking into an urban Chinatown en- tailed unknowable physical hazards, even though it had never been a threat to their physical safety. Quite often, white visitors to Chinatown in San Francisco requested a police escort for protection “against the possible dangers.” 20 Some depicted Chinatown as New York’s “most forbidden quarters.” 21

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the sense of danger and the inten- sity of enmity regarding Chinatown began to subside, replaced by growing curiosity because the perceived threat of the Chinese had been curbed and con- trolled. The various exclusion measures, starting with the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), had virtually shut the door on Chinese immigration. Showing the effect of such measures, in 1890 the Chinese population in the United States started its long downturn. In 1904, when Congress made Chinese exclusion a permanent policy, even the notoriously anti-Chinese Democratic Party in Cali- fornia felt—for the fi rst time in its history—no need to mention the Chinese is- sue in its platform. 22 The anti-Chinese forces simply cleansed Chinese settle- ments from the open space of small-town America. Now safely contained in the confi nes of a few urban blocks in major cities, the Chinese community became a pleasurable site and a tourist destination for those eager and curious to see and taste the Orient.

America’s curiosity about China was not a new development and had often associated Chinatown with China and all things oriental since the early 1850s. 23 For Easterners, in particular, Chinatown represented a unique feature of the American West before its creation in East Coast cities. A. W. Loomis sug- gested in 1868 that people would learn about how the Chinese lived “without the trouble and expense of a voyage by sea” by visiting Chinese stores and res- taurants in California. 24 During their visit to San Francisco in 1873, a group of Philadelphians took a tour of Chinatown, which “they regarded as good as a trip to China.” 25

Beginning in the 1880s, there was a new development: Chinatown as a specimen of China became its predominant image and social utility. Contempo- raries noticed a “remarkable” change: the softening of the popular prejudice again the “once hated and despised” Chinese. 26 San Francisco’s Chinatown was the fi rst Chinese settlement to emerge as a signifi cant urban travel destina- tion. From time to time, Chinatown residents would spot VIP visitors. When Rutherford B. Hayes visited the city in 1880—the fi rst U.S. president to do so—

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T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S 97

he took a trip to Chinatown. In 1881, a group of “distinguished French visitors” paid a visit to the city’s Chinese quarters “under the escort of the Chief of Po- lice.” 27 In September 1882, during his stay in San Francisco en route to British Columbia, the Marquis of Lorne, governor-general of Canada, and his wife made a trip to Chinatown, where they watched a performance in a theater for a half hour before heading to the Pen Sen Lan restaurant for Chinese food and tea. 28 Prominent domestic travelers also visited Chinatown. In June 1885, the editor of the New York Tribune toured Chinatown, accompanied by members of the city’s board of supervisors and “the usual escort of detectives.” 29 By the 1890s, as tourism traffi c increased, visiting Chinatown was no longer pri- marily for special occasions (such as the Chinese New Year) but occurred more regularly, and tour guides had replaced police escorts.

In New York, Chinatown tours became a frequent occurrence around the turn of the century. Chinatowns in many other cities, such as Chicago and St. Louis, also witnessed an increase in tourist traffi c.

Visitors and tourism promoters now characterized Chinatown as a place for “harmless” entertainment. 30 So harmless, indeed, that taking a Chinatown tour turned into a “constantly growing practice,” and sometimes even a family event. A Chinatown sightseer by the name of M. H. Cross wrote to the New York Times that “the usual Chinatown tours are interesting and harmless.” He noted, “I have taken my wife and daughters and young lady visitors; I have made at least one trip under the guidance of ‘Chuck’ Connors. I have never seen there any- thing which a young woman might not properly see.” 31 Born George Washing- ton Connors, “Chuck” made a career and became famous by conducting China- town “vice tours.” 32 His staged scenes brought Chinese vices, which had become proverbial in the media, in front of the bare eyes of his visitors, free of risk.

A passage from a San Francisco city guide of 1897 reveals the stimulatingly paradoxical appeals of Chinatown to white tourists: “If the average citizen of San Francisco were asked to place his fi nger on that part of his city which is the most attractive to strangers and at the same time the most objectionable to him- self, he should be sure to indicate Chinatown.” 33

Objectionable because it had long been regarded as a “vice district.” 34 In San Francisco, it was part of the red-light district known as the Barbary Coast, and in San Diego, it was located in a similar neighborhood called the Stingaree. 35 Objectionable, yet “Chinese vice” constituted a major attraction of Chinatown. For many non-Chinese visitors, part of the pleasure and sensation of visiting Chinatown was to experience a sense of superiority, culturally and morally. In their eyes, Chinatown stood in sharp contrast with white society: progress

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98 T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S

Pork Chop Suey

Serves 1 or 2

When Chinese restaurants started to venture outside Chinatowns, chop suey became

the most famous line of dishes. It remained a synonym of America’s Chinese food for

decades. However, its origin has been shrouded in mystery. Cooking it can help us

better understand this simple and versatile traditional Chinese dish, which has be-

come a quintessential American story.

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp water

1 tbsp rice wine

1 tsp sesame oil

3 tbsp light soy sauce

dash of black pepper

1 lb lean pork, sliced into thin strips

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp chopped green onion

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ tsp salt

3 cups sliced napa cabbage

4 cups (soy) bean sprouts

1 ⁄3 cup diced celery

1 cup shredded carrot

4 button mushrooms, cut into wedges

1 ⁄2 cup chicken broth

Mix the cornstarch, sugar, water, rice wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, and black

pepper in a bowl. Add the pork and marinate for 1 hour. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil

in a wok or nonstick frying pan, and add the green onion and garlic. Stir

for about 10 seconds.

Add the marinated pork. Stir until cooked. Transfer it to a clean con-

tainer and set aside. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil, and add the salt and

then the cabbage, bean sprouts, celery, carrot, and mushrooms. Stir for

2 minutes or until almost cooked. Put the pork back in the wok and add the

chicken stock. Stir thoroughly and bring to a boil.

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T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S 99

versus stagnation, vice versus morality, dirtiness versus hygiene, and paganism versus Christianity. A French visitor to Chinatown put it bluntly in 1880: “We have seen to night what we have never seen before, and what we hope never to see again.” 36 Clearly, touring Chinatown gave some visitors a feeling of superi- ority. 37 For this purpose, Chinese scenes or “mini -Chinatowns” were staged by the budding tourism industry not just in New York but also in other cities like San Francisco to magnify the moral inferiority of the Chinese. In 1910, New York City closed one such make-believe Chinatown that had long been on Doy- ers Street when it became too unsanitary. 38 Nonetheless, the fake opium den continued to exist there for many years.

We can easily envision the cultural and moral superiority that many white visitors to Chinatown felt when riding at night in hay wagons and listening to white tour guides like Chuck Connors, known then as the “mayor of China- town,” who declared that “these poor people are slaves to the opium habit and whether you came here or not to see them they would have spent this night smok- ing opium just as you see them doing it now.” 39 White middle-class tourists in St. Louis also took such tours to the Hop Alley Chinatown. One tour on the night of January 4, 1904, included three couples and two single women. Like Chinatown sightseers elsewhere, they visited an opium den. Then they went to a Chinese restaurant, “where tea and chop suey were served.” 40

In St. Louis and other major cities, evidently, vice was not the whole story behind the Chinatown tourism boom. Chinese food was one of the standard features of a “usual” Chinatown tour. Together with the temples, the theater, fake opium dens, and souvenir shops, Chinese restaurants played a critical role in supporting Chinatown’s tourism-oriented economy during the fi rst half of the twentieth century, a role that is yet to be fully researched. 41

Chinese restaurants represented an important tourist attraction, as the Washington Post observed in 1902: “The person who sets out to see sights of the Capital and fails to visit the Chinese restaurants misses one of the features of the city.” 42 “Of all the places in Chinatown,” a newspaper report of New York’s Chinese settlement noted as early as 1888, “the most interesting are the restaurants.” 43 Dining establishments were important for four reasons. First, they were extremely noticeable, visually and olfactorily. Second, they were less controversial than some other attractions, such as opium dens, which met strong objections among both Chinese and whites. Third, among all Chinatown attrac- tions, restaurants were the most important generators of revenue as well as jobs. Peter Kwong reported in 1987 that fi fteen thousand people worked in the 450

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100 T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S

restaurants in New York’s Chinatown. 44 To this day, according to a study of Chinese restaurant workers, restaurants are the largest employer of Chinese im- migrants across the nation. 45 And fourth, restaurants have been the most endur- ing features of Chinatown. Over the years, the opium dens have long faded away, and tourists’ interest in the temples, the theater, and even the shops has ostensi- bly waned, but the appeal of Chinese food has remained high. Even in the early years, many equated Chinese food with Chinatown. Helen Worden remarked in 1933, “If you prefer to bring Chinatown to your door, call either Mr. Chin or Mr. Lee at Chelsea 3–6840. They will deliver to your apartment for $3.00 a gallon some of the best chow mein I have eaten. This will serve sixteen people.” 46

In cities without a substantial Chinese community, Chinese restaurants themselves functioned as a tourist attraction. Craig Claiborne, one of the most famous American culinary experts, grew up during the Great Depression in Mississippi, where “anyone’s idea of excitement and genuine adventure was a trip to a big town like Birmingham or Memphis.” In the 1970s, he recalled his fi rst trip to Birmingham when he was seven or eight years old: “[T]he only thing I do remember about that trip” was “being taken to a Chinese restaurant. There were hanging Chinese lanterns and foreign waiters and real Chinese china and chopsticks and very hot and exotic tea.” 47

Nonetheless, the popular interest in Chinese food was not a mere by-product of tourist curiosity about the exotic Orient. Otherwise, most Chinese restau- rants would have stayed inside Chinatown, where visitors could also experi- ence other exotic elements of Chinese culture, such as groceries, fi sh markets, and storefront shops. Instead, Chinese restaurateurs marched en masse to non- Chinese neighborhoods and communities. More than just a change in taste, the spread of Chinese food also signaled a profound transformation in lifestyle and the beginning of mass consumption in the realm of food. Accompanying an increasing desire for travel, more and more people coveted the convenience and luxury of having their meals cooked and served by others. As a result, average Americans’ expenditure on dining out also began to grow steadily and visibly around the turn of the century. 48

Popularizing the dining-out experience, the ascent of Chinese food marked a signifi cant domestic expansion of the empire of mass consumption. Richard Pillsbury regards fast food as the “fi rst class of food” produced and consumed outside the home. 49 But Chinese food is actually more deserving of this dubious honor. It is also the longest-lasting type of food for mass consumption at a na- tional level. Representing a comparable case are the American diners, which appeared in the late nineteenth century and were also independent operations. 50

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T H E R I S E O F C H I N E S E R E S T A U R A N T S 101

During their prime in the 1940s, there were as many as six thousand diners in the country. But diners were mainly regional phenomena, concentrated in the Northeast, while Chinese restaurants multiplied from coast to coast. The diners began their decline in the 1970s, while the number of Chinese restaurants has continued to grow, dueling with American fast-food outlets and eclipsing even McDonald’s in number. Meals cooked and served by others had been an exclusive privilege enjoyed only by the social elites. Chinese food played a signifi cant role in liberating this privilege from the monopoly of the wealth by turning dining- out into a universally accessible experience in cities across the nation.

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