Running head: HISTORICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL IMPACT OF CHINESE FOOD

Historical and Sociological Impact of Chinese Food

On Local Culture

Hong Xu

University of California, Santa Barbara

Author Note

This paper was prepared for Writing 2, taught by Valentina Fahler.

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Cover Letter

Dear Valentina,

This essay is about how I analyze the evidence of two books talking about the impact of

Chinese food on local culture. There are two reasons that I chose this topic. First of all, as

Chinese, I naturally love Chinese food and I am also curious about how does it work in the

United States, a place I spent seven years studying and living. The topic just perfectly match all

my requests and I thought about it immediately when Ms. Fahler said we can select topic freely.

In addition, there are plenty resources of articles and books about this topic. So it will be much

easier to find what I want in University Database.

My writing process of this paper is quite simple. Firstly, I searched the university library

database to ensure my resources are credible and authentic. Furthermore, I read sample essays in

Starting Lines to get an idea about how I should construct my paper. Last but not least, I used

Style Manual to check if my citation is correct.

The reader response section on November 5th did a great favor in my revision process.

Since I highlight the thesis statement, argument, evidence and explanation step by step according

to criteria, I can easily figure out which part I should put more effort on. I also add more

supporting evidence from Melzer’s to back up my analysis.

Yours sincerely

Hong
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Historical and Sociological Perspectives on the Impact of Chinese Food on Local Culture

Food and culture are two closely related research topics for many researchers. Up till

now, there are multiple researches that focus on food and culture from various perspectives, such

as historical and sociological perspectives. In this article, I will focus on the scholarly

sociological article “Authentic, Speedy and Hybrid” written by Rafi Grosglik and Uri Ram and

the historical book “From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in the

United States” written by Haiming Liu. In general, Haiming Liu’s book tends to make a stronger

argument with more convincing evidence, even though Rafi Grosglik and Uri Ram also made

good use of evidence in their article.

To begin with, Rafi Grosglik and Uri Ram present their evidence from the sociological

perspective to support the claim that Chinese food can be considered as a prism for analyzing the

process of globalization. In general, the authors present their evidence based on three distinct

stages on the culinary globalization in the Israel community. In addition to the three stages for

carrying out the well-organized research, Rafi Grosglik and Uri Ram also rely heavily on

literature review and secondary sources of information. For instance, when the authors analyze

how Chinese food experienced culinary hybrid representations and then affected local Israel

culture, the authors mention that “Culinary hybrid representations were made possible in recent

decades once Israeli society was established as an affluent consumer society, especially in view

of the growing exposure to (and accessibility of) economic and cultural stimuli from

abroad”(Grosglik & Ram, 2013, p. 234). This conclusion is based on the research findings of

multiple previous researches carried out by Azaryahu, Ram, Almog and Filc. Via such literature

review and secondary sources, the authors set forth an enlightening perspective that the prevalent
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viewpoint of globalization in Israel should be reconsidered and that it is not only equated with

Americanization but also under the influence of the three-dimensional process of Chinese

culinary culture.

However, the authors fail to cite those multiple researches which make readers wonder

about the reliability of those resources. Even though the analysis is based on literature review

and description about daily cultural objects such as food, it has some limitations with their

evidence credibility to the readers. According to Stedman (2011), “Just like when you look for a

link to more information, this reader has simple , quick question that he or she expects to answer

easily.”(p. 251). The lack of anonymous surveys, census data, and ethnographic research

reduces the persuasion of evidence and validity of their claims. In addition, the citation is also

missing which cause readers confused about which part of conclusion is a paraphrase of survey.

It is understandable to me that as a writer, sometimes it is hard to discriminate what we read and

what we know when they meld together so unnoticeably(Stedman, 2011, p. 253). Because of the

vague citation, it is hard for audiences to tell which part is the original resource and which part is

authors’ own opinion. Things will be much clearer to readers if authors can address how do their

conclusions come from resources more specifically.

In contrast, the book “From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese

Food in the United States” views Chinese food culture’s impact upon local community from a

historical perspective. In terms of how the book presents its evidence, its multi-dimensional

analysis and discussion is quite beneficial. Even though the book does not use tables, graphs, or

charts to present relevant and supportive data, the direct quotation, paraphrase, and endnotes help
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to illustrate how Chinese immigrants and their food culture find their place in the United States

and exert a significant influence upon local culture.

Haiming Liu figures out a practical way to present the evidence, which is to discuss about

different themes and issues in separate chapters and present evidence related. For instance,

“Wong Chin Foo often spoke about Chinese culture and published many articles about Chinese

life in America. If chop suey had caught his attention, it was obviously a popular dish in New

York’s Chinese restaurants for both Chinese and non-Chinese customers” (Liu, 2015, p. 50). The

journalists’ responses and comments on Chinese food culture effectively justify the historical

influence of Chinese food on local culture. Alternatively, “Jazz musician Louis Armstrong’s

“Cornet Chop Suey” was released in 1926 at the height of his career. He put “chop suey” in the

title because of his lifelong passion for Chinese food” (Liu, 2015, p. 60). The songs of Louis

Armstrong and Sidney Bechet suggest that Chinese cuisines became themes of popular art and

music instead of just gain economic success; therefore, they did influence metropolitan

American lifestyle. All these secondary sources strongly support the author’s argument that the

history of Chinese immigrants proves the significant influence of Chinese food upon local

American communities.

On the one hand, the book leverages case studies about some well-known food brands of

Chinese immigrants and local communities, such as the P. F. Chang’s and Panda Express. Based

on field survey and literature review, the author claims that “If P. F. Chang’s is a case of a

mainstream America food business embracing authentic Chinese culinary culture, Panda Express

shows how Chinese restaurateurs have integrated American fast-food concepts into their

business” (Liu, 2015, p. 20). As famous franchised fast food brand, Panda Express is a great
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example for readers to understand how does Chinese food change its flavor to fulfill American

appetite and become a complexus of two cultures. Such first-hand information and case studies

provides a clearer understanding about Chinese food culture and its influence upon local

American.

Since Chinese culinary culture finds its place in both history and sociology discussions,

both scholarly sources turns out to be informative and enlightening. By analyzing two resources,

I gain a better understanding about how these authors present their evidence to support their

claims about the impact that Chinese food have upon local culture. Just like Melzer(2011) states,

“A community of scholars in a discipline will use similar research methods, write in similar

genres, and follow similar conventions”(p. 270), although the authors belong to different

disciplines, they still share conventions and have specialized terminology while illustrating their

opinions to readers since their disciplines are branches of social science. Nevertheless,

considering the application of both primary and secondary source of information and more

applications of quotations or paraphrases, the book of Haiming Liu presents evidence in a more

effective way and thus manages to make a stronger argument about how Chinese food affects the

local communities.

References

Grosglik, R., & Ram, U. (2013). Authentic, Speedy and Hybrid: Representations of Chinese

Food and Cultural Globalization in Israel. ​Food, Culture & Society,​ 16(2), 223-243.
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Liu, H. (2015). From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express : A history of Chinese food in the

United States (Asian American studies today). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers

University Press.

Melzer, D. (2011). ​Exploring college writing : Reading, writing and researching across the

curriculum​ (Frameworks for writing). Sheffield ; Oakville, CT: Equinox Pub.

Stedman, K. (2011). Annoying Ways People Use Sources. ​Writing Spaces: Readings on

Writing​, Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.