Editing American Chinese cuisine (section)

== History ==
[[File:Theodore Wores - Chinese Restaurant.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Theodore Wores]], 1884, ''Chinese Restaurant,'' oil on canvas, 83 x 56 cm, [[Crocker Art Museum]], Sacramento]]
The history of American Chinese cuisine can be traced back to the California Gold Rush (1848–1855). Chinese immigrants came to the United States in search for work as gold miners and railroad workers. As more Chinese immigrants arrived, the United States introduced laws that prohibited them from owning land.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Terrell |first=Ellen |date=January 28, 2021 |title=Chinese Americans and the Gold Rush {{!}} Inside Adams |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2021/01/chinese-americans-gold-rush/ |access-date=April 2, 2025 |website=The Library of Congress}}</ref> Chinese immigrants started small businesses on the west coast, including restaurants and laundry services. Early American Chinese food tended to be homogenized, requiring adaptation of local ingredients and catering to Americanized tastes. By the 19th century, [[Chinese Americans in San Francisco]] operated luxurious restaurants patronized mainly by Chinese customers, serving food based customers requests, including anything from [[pork chop]] sandwiches and [[apple pie]] to beans and eggs. Many of these restaurant owners were self-taught family cooks who improvised with different cooking methods using whatever ingredients were available.<ref name="Wu-2002">{{cite book |title = The Globalization of Chinese Food|last1 = Wu|first1 = David Y. H.|last2 = Cheung|first2 = Sidney C. H.|publisher = Curzon Press|year = 2002|isbn = 978-0-8248-2582-9|location = Great Britain|page = 57}}</ref>

These smaller restaurants were responsible for the development of American Chinese food, adapting it to suit the tastes of Americans. They began by serving miners and railroad workers and later opened Chinese restaurants in towns where Chinese food was completely unknown, using local ingredients and cooking procedures to adapt their customer preferences.

[[California Gold Rush]] (1848–1855) brought 20,000–30,000 immigrants to the US from  [[Canton Province, China|Canton]] (Guangdong province), China. The location of first Chinese restaurant has sparked debate. Some say it was Macau and Woosung, while others cite Canton Restaurant.<ref name="Smith">{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Peter |title=Was Chop Suey the Greatest Culinary Joke Ever Played? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/was-chop-suey-the-greatest-culinary-joke-ever-played-122173708/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=September 12, 2021}}</ref><ref name="Liu-2015">{{cite book |last1=Liu |first1=Haiming |title=From Canton Restaurant to Panda Express: A History of Chinese Food in the United States |date=2015 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |location=New Jersey |isbn=978-0-8135-7477-6 |page=8 |jstor=j.ctt16nzfbd |edition=First |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16nzfbd |access-date=September 12, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Peter |title=Was Chop Suey the Greatest Culinary Joke Ever Played? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/was-chop-suey-the-greatest-culinary-joke-ever-played-122173708/ |access-date=April 2, 2025 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> Neither one of these restaurants have any surviving photographs; the only reliable information is that these two restaurants were founded in 1849 in San Francisco. Either way, these and other such restaurants were central features in the daily lives of Chinese immigrants. They provided a connection to home, particularly for the many bachelors who did not have the resources or knowledge to cook for themselves. These populations was substantial: In 1852, the ratio of male to female Chinese immigrants was a 18:1.<ref name="Chen-2017">{{cite book |last1=Chen |first1=Yong |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |chapter=The Rise of Chinese Food in the United States |chapter-url=https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-273 |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford Research Encyclopedia |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.273 |isbn=978-0-19-932917-5 |access-date=September 12, 2021}}</ref> These restaurants served as gathering places and cultural centers for the Chinese community. By 1850, there were five Chinese restaurants in San Francisco. Soon after, significant amounts of food were being imported from China to America's [[West Coast of the United States|west coast]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spier |first=Robert F. G. |date=1958 |title=Food Habits of Nineteenth-Century California Chinese |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25155169 |journal=California Historical Society Quarterly |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=79–84 |doi=10.2307/25155169 |jstor=25155169 |issn=0008-1175}}</ref>

The trend spread steadily eastward with the development of the American railways,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Beginnings of American Railroads and Mapping {{!}} History of Railroads and Maps {{!}} Articles and Essays {{!}} Railroad Maps, 1828-1900 {{!}} Digital Collections {{!}} Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/railroad-maps-1828-to-1900/articles-and-essays/history-of-railroads-and-maps/the-beginnings-of-american-railroads-and-mapping/ |access-date=April 1, 2025 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref> particularly to [[Chinese Americans in New York City|New York City]].<ref name="Smith2009">{{cite book|last=Smith|first=Andrew F.|title=Eating history: 30 turning points in the making of American cuisine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1514y0UnSdQC&pg=PA47|access-date=June 22, 2011|date=October 1, 2009|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-14092-8|page=47}}</ref>  The [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] allowed merchants to enter the country, and in 1915, restaurant owners became eligible for merchant visas; these visas fueled the opening of Chinese restaurants as an immigration vehicle.<ref name="Godoy-2016">{{cite news |last1=Godoy |first1=Maria |title=Lo Mein Loophole: How U.S. Immigration Law Fueled A Chinese Restaurant Boom |url= https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/02/22/467113401/lo-mein-loophole-how-u-s-immigration-law-fueled-a-chinese-restaurant-boom |access-date=February 23, 2016 |work=[[NPR]] |date=February 23, 2016}}</ref> The merchant status was based on the use of rotating managers. Restaurants would operate as a partnership among many people, rotating different partners through the management responsibilities and establishing them as merchants to earn the exemption.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://scholars.org/brief/untold-story-chinese-restaurants-america |title=The Untold Story of Chinese Restaurants in America  |first1=Heather R |last1=Lee |date=May 20, 2015 |website=scholars.org}}</ref>

[[File:Edward hopper chop suey.jpg|thumb|Edward Hopper's 1929 painting [[Chop Suey (Hopper)|''Chop Suey'']] portrays a Chinese American restaurant in New York City]]

By the early decades of the 20th century, Chinese restaurants had brought new culinary ingredients to towns and cities across the United States, including [[soy sauce]], [[sesame oil]], [[bean sprouts]], [[Eleocharis dulcis|water chestnuts]], [[Edible mushroom|dried mushrooms]], [[fried noodles]], [[Oolong tea]] and [[Chinese almond biscuit|almond cookies]]. [[Bok choi]], then called "Pak choi," was sometimes called "Chinese Romaine". Similarly, [[Napa cabbage]] was called "Chinese cabbage".<ref name=Vos>{{cite journal |last1=Vos |first1=Jane |date=November 1920 |title= Chinese Cookery and Customs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rRzOAAAAMAAJ&dq=oolong+chinese-american+restaurants&pg=PA253 |journal=American Cookery |volume=XXIV |issue=4 |pages=251–257 |doi= |access-date=December 16, 2024 }}</ref> In those years, it was commonplace for prosperous American families, especially on the [[West Coast of the United States|West Coast]], to employ Chinese cooks as domestic servants.<ref name=Vos/> For example, cookbook author and TV personality [[James Beard]] grew up in [[Portland, Oregon]] where his parents employed a Chinese cook, Jue-Let, whom Beard credited as a major culinary influence, and spoke of with great affection.<ref name=Saveur>{{cite news | last =Dao | first =Dan Q. | title =Who Was Jue-Let, the Unknown Chinese Chef Who Raised James Beard?: The family private chef and Beard's surrogate father was a fiery, influential personality in the kitchen. So why do we know so little about him?  | newspaper =[[Saveur]]| location =New York City | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =May 19, 2017 | url = http://www.saveur.com/james-beard-chinese-jue-let/   | accessdate =December 16, 2024 }}</ref> In 1915, a manual was published in San Francisco, instructing Chinese immigrants how to cook for American families.<ref name=Saveur/>

Along the way, cooks adapted southern Chinese dishes and developed a style of Chinese food not found in China, such as [[chop suey]]. Restaurants (along with Chinese laundries) provided an ethnic niche for small businesses at a time when Chinese people were excluded from most jobs in the wage economy by ethnic discrimination or lack of language fluency.<ref name="Coe Chop Suey">Andrew Coe ''Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).</ref> By the 1920s, this cuisine, particularly chop suey, became popular among middle-class Americans. However, after World War II it began to be dismissed for not being "authentic," though it continued to be popular.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zanke |first=Mormei |date=November 17, 2023 |title=Chasing Chop Suey: Tracing Chinese Immigration Through Food |url=https://sundaylongread.com/2023/11/17/chasing-chop-suey-tracing-chinese-immigration-through-food/ |access-date=April 2, 2025 |website=The Sunday Long Read |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1955, the Republic of China (having itself [[Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan|retreated to Taiwan]]) evacuated the [[Dachen Islands]]. Many who escaped to Taiwan later moved to the United States as they lacked strong social networks and access to opportunities in Taiwan. Chefs from the Dachen Islands had a strong influence on American Chinese food.<ref name="Pio Kuo"/>

By the end of the 1950s, immigrants from Taiwan replaced Cantonese immigrants as the primary labor force in American Chinese restaurants. Taiwanese immigrants expanded American-Chinese cuisine beyond [[Cantonese cuisine]] to encompass dishes from many different regions of China as well as Japanese-inspired dishes.<ref name="Pio Kuo">{{cite web |last1=Pio Kuo |first1=Chunghao |title=Taiwanese Immigrants Spark a Golden Age for Chinese Food |url=https://www.nyfoodstory.com/articles/taiwanese-immigrants-spark-a-golden-age-for-chinese-food/ |website=www.nyfoodstory.com |publisher=NY Food Story |access-date=April 29, 2020}}</ref>

Chinese-American restaurants played a key role in ushering in the era of take-out and delivery food in the United States. In New York City, delivery was pioneered in the 1970s by Empire Szechuan Gourmet Franchise, which hired Taiwanese students studying at [[Columbia University]] to do the work. Chinese American restaurants were among the first restaurants to use picture menus in the US.<ref name="Pio Kuo"/>

Taiwanese immigration largely ended in the 1990s due to an economic boom and democratization in Taiwan. From the 1990s onward, immigrants from China once again made up the majority of cooks in American Chinese restaurants.<ref name="Pio Kuo"/> There has been a consequential component of [[Chinese emigration]] of illegal origin, most notably [[Fuzhou Americans|Fuzhou people]] from [[Fujian]]<ref name="NPR Morning Edition-2007">{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16356755|title=Chinese Immigrants Chase Opportunity in America|date=November 19, 2007|publisher=NPR Morning Edition|access-date=July 9, 2011}}</ref> and [[Wenzhounese]] from [[Zhejiang]] in mainland China, specifically destined to work in Chinese restaurants in New York City, beginning in the 1980s.

Adapting Chinese cooking techniques to local produce and tastes has led to the development of American Chinese cuisine. Many of the Chinese restaurant [[menu]]s in the US are printed in [[Chinatown, Manhattan]], which has a strong [[Chinese Americans in New York City|Chinese-American]] demographic.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/nyregion/thecity/the-kings-of-sweet-and-sour.html|title=The Kings of Sweet and Sour|work=The New York Times|date=December 12, 2004|access-date=January 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170928181102/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/nyregion/thecity/the-kings-of-sweet-and-sour.html?_r=1|archive-date=September 28, 2017|url-status=live|last1=Mindlin|first1=Alex}}</ref>

Late 20th-century tastes have been more accommodating to domestic residents.{{sfnb|Hayford|2011| p = 11-12}} By this time, it had become evident that Chinese restaurants no longer catered mainly to Chinese customers.<ref>{{cite book|title = China to Chinatown|url = http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/C/bo3536662.html |first1=JAG |last1=Roberts |series=Globalities | publisher=Reaktion Books |access-date = December 10, 2015}}</ref>

In 2011, the [[Smithsonian National Museum of American History]] displayed some of the historical background and cultural artifacts of American Chinese cuisine in its exhibit entitled, ''Sweet & Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in the United States''.<ref name="SNMAH">{{cite web |title=Sweet & Sour: A Look at the History of Chinese Food in the United States |url=http://apanews.si.edu/2011/03/04/sweet-and-sour-showcase/ |work=Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center |publisher=Smithsonian National Museum of American History |access-date=March 20, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130414162829/http://apanews.si.edu/2011/03/04/sweet-and-sour-showcase/ |archive-date=April 14, 2013 }}</ref>

[[Pekin Noodle Parlor]], established in 1911, is the oldest operating Chinese restaurant in the country.<ref name="Grant-2022">{{cite journal |last1=Grant |first1=Richard |date=September 2022 |title=The First Chinese Restaurant in America Has a Savory—and Unsavory—History |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/history-first-chinese-restaurant-in-america-180980552/ |journal=Smithsonian Magazine |access-date=February 20, 2023}}</ref> As of 2023, the United States had around 37,000 Chinese restaurants.<ref name="passy20150826">{{cite news |author=Shah, Widjaya |first=Sono, Regina |date=May 23, 2023 |title=71% of Asian restaurants in the U.S. serve Chinese, Japanese or Thai food |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/23/71-of-asian-restaurants-in-the-u-s-serve-chinese-japanese-or-thai-food/ |access-date=April 1, 2025 |work=Pew Research Center |pages=A1}}</ref>