I finally started reading a book that’s been on my reading list for a long time called Fortune Cookie Chronicles. The book delves into the history of Chinese food in America, spanning all the way back to the 1850s when Chinese from Toisan (ya, aka Taishan, which is my paternal side’s region of origin) were trying to come to America in herds, looking for gold, riches, and opportunity. The book does a pretty good history lesson when reviewing newspaper articles and magazine publications at the time, denouncing these “strange” looking Chinese people with their even stranger and disgusting food.

Reading the quotes from these old articles in the mid to late 1800s, I couldn’t help but feel a strong sense of anger and disdain for the ignorant mindsets of local, predominantly white people of European descent at the time. They really believed that their boring baked potatoes and pot roasts were the true, civilized sustenance, and anything that had spice or was stir-fried (so novel at the time!) was filthy, made of chopped up rats, or encouraged promiscuity. Today, Chinese food is far more embraced by non-Chinese people, whether it’s for the “authentic” Chinese food I know and am still getting to know (I truly don’t think anyone on this earth, even those who live in China and travel all over China, will ever know ALL there is to know about Chinese food given how ridiculously diverse it is depending on the region you’re in), or for the generic Americanized dishes like General Tso’s chicken or stir-fried beef and broccoli. I still get frustrated when I hear people say that they don’t like Chinese food or Asian food because chances are that they haven’t had the “real thing,” or a true representation of how great the cuisine can be. But then I think, it’s really not all that bad. Ignorance will never fully be eliminated. And it just means I should appreciate people more who do appreciate cuisines that are different to what they grew up with and are used to eating.