![]() ![]() “The rise of Chinese food is a story not just of marginalization and exploitation but also of the resistance and perseverance of Chinese Americans in the face of enormous hostilities,” writes historian Yong Chen in Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America. Madeline and William Wong, shown in 1971. A preference for rice became a totem of racial inferiority. Using chopsticks was derided as barbarism. In the years surrounding the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 - which, for several decades, banned Chinese laborers from immigrating to the country or becoming US citizens - journalists and propagandists accused the Chinese of dining on rats, cats, and dogs. But anti-Chinese prejudice, fueled by competition for work during a period of economic decline, fettered the growth of Chinese restaurants across the country. The history of Chinese food in the United States dates back to the late 1840s, when early Cantonese immigrants - mostly merchants and entrepreneurs - brought their culinary traditions to California to feed American miners prospecting for gold. “And the story that it tells is of the entrepreneurial spirit and the adventurousness and the bravery of so many of these people.” “The story of Chinese American food is not told enough, and there’s not enough respect placed around it,” says Lilly Jan, a lecturer on food and beverage at Cornell University. Chinese restaurants served as their safe havens, binding them to their culture and identity. Yet for many Chinese immigrants, survival hinged on making their food accessible to the very people who wanted them gone. Since its arrival on the West Coast during the Gold Rush, American Chinese cuisine has battled an unearned (and often racist) reputation as inauthentic at best - and unfit for human consumption at worst. Kowloon’s rise to legendary status is a testament to the Wong family’s hustle and ingenuity in a country that has never truly given Chinese food its due. He worried about being “behind the eight ball because we had no plan.” What are we going to do with the restaurant?’” says Bob Wong, William’s affable 67-year-old son, who has co-owned Kowloon along with his mother, Madeline, and five siblings, since his father passed away in 2011. “I didn’t want to wake up one day and say.’I can’t do this anymore. ![]()
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