‘Not Real Chinese’: Why American Chinese Food Deserves Our Respect

This essay, by Kelley Kwok, age 16, from Staten Island Technical High School in New York, N.Y., is one of the Top 11 winners of The Learning Network’s 10th Annual Student Editorial Contest, for which we received 12,592 entries.

We are publishing the work of all the winners and runners-up over the next week, and you can find them here as they post.

“Not Real Chinese”: Why American Chinese Food Deserves Our Respect

I sit down, surrounded by gossiping aunties and cranky uncles, meeting the warm scent of the dishes on the glass turntable. My stomach growls, preparing itself to be filled. Yet I am left with a lingering guilt for eating this kind of food. American Chinese food. “Fake” Chinese food.

Dishes including chop suey, beef with broccoli, and General Tso’s chicken are considered American Chinese food, foreign to the traditional cooks in China. For this reason, many have been calling it “fake” or “inauthentic,” spreading attitudes of distaste and refusing to eat an Americanized version of their favorite cuisine.

But should this really be the case? The humble origins and admirable impacts of American Chinese food prove otherwise.

In the 19th century, the majority of the first wave of Chinese immigrants in America became laborers. Due to the discrimination that forced them out of their jobs, some turned to opening their own restaurants to make money and bypass immigration law restrictions.

Chinese immigrants were forced to adapt to their new environment, using only the limited and unfamiliar ingredients available to them. Dishes like chop suey were rumored to be first put together with leftovers. Beef, traditionally eaten in a dish with string beans, was cooked with broccoli instead. Through the cuisine, Chinese immigrants fed and comforted one another, giving each other a taste of the land they left. As the popularity of Chinese food spread, Chinese cooks found their niche in America and adapted their food to both Chinese and American tastes.

Despite the heat of anti-Chinese sentiment during the Cold War, American Chinese food quickly became a trend — and a key factor in changing discriminatory attitudes toward the Chinese. The cuisine provided Chinese American restaurant owners enough money to support themselves through an era of oppression, allowing them to send their children to college and benefit the future generation.

Today, there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than McDonald’s, KFCs, Pizza Huts, Taco Bells, and Wendy’s combined. Many Chinese Americans, including myself, grew up with the food and consider it an integral part of their childhood.

That being said, it’s strange that the cuisine continues to be judged by its authenticity instead of its actual taste or legendary impacts. Can we devalue a cuisine just because it deviates from tradition? American Chinese food is still food created by Chinese people; at first for other Chinese immigrants, and then for everyone in America, to enjoy.

Because of its rich history and taste, American Chinese food deserves respect in our modern society. Instead of calling it “fake” or “not real Chinese food,” we can simply make the distinction between American Chinese and traditional Chinese. Both should be respected, none less valid than the other.

Works Cited

Erway, Cathy. “More Than ‘Just Takeout’.” The New York Times, 21 June 2021.

Hayford, Charles W. “Who’s Afraid of Chop Suey?” Association for Asian Studies, 19 Aug. 2020.

Rude, Emelyn. “Chinese Food in America: A Very Brief History.” Time, Time, 8 Feb. 2016.