Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Negotiating Authenticity: Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants. DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Nancy Yan Graduate Program in English The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Amy Shuman, Co-Director Judy Wu, Co-Director Patrick Mullen Ray Cashman Copyright by Nancy Yan 2013 Abstract This dissertation investigates a key folkloric concept – authenticity – through an exploration of the Chinese restaurant. Scholars tend to be wary of using the term authenticity in conjunction with cultural expressions because of its association with dangerous nationalist movements, problematic boundaries, and potential for essentialism. Authenticity is often understood in the vein of continuity to the past; such an understanding implies singularity, stability and bounded concreteness rather than dynamism and fluidity in cultural expressions. As a result, in scholarship, claims of authenticity are often avoided or deconstructed as invalid or false. However, I argue that claims to authenticity can be valid and legitimate and that authenticity should be considered as multiple and flexible. I examine one Chinese restaurant, one Chinese dish, and a small collection of vintage Chinese restaurant menus to investigate discourses on authenticity. Ding Ho, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, embodies several features typical of Chinese restaurants but also contain anomalous elements in their operations which, according to some on-line restaurant reviews, mark the restaurant as inauthentic. However, I suggest that anomalies are not evidence of pollution of a Chinese restaurant’s authenticity but instead indicate variations within the category. Discourses on a Chinese restaurant’s authenticity include, for example, some patrons’ desire for access to the ii separate Chinese language menu that some Chinese restaurants have. Such conversations often contain echoes of Orientalist narratives. Wor Sue Gai, the dish I focus on in my discussion, is a chicken dish often found in Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and it is believed to be a local invention. While the actual origins of Wor Sue Gai are unclear, conversations about the dish on internet food discussion boards point to both Columbus, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan as its birthplace. Unlike chop suey, Wor Sue Gai’s Chinese-ness is not in question, although it is presumed to have been created in the United States. However, it still maintains a Chinese identity as well as a regional identity associated with both Columbus and Detroit. These multiple identities tell us that Wor Sue Gai, like any cultural expression, can sustain several co-existing identities. Authenticity is not about a single origin so much as it is about claiming a cultural expression as their own. As cultural artifacts, Chinese restaurants menus serve as the public presentation of the restaurant’s identity. Earlier Chinese menus tend to have distinct separations of Chinese and American dishes, indicating the need to gently introduce Chinese cuisine and culture to an unfamiliar patron base. Analysis of the types of dishes, the transliterations of the names of dishes from Chinese to English, and visual images and illustrations on the restaurant menus reveal that authenticity is often contextual and negotiated to accommodate the restaurant’s clientele. Chinese restaurant menus operate as markers of social relationships iii This dissertation argues that there are multiple authenticities in any cultural expression, that claiming authenticity is a valid act, that its authenticity can be based on claiming, and that claims of authenticity are contextual and relational. iv Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my family – my parents who worked at our Chinese carry-out for a livelihood, my siblings who “helped out,” and the extended family who also made their lives through the Chinese restaurant. I also dedicate this dissertation to all the other families who worked at Chinese restaurants everywhere to support themselves. Lastly, this dissertation is also for the women of color pursuing their dreams of a doctoral degree. v Acknowledgments I wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the members of my committee: Amy Shuman, Judy Wu, Pat Mullen, and Ray Cashman. I am humbled by the generosity of spirit, time, and encouragement that you have extended to me throughout this journey. I intend to support others the way you have supported me. I’d like to thank Barbara Lloyd, former Associate Director of the Center for Folklore Studies at The Ohio State University, for the many years of support and engaging conversations. The OSU English Department staff deserves recognition for their incredible knowledge and general helpfulness. Although she won’t be able to read this, I am grateful for Flower, the Shar Pei/Pug mix dissertation dog, who forced me to get out of the house for walks and the occasional excursion to the park. Everyone should get a dissertation dog to help them write their dissertation. vi Vita 1990................................................................Dulaney High School 1994................................................................B.A. International Affairs, George Washington University 2004................................................................M.A. Department of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University 2011 to present ..............................................Lecturer, Department of Comparative Studies, The Ohio State University Newark Publications “Wor Sue Gai and Claiming Local Identity.” Digest, the online journal of the Foodways section of the American Folklore Society, pending publication 2013. “Un-defining Chinese Restaurants in the American Context.” Conference Proceedings from The 18th Ethnological Food Research Conference, March, 2011. “Archie Green, Labor Folklorist, 1917 – 2009.” The International Society for Folk Narrative Research Newsletter, No. 4, June 2009, pp. 16 – 17. “Chinese- Americans,” Short entry, Peoples of North America, Brown Partworks, London, UK. March 2002. Fields of Study Major Field: English vii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ......................................................................................................................... vv Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. vi Vita .................................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 13 Chapter 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... 45 Chapter 4: The Story of Ding Ho: Threatening Categories of Authenticity .................... 76 Chapter 5: Wor Sue Gai, Chop Suey, and Claiming Local Identity and Authenticity ... 112 Chapter 6: Vintage Chinese Restaurant Menus .............................................................. 133 Chapter 7: Conclusion..................................................................................................... 166 References ....................................................................................................................... 180 viii Chapter 1: Introduction How do we know if a cultural expression is authentic? This is a question that folklorists must consider in the study of practices that would represent a particular group. The concept of authenticity – that something is what it purports to be – has been foundational to folklore research. It has been a central dimension of the distinction between folklore and what Richard Dorson deemed “fakelore.” While claims of authenticity may be disputed, dismissed, or rejected as a valid concept, folklore as authentic is still very real to many people. Folklorists and scholars of other disciplines have often understood authenticity as a construct, that cultural practices that were once deemed traditional have in fact been altered, or have foreign or capricious origins, or have undergone a variety of modifying influences (Hobsbawm and Ranger 1983, Bendix 1997). For example, Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin find that some cultural traditions in Hawaii were not as ancient or as indigenous as previously believed (1984). Because of such complicated and imprecise origins of so many claims of authenticity, many scholars have concluded that the notion that authenticity exists is a fallacy. In addition, scholars might have us dismantle the idea of authenticity, claiming that its use has been more harmful than helpful (Abrahams 1993, Bendix 1997). Concepts of authenticity have often been used as key instruments in perpetuating genocide as a result 1 of nationalist conflicts, for example, the dissolution of Yugoslavia during the 1990s. It is not unreasonable then that scholars might view authenticity as a deeply troublesome and problematic notion. Claims of authenticity have certainly been used to dominate and to disempower, as Eric Hobsbawm and Terrence Ranger have shown in The Invention of Tradition (1983). Invented