THE MOST UNEXPECTEDLY INTERESTING CHINATOWN

KEVIN KUNITAKE DANIEL KERR : HISTORY DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY HONORS SPRING 2013 ABSTRACT:

This capstone studies the uniqueness of D.C. Chinatown, asserting it is a visual representation Americanized Chinese cuisine. Food and culture go hand in hand in the Chinese immigrant story in America, leading to what’s commonly known as Americanized Chinese food, a cuisine arguably more American than Chinese. Looking at cultural gentrification of Americanized Chinese food, through the microcosm of two places in D.C. Chinatown, Boy and Chinatown Express, this paper aims to reiterate a greater theme of how cuisine can segue to multicultural understanding.

This paper also is not written as an academic paper, but literary journalism. As a journalism student, I learned many styles of writing, but believe this one is best told in this manner. Thus this capstone is not only an investigation into the relationship between Chinese food and its culture, but also looking into how to take such a worthwhile message and deliver it well. In Washington D.C. Chinatown, people shuffle like they do on the Metro, sliding through this cultural intersection with minimum eye contact. Here museums draw locals and tourists. Bars bring out Washingtonians and yuppies. Sports attract fair‐weather and diehard fans. The X2 bus stop changes the city’s black demographic its white one. Performers play horns and beat overturned buckets, religious groups preach with microphones and canvassers ask for spare minutes for human rights. Yet in Washington D.C. Chinatown, ‐ the country’s most unexpectedly interesting Chinatown – people prefer not to stop.

Above the city’s only diagonal crosswalk, anchoring this commotion is the red, turquoise and gold Chinese Archway, the largest of its kind, standing 47 feet tall, weighing over 128 tons and adorned with 284 dragons.1 Constructed in 1986 to symbolize the area’s cultural identity, perhaps now 37 years later, it is too gaudy an introduction to the just over 300 remaining residents.2

Rarely is Chinatown mentioned when talking D.C. gentrification. It’s written off as Chinablock, Chinacorner or another name that insinuates it’s less than what it should be. Places like U St. and Columbia Heights are so uniquely D.C. they don’t have fair comparisons in other cities. Walking down 14th St today is not like it used to be, but people new or visiting don’t know that because it’s not like any place they’ve been. For better or for worse, D.C. Chinatown shares its identity with its cousins in other cities. When people hear Chinatown, they have certain expectations – quality Chinese food, butterfly knives, knockoff purses – and when those aren’t there, something feels off.

One block east of the archway is a more appropriate introduction told through the two of neighborhood’s two best spots, Chinatown Express and China Boy. Food has traditionally been the introduction to the Chinese immigrant story, making it the best

1 DeFerrari, John. “Chinatown’s Friendship Archway” 2 Chen, Yi. “Chinatown: A Documentary” way to explain why D.C. Chinatown’s so interesting, – it’s the visual representation of culturally gentrified, Americanized Chinese food.

The block has a small Chinese bakery and a corner store that calls itself a Chinese market. The napa cabbage, bok choy and other produce here are tucked away in a refrigerated display case but customers mainly stick to beer, candy and cigarettes. The biggest building on the block is a law firm that advertises a free consultation at 1‐800‐ WIN‐WIN‐1 with William Shatner’s face on its website.3 There’s a Corner Bakery on its ground level with a sign that reads in both English and Chinese, result of a city ordinance that says businesses within Chinatown borders must be Chinese accessible.4 Thus Corner Bakery or “Corner Bread and Coffee Shop”, and places like Hooter’s, “The Owl Canteen”, are legally obligated to at least present a semblance of Chinese.

Diagonal to the law firm across the street is the Wah Luck House, “House of Happiness”, a 10‐story 152‐unit subsidized apartment complex that houses the majority of Chinatown’s remaining Chinese. The building is thick concrete with Chinese‐styled balconies and burgundy accents, designed to house those displaced by the now deceased Washington Convention Center.5 Most residents are elderly. Mandarin is the official language, although and Fukunise dialects are popular too. Once a month residents organize a trip to the nearest Chinese market – not the corner store – 14 miles away in West Falls Church. The area’s last Chinese market closed in 2005 and is now the German pizza‐and‐beer chain Vapiano, self‐described as “somewhere between the nicest of fast casual and hippest of casual dining restaurants.”6

Adjacent to these big buildings is Chinatown Express. The short dark green building has a front window lined with light bulbs like an old Hollywood vanity mirror and in it an

3 Mike Slocumb Law Firm. “Home Page” 4 Chinatown Community Cultural Center “The History of Washington DC – Chinatown.” 5 Nakamura, David. “Wah Luck House maintains culture in dying D.C. Chinatown.” 6 Vapiano International. “About Page.” elderly man, the restaurant’s noodle master, stuffs dumplings and hand pulls noodles to the delight of people walking by. Laminated reviews from , Washingtonian and Washington City Paper are displayed everywhere. There’s an awning with praises from a 2003 write up in too.

More laminated reviews cover the walls inside. All of them mention the hand pulled noodles and xiao long bao dumplings. There is a case with hanging roasted ducks and tanks with fish, crabs and lobster. The collapsible emerald‐colored tables hint things move around here often. Waitresses are all about quick turnaround, moving customers in and out as quickly as possible. All noodle questions are answered with a deviation of “it’s homemade noodle. Do you want homemade noodle?”

Homemade noodle is more specifically style lamian. Lanzhou is a noodle making style remembered for its theatrical nature. A single piece of dough is stretched, twisted and occasionally slammed against a floured surface, until it is elastic enough to be pulled and folded like a game of cat’s cradle into noodles.7 Dough is usually folded at least six times to yield 128 noodles and this part only takes a couple minutes. Taste‐wise the noodles are chewy and doughy, not to mention fresh. Chinatown Express serves them two ways: soupy or pan‐fried. The duck was named one of “Washington Post’s 40 Must Try Dishes in 2013”.8 The write‐up is duct‐taped to the outside wall near the door.

Still user‐generated review sites like Chowhound, Urbanspoon and Yelp don’t always give Chinatown Express good reviews. This is not saying these sites are indicators of quality (neither are the laminated reviews arguably), but rather outlets for strangers to discuss their opinion on good food. “Authenticity” is the buzzword surrounding Chinatown Express and Chinese food in general. Even if this is not the right descriptor

7 Long, Kyle. “Lanzhou Lamian: Noodles With a Pull” 8 Ramanathan, Lavanya. “40 Dishes to Must Try in 2013 : Chinatown Express” (too often “authenticity” implies there can be only one true “authenticity” and that is to be determined by customer opinion), customers see the lack of it reiterating the same feelings people have about D.C. Chinatown. It is less than what it should be.

The noodles have a nicely cooked, but that can be lost because they don’t have strong compliments. The soup isn’t rich with flavor and the vegetables don’t add much beyond color. The chili oil, pickled garlic and ginger scallion sauce condiments really make the dish, but in their absence there isn’t anything that gives it a kick. Chinatown Express plays it safe. This shouldn’t be a deterrent, but rather a note for if food is an introduction to culture, these noodles may not lead back to China as well as directly as they to the story of Chinese in America.

The first Chinese immigrants came to 1800s from the small rural city of Taishan in the southern Guangdong province, leaving a slew of natural disasters for the allure of the Gold Rush.9 Their comforting rice, seafood, vegetables, and tofu, doused unapologetically in spice, arrived alien to the then‐Puritan palette that viewed food as sustenance not pleasure. Cuisine became an easy point for discrimination. Chinese ate rice, not meat. They used sticks, not forks. Their food, way of eating and everything else threatened the American man lifestyle. As gold ran out, they forced Chinese off railways and mines into cities where they began Chinatowns and took non‐threatening domestic jobs traditionally for women opening laundromats and restaurants.10 Then the suspended Chinese immigration for the next 61 years with the in 1882.

What’s understood as Chinese food came out of this – immigrants from a small rural Chinese province isolated by an exclusion act and forced into kitchens to cook for the American palette. These recipes were ancestors to the $3.95 lunch special. When the

9 Chan, David. R. “How American Chinese Food Came to Be.” 10 Lee, Jennifer 8. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food” ban was lifted in 1943, these recipes had spread across the country and become accepted, so new immigrant regional cuisine more or less adapted this successful model of Americanized Chinese. The origins of many of these dishes never trace back to China. Fortune cookies, chop suey, General Tso’s chicken, beef & broccoli – these are all part of this assumed Americanized Chinese identity co‐opted and manufactured to be Chinese, but arguably more American than anything else.11

China Boy is across and down the street from Chinatown Express in a nondescript red row house. There are two signs, one says China Boy and the other says OPEN. Inside there are eight seats and one and a half tables, one is a large circle that takes up most of the spot’s space and other, a little bigger than a school desk, leaned up against the drink cooler. Manager Alice Dan is quick to say China Boy isn’t a restaurant, but a noodle wholesaler that sells some its product made to order. The handwritten menu behind the counter has variations of three dishes: pan‐, noodle crepes and noodle soup

“All we do is make , but they are good so we are busy,” said Dan. “We don’t have a full dining area and we can’t expand anyway because the rent here is very high.”12

Dan is not shy to talk about how they make their noodles because she says it takes 10 years to master and she can’t even make them. She always has a phone in her hand and probably speaks the best English – hence why Dan is always running from the back of house to the front, juggling walk‐in and phone orders. The noodles are made by grinding rice, adding potato starch and steaming the mixture into large sheets that are sold by the bundle. A 10‐sheet bundle is about the size of a small pillow. They sell to about 50

11 Lee, Jennifer 8. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food” 12 Dan, Alice. Personal Interview. restaurants a day, over 1,000 pounds.13 These sheets can be sliced thick or thin and used in a variety of Asian dishes like Thai or Chinese chow fun.

Each dish at China Boy is made to order – meaning the wait may be 30 minutes. The clientele is mixed, but speaking Chinese definitely helps. Michael Edward, a chef at Clyde’s of Gallery Place a couple blocks away, doesn’t speak Chinese, but heard about China Boy via Chowhound and decided to pick up dinner on his way to work. Edward grew up in Seattle where Chinese food was a large part of his upbringing. Jobs have taken him around the country where he always tries to find the best Chinese spots. So far, he hasn’t found a D.C. places he feels matches West Coast Chinese, but says China Boy is some of the best he’s had so far.

The rice noodles are soft, chewy and thick. They stick to one another when dropped in rich beef broth or wrapped around chunks of barbecued pork. The chow fun is enough for two, stir fried with tender slices of chicken, beef or pork, scallions and bean sprouts. It’s evident China Boy only makes one noodle because they only need to make one. Most of the reviews complain about its lack of seating, not food.

“It’s a double‐edged sword, sometimes when people try new things, like new food, it makes them more adventurous. Other times, they just get more comfortable, said Edward. “Look at Chipotle, Shophouse, Cava – all that. Some people are going to go out and explore, getting deeper into Mexican or Vietnamese food, but a lot of people are going to stop there and think they know it.”14

Over noodles, D.C. Chinatown shows its identity crisis. Americanized Chinese food represents a cuisine that is so equally American and Chinese its hardly recognizable or claimed by either side. Here is the visualization of what usually never leaves the kitchen,

13 Dan, Alice. Personal Interview. 14 Edward, Michael. Personal Interview. what’s commonly known as Chinese food has deeply American roots. As more residents continue to move out of Chinatown, the businesses that do cater to a Chinese palette will acquiesce to meet increasing rent.

But Chinatown is not supposed to be this Americanized Chinese. Everywhere else has sweet and sour recipes, but Chinatown is supposed to be the sacred ground of chicken feet, dim sum and jellyfish. That’s the expectation for Chinatown, an adventure where half the joy is not knowing whether the food the waiter is bringing will look like the picture. But this is something that can’t be had both ways. D.C. Chinatown feels like less than what it should be, but really it is exactly what it should be, a mix of Chinese and American cultures that uncomfortably reveals the limits of understanding Chinese culture in America.

Food isn’t the only option anymore. Newer chefs who’s taken to Chinese food aren’t recreating Americanized recipes out of necessity, but of passion for an underrepresented cuisine. Customers, eating for pleasure, not sustenance, want the recipes that were once thought too bold and alien.

Chef Eddie , the man behind ’s Taiwanese pork bun spot Baohaus and food writer Francis Lam discussed this food cultural intersection over Lam’s New York Times article “Cuisines Mastered as Acquired Tastes” about white chefs capitalizing and mastering ethnic food, capitalizing where many immigrants chefs haven’t.15 Huang outlines his philosophy of food as the cultural vehicle he’s used himself: building a platform to write a book : A Memoir, hosting a travel mini‐series of the same name that’s similar to Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and becoming somewhat of a pop cultural icon.

15 Lam, Francis and Huang, Eddie. “Is it Fair for Chefs to Cook Other Cultures’ Foods? “Personally, I lose money every day on on my menu. People come to Baohaus wanting baos, not noodles, but it’s important for me to represent as much Taiwanese food as I can,” said Huang. “Those noodles are an introduction. Everyone knows but they don’t know Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup.”16

Huang, David Chang and Daniel Bowien are all chefs associated with this reformatting of what is accepted Chinese cuisine, what New Yorkers are calling Asian Hipster Cuisine – the name referring more so it clientele than its chefs.17 At the crux of this being Chinese cuisine is becoming desirable – a renewed interest in the recipes America sought to dilute and mute are now welcomed.

D.C. Chinatown may be catching waves of that too. Not only with China Boy and Chinatown Express, but with New Big Wong, a restaurant down the street, in its latest The Washington Post review, the review notes the restaurant is moving away from Americanized Chinese and towards more classic Cantonese. The writer sounded surprised noting some dishes were out of his price range, suggesting there is still more to get past the idea of the $3.95 stigma.18

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