Table of Contents

Introduction 1From Teacups to Dioramas: Objects as Reality 11Opium Dens, Rats and Chop Suey: Fantasy Meets Reality 30Conclusion 61Appendix A: Chinese Export Merchandise 63Appendix B: Chinese Cuisine 67Bibliography 68

Table of Figures

Figure 1: Mining the Kaolin, about 1820, Guangzhou, China; Opaque watercolor on paper, E81592.1....................................................................20Figure 2: Yankee Notions, June 1853; artist unknown................................43Figure 3: Yankee Notions, July 1853; artist unknown.................................43Figure 4: "The Problem Solved, The Great Fear of the Period that Uncle Sam May be Swallowed by Foreigners".......................................................46

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Asia has always been a part of the world that America has viewed with

fascination. At the same time, there is a contradictory approach to this

perception, as the fascination has also been tempered with contempt, a

sense of superiority and racism. Material goods and cuisine are often what

give substance to a culture and as such, provide accessible windows into

the foreign. Both also readily adapt themselves to the increasing consumer-

driven American culture through a combination of both high and low

culture, from priceless artifacts to kitschy souvenirs, exotic banquets to

generic take-out. In this regard, the food and objects of Asia, especially

China, have had mass appeal and through them, the American public has

been able to “see,” “taste,” and then “experience” China.

The topic of how the transition from a passive viewing of images into

a more active consumption of food changed and shaped American

perspectives of China remains unexplored. Most of the literature falls into

two major camps. One group discusses the object side, focusing on the

China trade, and the other, the history of Chinese food in America. The

object literature consists mainly of museum exhibit catalogs, collectors’

guides to porcelain, or the history of the China trade. Such scholarship

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discusses the very long history of trade between the West and China, which

went further back than Marco Polo. This long tradition of trade was

brought to the New World with the establishment of the American colonies

and much of the literature discussed how China exported lots of goods,

some of which were immediately recognizable as Chinese, while others

were Chinese objects made and decorated in a Western style.

The items which were undeniably Chinese usually fell into four

categories: souvenirs, domestic goods for personal use or gifts,

merchandise for resale or items for study. The majority of the object

literature deals with the “curiosities,” personal use and gifts, which is

understandable given the lasting nature of such items.1 Despite the fact

that such goods only accounted for a small portion of the cargo for many

ships, (the bulk of the freight usually consisted of tea), these goods were

more likely to withstand the test of time. Unlike the other cargo The

Empress of China brought back from Canton, the fifty-two chests of

porcelain2 would not rot, decay or disintegrate.3 While porcelain would chip

and break, it and other specialty souvenirs and curiosity items were usually

well-cared for and considered family heirlooms. They provided a more

complete provenance for study4 and were more likely to become part of a

museum exhibit due to their status as treasured belongings. 1 Christina H. Nelson, Directly from China: Export Goods for the American Market,

1784-1930, (Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Salem), 1985, pgs. 16-17.2 Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, The Empress of China, (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Maritime Museum), 1984, pg. 231.3 While the majority of the cargo consisted of more than one thousand chests of tea,

The Empress of China also carried twelve chests of cotton, eight chests and eight bales of Nankeen cloth, and four bales of muslin.

4 Nelson, pg. 17.

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In addition to its lasting nature, many of these specialty items had

colorful and pretty decorations. European traders found these images so

appealing, that owning and decorating with such items became quite a fad.

This trend followed the early English settlers to America, where the

presence of “chinoiserie” and other Chinese export goods came to be a

mark of high class.5 They “influenced what Americans perceived as proper

fare or appropriate decorative accessories, and came to be regarded as

prerequisites of an elegant or even of a comfortable way of life.”6 This

fashion created a market for American-made decorative products imitating

the Chinese style. Chinese forms and shapes were especially popular, as

well as a method called japanning, used to imitate Chinese lacquer ware.7

This influence was not limited to interior decoration. The pagoda motif was

especially prevalent in architecture, which many of the wealthy

incorporated into their homes, gardens, and country estates.8 Many of

these imported items included images of China, its people and landscape.

Porcelain, paintings and even fans were often decorated with such

pictures.9 It would be unlikely for the artists to show the uglier sides of

Chinese society since these items were for export to a Western market. As

5 Raymond G. O’Connor, “Asian Art and International Relations” in America Views China: American Images of China Then and Now, eds. Jonathan Goldstein, Jerry Israel, and Hilary Conroy, (Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 1991), pg. 38.

6 Ellen Paul Denker, After the Chinese Taste: China’s Influence in America, 1730-1930, (Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum of Salem), 1985, pg. ix.

7 Denker, pg. 3.8 Jonathan Goldstein, “Cantonese Artifacts, Chinoiserie, and Early American

Idealization of China” in America Views China: American Images of China Then and Now, eds. Jonathan Goldstein, Jerry Israel, and Hilary Conroy, (Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press, 1991), pg. 48.

9 See Appendix A for examples of export goods. Most are decorated with depictions of China.

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a result, Europeans and early Americans were constantly surrounded by

images of China. Any real understanding they had of the actual country was

filtered through this lens of material culture. The highly idealized and

romanticized imagery led Americans to form rather romantic ideas about

China and they came to view the country and its inhabitants in the same

way.

The West views Asia, and therefore Asians, through a mysterious,

exotic and sensualized lens. This objectification usually manifests itself

through literature, stage and screen and extends towards dealings with

actual people in politics. In the introduction to her book, The Asian

Mystique, Sheridan Prasso gave the example of hearing a man outside her

Hong Kong apartment window chanting. She wrote, “I wanted to indulge

the fantasy that I was witnessing the mystical Asia out the window of my

concrete apartment block” and was highly disappointed to find out the man

was simply collecting scrap metal.10 John Rogers Haddad had a similar

experience, where the reality of China did not match the image he had built

up in his head. In discussing his decision to go to China to teach, he

acknowledged that he “chose China because it was, in a word, romantic.” It

was only after being in the country for a while that he “discovered [China]

was not romantic at all; it had only seemed so from [his] vantage point in

the United States. Instead, China was a country like any other where the

10 Sheridan Prasso, The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient, (New York: Public Affairs), 2005, pg. xii.

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people quietly went about their own business... [and t]he romance of China

had resided entirely in [his] own mind.”11

Despite being well-informed and well educated people of the modern

age, both Haddad and Prasso still fell into the trap of what Edward Said

calls “Orientalism.” The Oxford English Dictionary defines Orientalism as

something that is “Oriental style or quality; the character, customs, etc., of

oriental nations; an oriental trait, feature, or idiom,” or “The representation

of the Orient (esp. the Middle East) in Western academic writing, art, or

literature; spec. this representation perceived as stereotyped or exoticizing

and therefore embodying a colonialistic attitude.”12 It is this latter

definition Said created and which forms the crux of his book, Orientalism.

Although his focus of the Orient is in terms of the Middle East and Islam, his

argument that Orientalism is a Western construct is also very applicable to

the Far East. He wrote that “Asia speaks through and by virtue of the

European imagination, which is depicted as victorious over Asia, that hostile

“other” world beyond the seas.”13 While China, Korea and Japan all

experienced periods of self-imposed isolationism, they still felt the influence

of the West and for most of the interactions in the past several centuries,

“Europe was… in a position of strength… [and] the essential relationship, on

political, cultural, and even religious grounds, was … to be one between a

11 John Rogers Haddad, The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture: 1776-1876, (New York : Columbia University Press), 2007, accessed October 6, 2011, http://www.gutenberg-e.org/haj01/index.html.

12 The Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. “Orientalism,” http://0-www.oed.com.library.simmons.edu/view/Entry/132531?redirectedFrom=orientalism#eid (accessed May 9, 2011).

13 Edward W. Said, Orientalism, (New York: Vintage Books), 1978, pg. 56.

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strong and a weak partner,”14 with the West being the strong one. As such,

the West was given free rein to think of the East however they wished and

more often than not, those views encompassed something that was exotic,

foreign, at times romantic and sensual, but very much “other.” Said wrote

that “strictly speaking, Orientalism is a field of learned study”15 but the

knowledge acquired from this study had given Western scholars and others

a sense of superiority and formed a particular framework with which they

viewed Asia. For Said, the idea of the Orient is a result of the Western

imagination, a world quite distinct from the actual West, though still

connected in some way, like a theater, and just as dramatic. “[A] great deal

of what was considered learned Orientalist scholarship in Europe pressed

ideological myths into service…”16 creating a place that only existed in the

mind’s eye and for the entertainment of the viewer. The America’s

romantic views of China would also fall under this definition.

This theory of Orientalism was very much present throughout all of

America’s interactions with China, and can be seen in how Americans

formed their ideas about that faraway nation based upon the images found

in their home décor, later the food they ate and finally from their

experiences in the different Chinatowns throughout the United States. “The

material culture of Orientalism packaged the mixed interest Americans had

about Asia – Asia as seductive, aesthetic, refined culture and Asia as

foreign, premodern, Other – and made them into unthreatening objects for 14 Said, pg. 40.15 Said, pg. 49.16 Said, pg. 63.

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collection and consumption.”17 They could experience China from the

comforts of their own home, or behind the glass walls of an exhibit in the

many museums that boasted of a Chinese collection. Life-like dioramas and

cases of objects brought back from China were often the source of curiosity

and spectacle. P.T. Barnum made great use of this interest in China when

he “turn[ed a] Chinese woman with bound feet into an entertainment people

would pay to see”18 thus also turning her into a mere object. While the

objectification of Asian people or Asian Americans will not be the focus in

this paper, this example shows the American fascination with the foreign.

In the absence of actual context, Americans built up a highly romanticized

version of Asia through the use of objects, exhibits, news reports, food, and

a great deal of imagination.

Part of the reason for the lack of context was the vast geographic

difference between the two regions. Marco Polo had to travel decades and

cross a dessert to reach China. British and American traders had to sail

around the tips of Africa or South America to reach the same destination, all

of which took several months or more. It is no wonder that “the Orient was

something more than what was empirically known about it,”19 at least to

Westerners. In addition, China had “the peculiarity of being, for the most

17 Mari Yoshihara, Embracing the East: White Women and American Orientalism, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2003, pg. 18.

18 John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American Culture 1776-1882, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press), 1999, pg. 119.

19 Said, pg. 55.

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part… the country supplying most articles of subsistence or luxury,”20 at the

time, and was so far away and difficult to reach, which no doubt fed the

imaginations of the West, who built it up to be this mysterious land full of

wonder. As a result, its trading city of Canton was probably one of the most

popular destinations for overseas merchants, so the Cantonese people, food

and culture, at least the depictions and news reports about them, became

the standard of all things Chinese for Westerners.

Having never been to China or any other part of Asia, from the 18th

through the mid 19th century, Americans came to know the Far East through

the images depicted on objects from the China trade. They believed the

goods from the China trade were “authentic,” in the sense that the Chinese

used the same items in their own homes, despite the fact that most were

made expressly for exporting to Western nations. “This direct exposure to

the visual art and crafts of China gave Americans their first and, for many,

their only knowledge of that distant land.”21 The general public had no

means to travel to such far-flung locales, so they let their imaginations take

them instead and as a result, “…fondly associated their cups and saucers

with the romance of deft-sailing vessels, epic voyages through storms and

prate-infested waters, and distant Canton, the great Far Eastern emporium

known for its strange people, novel sights, beautiful views, and unusual

smells.”22 These commodities served as a representation of faraway places,

20 United States Centennial Commission, Official Catalogue Complete in One Volume, (Philadelphia: J. R. Nagle and Company), 1876, pg. 231.

21 O’Connor, pg. 38.22 Haddad, The Romance of China: Excursions to China in U.S. Culture: 1776-1876,

accessed October 6, 2011, http://www.gutenberg-e.org/haj01/index.html.

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where for a price, anyone could experience just a taste of something foreign

and exotic.

The meeting of East and West in the 19th century was, for a majority

of the American public, quite a shock. What they expected was what they

had seen every day on their dinner plates, tea sets, porcelain vases, silk

screens and colorful paintings; a colorful, exotic, quaint and highly romantic

people and civilization. The romance of Orientalism “assumed an

unchanging Orient, absolutely different…from the West,”23 but the reality

was much darker, poorer, dirty, gritty, and on the whole, a major

disappointment, much like Prasso’s experience in Hong Kong. Some

scholars have attributed the forced reality of China to photography.

Following the forced European opening of various ports, “[t]ourists and

news photographers thronged a widely opened China and snapped scenes

that denied the earthly paradise pictured on saleable decorative artifacts.”24

While this may have been true for some, only the very wealthy had the

means and opportunity to travel abroad and the photographs did not

necessarily reach the general American public. In addition, photography

could also be used to perpetuate the romance.

Photography can be a highly subjective art, where the photographer

picks and chooses the subject. It is doubtful American tourists travelled far

enough off the beaten track to see and capture the life of an average

Chinese citizen on film. In his text accompanying Arnold Genthe’s 23 Said, pg. 96.24 Goldstein, “Cantonese Artifacts, Chinoiserie, and Early American Idealization of

China,” pg. 51.

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photographs of San Francisco’s Chinatown, John Kuo Wei Tchen observed

that most of the photographs are of children and Chinese celebrations,

particularly, the New Year, which is the most important and therefore,

colorful and flamboyant of all the Chinese festivals and holidays. Chen

speculated that Genthe was giving potential customers what they wanted:

the idea of a true Chinese city inside a modern American one, a “Canton of

the West.” The problem was, however that “…this ideal ‘pure’ Chinese

quarter never existed, except in the imagination of its non-Chinese

nonresidents.”25 The smack of reality about China would have to be much

more widespread, grander in scale, and personal to drastically change the

perspective of the American public.

In the late 19th century, Chinese immigrants flooded California,

particularly San Francisco, at first chasing the dream of the Golden

Mountain with the discovery of gold and the gold rush, and later, lured by

promises of fat paychecks working the railroad. Almost all were men and

manual laborers. For many Americans, these newcomers did not have any

resemblance to the Chinese people they “knew.” They were rough,

backward, opium addicted men who dressed like women with long hair and

feminine-like robes, spoke a language totally incomprehensible to Western

ears, and believed in silly superstitions. A small sector of the American

public, however, was able to retain their ideas of a romantic China. Though

the new immigrants might have been a bit of a disappointment, Sinophiles 25 John Kuo Wei Tchen in Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown,

selection and text by John Kuo Wei Tchen, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1984), pgs. 13-14.

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now had the opportunity to experience China in a wholly new and different

way, and not only that, this new prospect was much, much closer to home.

Going to Chinatown was like travelling to China itself, “an exotic, foreign

community, populated with colorful characters and adorable children amid

curious sights.”26 For these people, it was as if those still images from their

décor at home had come to life, and while it may not have been as pretty

and pristine as what was on their plate at home in the cupboard, “reality”

was much more exciting. As mentioned previously, many saw Chinatowns

as “Canton[s] of the West,” though the brighter, fairy-tale like romance

melded together with the darker sensationalism of opium dens, brothels and

gang fights.27 These neighborhoods were “characterized as simultaneously

a romantic, melodramatic, wicked, and dangerous place, full of decadence,

evil, and disease. Paid guides offered to take the curious to the darkest

spots of the quarter. For outsiders, Chinatown was perceived as an escape

from the humdrum. It was a quick vacation.”28

Chinatowns around the country, particularly those in San Francisco

and New York, in actuality had more in common with the European ghettoes

than any city back in China, with new immigrants living and forming

segregated communities. Like many other immigrants, the newly arrived

Chinese faced persecution which blocked them from entering certain

industries, such as farming or fishing.29 The dwindling streams of gold and

26 Tchen in Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown, pg. 13.27 Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?: The Chinese in New York 1800-

1950, (Teaneck, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press), 1997, pg. 112.28 Tchen in Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown, pg. 19.29 Tchen in Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown, pg. 5.

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the influx of European immigrants did not help growing racial tensions. The

Chinese faced increased persecution, for unlike their European

counterparts, they were obviously too different from the American public to

fully assimilate. Their answer to all of these difficulties was to form

Chinatowns, which would serve as protection from the racism around them

and could allow enterprising immigrants to conduct business in the way

they saw fit.30 In spite of all the struggles, immigrant Chinese still

attempted to make themselves as at home in the new land as possible.

That, of course, included replicating, to the best of their ability, the cuisine.

Food is very important in Chinese culture and considered a form of art.31

All holidays, festivals, and practically every major event in an individual’s

life, (births, weddings and funerals) involved food and celebrations in

banquet halls.32 Due to the inability to enter other industries, many Chinese

immigrants turned to the restaurant business, which in turn became one of

the major draws of the Chinatown tourist industry.33

Those disillusioned with China, however, were quick to criticize the

cuisine. “[W]hat struck [them as most] unnerving was how these strangers

ate. They cooked meats and vegetables of mysterious origins and strange

textures, often cut up into itty-bitty pieces, or mashed and doused with

30 Peter Kwong, The New Chinatown, (New York: Hill and Wang), 1996, pg. 13.31 Iris Chang, The Chinese in America: a Narrative History, (New York: Viking), 2003, pg. 47.32 Franklin Ng, “Food and Culture: Chinese Restaurants in Hawai’i,” in Chinese

America: History & Perspectives – The Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America, (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America with UCLA Asian American Studies Center), 2010, pg. 118.

33 Joann Lee, “The Origins of Chop Suey” in Rice, (June 1988), pg. 53.

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exotic sauces”34 and to make matters worse, ate things most Americans

would not touch with a ten foot pole, much less consider edible. The

unfamiliar dishes did not help the rising racial tensions. It was quite an

easy jump to make the connection that as evidenced by their daily diet and

what they considered delicacies, the Chinese were no better than the

vermin they supposedly ate and should be treated as such. For, as many

Americans thought, nobody in their right mind would eat the foods these

foreigners did. This idea served to further the opinion that there was

something inherently wrong with the race as a whole.35

Many Americans, on the other hand, felt they now had the opportunity

to literally have their “taste” of China. And just as Americans believed the

China trade cargo to be “authentic,” they also believed the food they ate at

Chinese restaurants to be “authentic” as well. This was authentic Chinese

food made by real Chinese people. It was new, exotic, and something they

could try “for the adventure and so they could tell their neighbors back

home about it.”36 Eating an exotic Chinese dish served as entertainment or

example of their own cosmopolitanism. Ultimately, it was all about the

experience, which culminated in the food. Before, China was all in the

imagination, aided by the household objects from the China trade. Now,

34 Jennifer 8. Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, (New York: Twelve, 2008), pg. 52.

35 Stuart Creighton Miller, “The Chinese Image in the Eastern United States, 1785-1882,” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1966), pg. 71.

36 Andrew Coe, Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States, (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2009, pg. 130.

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they could actively participate, engaging all five senses. The food made it

that much more real.

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From Teacups to Dioramas: Objects as Reality

Following the success of the American Revolution, the new nation did

not hesitate in sending out its first international trade mission, with the

launching of The Empress of China from New York Harbor in 1784. Her

destination: the city of Canton, now Guangzhou, China. The ship was

originally supposed to leave from the nation’s temporary capitol city of

Philadelphia, but due to the Delaware River’s habit of freezing early and

thawing late and investors’ worries about arriving in Canton on schedule to

make the most of the trading season, New York was chosen as the better

launching city.37 Part of the hurry to establish trade relations was due to

the fact that the former colonies, after throwing off the mother country, no

longer had a permanent British market for their goods, such as the West

Indies, nor the protection of mercantilism. On top of that, many domestic

markets were disappearing, such as cod, due to overfishing. Despite the

drawbacks, the new nation had much to gain and no longer had to deal with

middlemen to obtain the goods they wanted and could establish trade

relations with other countries directly.38 Instead of having to resort to the

black market or paying the prices set by the British East India Company,

Americans could now acquire their Asian luxuries, such as tea, legally and

for cheaper prices. In this way, China was very much seen as a sort of

storehouse, merely a place where clever investors can make their fortunes

and bring back goods.

37 Smith, pg. 4.38 Smith, pg. 13.

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As such, there was a great cause for celebration when The Empress of

China arrived back in New York in 1785, about a year after its departure,

laden with all sorts of luxury from far-away China. Most of the ship’s cargo

consisted of tea, though she also brought back silk women’s gloves, silk

yardage, cotton, Nankeens – a study cotton fabric named after the city of

Nanjing where it was manufactured, Chinese cinnamon, porcelain, and all

sorts of home decorations for Robert Morris, one of the primary investors.

His part of the cargo consisted of hand-painted wallpaper, paper borders,

lacquered fans, dressing box, glass, porcelain, silk window blinds with

bamboo, and more. A second trip brought back a silver tea chest, paper

and silk fans, and mother of pearl mounted fans. 39 Following its arrival in

New York, the cargo was split up and transported to all of the major cities,

where the arrival of the goods was highly anticipated. The New York

Dispatch wrote on May 19, 1785, “A report has prevailed for some days

past, that The Empress of China was to deliver her cargo at Philadelphia –

From certain information, we can assure the citizens that she is to unload

her rich cargo of teas, silks, china, Nankeens, &c. here; by which the city

and country will be supplied with those articles on moderate terms.”40

From May 1785 until July, stores continuously ran advertisements for

the goods from The Empress of China in New York newspapers, with many

of them repeating several times within the course of those months. Some of

39 Jonathan Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846: Commercial, Cultural, and Attitudinal Effects, (University Park, PA.: The Pennsylvania State University Press), 1978, pg. 30. For examples of such items, see Appendix A, images #1 and #2.

40 New York Dispatch, May 19, 1785 in Smith, pg. 228.

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the stores included Constable, Rucker & Co, at 39 Great Dock Street for

gunpowder, hyson, souchong, singlo and bohea teas, chinaware, silk, muslin

& nankeen, C. Livingston at 13 Great Dock Street for silk, satin, lute

strings, etc., Josiah Shippey & Co at 43 Little Dock Street for hyson t,

breakfast & tea sets, china bowls, salad dishes, silk, India silk

handkerchiefs, satin vests & breeches, embroidered Nankeens, bamboo

walking sticks, etc. and many others.41 Philadelphia received its share of

the cargo by boat on June 8, 1785, which consisted of more than one

thousand chests of tea, twelve chests of cotton, eight chests and three bales

of nankeen, four bales muslin, and fifty-two chests of porcelain. Five

additional bales of nankeen arrived by stagecoach.42

After the success of The Empress of China, many more ships followed,

travelling the oceans heading for Canton and bringing back the luxuries the

people craved. America’s primary imports from China were tea, “China

ware, nankins, and silks.”43 This trend continued even into the mid 1800s,

where, according to the commission for the nation’s centennial celebration,

“The principal exports are tea, porcelain, ran and spun silk, sugar, rhubarb,

embroidery, lacquered wares, and carved articles of domestic ornament.”44

In the official catalogue for the Centennial, the Commission also stated that

“[t]he total value of commodities exported from China, in 1865, reached the

figure of $173,609,085…” and of “the exports, tea is the chief, showing a

41 Smith, pg. 228.42 Smith, pg. 231.43 Robert Bennet Forbes, Remarks on China and the China Trade, (Boston: Samuel

N. Dickinson, printer), 1844, pg. 26. 44 United States Centennial Commission, pg. 231-232.

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totally quantity of 223,679,182 pounds shipped. The export of raw silk for

the same year aggregated 40,726 bales, and of cotton, 35,855,792

pounds.”45 With the large amounts of imports coming from China feeding

the vast consumption of the American people, the country itself became

synonymous with its products. China was no longer just a far away,

mystical country. People could now own a little bit of “China” and imagine

themselves in that distant land whenever they looked at whatever item they

bought from the trade. This attitude was very possessive and materialistic,

and perhaps also led Americans to be very possessive of the ideas and

notions of China as well.

Tea was by far the most popular import from China, especially due to

its important place in society. A leftover from colonial times, drinking tea

was the epitome of good society and served as a means to build community,

since everyone sat down together to drink and chat.46 As a result, the

various types of tea leaves generally made up the primary cargo for most

ships. Robert Waln Jr., describes in 1820 the ubiquitous place of tea in

society and how people of all socioeconomic background and social status

could now enjoy a taste of the luxury that previously only the wealthy could

afford.

“The Trade from China to the United States has been a prolific source of emolument to our merchants and revenue to the government. The articles of which it is composed have now become more incorporated with the necessaries, in actual use, an importance almost

45 United States Centennial Commission, pg. 232.46 Tchen, New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American

Culture 1776-1882, pg. 10.

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equivalent to that of bread: there are few families in our country, however humble their situation, which would not be greatly inconvenienced by a deprivation of this exhilarating beverage [tea]; the various species of the Tea Plate fortunately afford a corresponding variety of qualities, so that, notwithstanding the enormous import-duties, certain kinds are procurable at a low rate by the poorer classes of society…”47

In addition to tea itself, the importance of tea time also created the need to

have all of the proper accoutrements associated with drinking and serving

tea which included teacups, pots, caddies, tables, chairs, and even tea

dresses. Teatime also served as a time to socialize with friends and

neighbors while subtly or not so subtly displaying all of the expensive nice

dishware and wealth in a polite setting. In that regard, Waln wrote that tea-

drinking

“…was beneficially employed in supplying the continent with the products of China, not only be re-exportations from America, but direct transportation from Canton; the consumption of silks & nankins was gradually extended…the Porcelain of China…became exclusively employed by the higher & middle ranks; even the poorest families could boast at least a limited proportion of China Ware, and although it should require the united exertions of the family to effect the object, few young girls, at the present day, enter into the marriage state, without contributing their respective China Ware Tea Setts to the general concern.”48

Having a good tea set and chinaware was a status symbol and considered a

significant part of a dowry, just the same as having good quality linens.

Many of the tea cups were also made in the traditional Chinese manner,

47 Robert Waln, Jr., Waln Papers, “China: Comprehending a View of the Origin, Antiquity, History,…” The Library Company of Philadelphia, in Jean McClure, Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain for the American Trade 1785-1835, Second Edition revised, (Newark: University of Delaware Press), 1981, pg. 145.

48 Waln, in Mudge, pg. 146.

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without any handles. In this manner, a hostess with such a tea set could

invite her guests to join her in taking tea the Chinese way and imagine

themselves in a place much more romantic than the front parlor.

Aside from tea and tea-related objects, cloth, porcelain and various

household items were also a part of China trade cargoes, though porcelain

only consisted of 1% of the dollar value per year up until 1839, and other

items even less.49 Nevertheless, Americans enjoyed decorating their houses

with imported goods. It is estimated by the late 1700s, about one quarter of

all American household decorations and furnishings came from China as a

direct result of trade. This was especially true of houses in the Eastern port

cities. Boston and Salem houses had about ten to twenty percent of their

household items come from China and Philadelphia probably had a number

close to that. The houses on Walnut Street in Philadelphia were known not

only for their wealth but for their Chinese aesthetic as well.50 And it is no

wonder, that all of these cities were heavily involved in the China trade. By

decorating their homes with imported furnishings, owners could use their

houses as showcases to their wealth and turn their living spaces into

escapes and retreats from the ordinary.

An extreme example of this was Andreas Everardus van Braam

Houckgeest’s country estate, “China Retreat” in Croyden, Pennsylvania,

built in 1796 and demolished in 1970. Houckgeest was a Dutch-American

merchant who was most notable as being a member of the last Dutch

49 Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846, pg. 7.50 Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846, pg. 2.

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embassy to China under the old tributary system.51 He was a great collector

and lover of all things Chinese, and his estate was a testament to that

interest. The entire estate, from furnishings to architecture and landscape,

incorporated some aspect of China and Houckgeest even went so far as to

have Chinese servants. As Moreau de Saint-Méry described it, “The

furniture, ornaments, everything at Mr. Van Braam’s reminds us of China.

It is impossible to avoid fancying ourselves in China, while surrounded at

once by living Chinese, and by representations of their manners, their

usages, their monuments, and their arts.”52 By recreating China,

Houckgeest, could imagine himself back in that country, escaping from the

hustle and bustle of life in Philadelphia. The estate was also a

demonstration of his wealth in having the ability and capacity to create this

retreat and bring back with him so many luxuries and even Chinese

servants.

Most people did not have the ability to create their own China

retreats, though the more established member of society attempted to do so

as much as they could in their own homes. While some household

furnishings were distinctly Chinese in style and decoration, others were

harder to differentiate since many wealthier merchants also commissioned

for goods rendered in the Western style.53 Most of the imports from China

51 Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846, pg. 74.52 Quoted in Harold Eberlein and Cortlandt Hubbard, Portrait of a Colonial City

Philadelphia: 1670-1838, (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1939), pg. 478 from Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846, pg. 75.

53 Carl L. Crossman, The China Trade: Export Paintings, Furniture Silver & Other Objects, (Princeton, NJ: The Pyne Press. 1972), pg. xi.

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could be categorized into four groups: souvenirs and “curiosities,” domestic

goods bought by merchants for personal use or gifts, goods for bigger

market, mostly resale by merchants, and exposition items brought back for

study.54 The majority of the porcelain was often generic and sold to the

general public, the “curiosities” and items the merchants bought for their

family and friends were often quite luxurious and probably the most

treasured by their owners and families.55 Many of these pieces that would

eventually make their way into museums and instead of being displayed to

only a small select group of people, allowed others who could not afford

such luxury a chance to create their own fantasies of life in China.

Robert Bennet Forbes, made his fortune from the China trade, along

with many other of the most prominent members of New England society.

In the letters he wrote to his wife during his travels and stay in China, he

included descriptions of items he bought to resell as well as personal gifts

to her, friends and family. In a letter written Monday January 28, 1839, he

confessed:

“I committed a great piece of extravagance in buying $25 worth of china such as the Chinese have themselves in rich homes – some of the china is superb – the 10 cups one within another – cast 2 ¼ dollars – there is a waiter of plates which I think are very handsome the six large cost 3 ¼ the six small 2 ¾ for the size – There are ten sets of dishes – one of 4 & one of more the latter all match together, that is they fit together & make one large dish with compartments for different kinds of fruits or sweetmeats – the 6 bowls & saucers cost on 1.50…I

54 Nelson, pg. 16 & 17.55 Nelson, pg. 17 & Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846, pg. 37.

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thought these things would do to distribute very sparingly among your most attentive friends…”56

For many Americans, such as Robert Bennet Forbes and Houckgeest, Asian

imports, especially those of a certain quality, were a signature of wealth and

power.57 They served as an indication that the family or individual had

enough money to buy or commission the luxury items as well as ship them

back, or pay to have someone do it for them. By providing his wife with

enough extra not-so-nice dishware to give to friends, Forbes was

proclaiming his wealth and status as a merchant to their acquaintances.

Many higher quality items were also more cheaply available in China and

there was a certain status associated with owning items from such a far off

place.

In addition to supplying Americans with luxury items to display their

wealth to friends and family, the imported goods also enabled them to own

a little bit of the exotic and imagine a world beyond their own. In Louisa

May Alcott’s novel Eight Cousins, Rose Campbell’s Uncle Alec took her on a

“Trip to China.” Set in New England, Uncle Alec, naturally, did not actually

take Rose to China, but rather to see her Uncle Mac at his warehouse, who

“has a ship just in from Hong Kong.”58 At the warehouse, she met a boy

named Fun See who “was delightfully Chinese from his junk-like shoes to

the button on his pagoda hat; for he had got himself up in style, and was a

56 Forbes, Letters from China, pg. 91.57 Tchen, New York before Chinatown: Orientalism and the Shaping of American

Culture 1776-1882, pg. 7.58 Louisa May Alcott, “Chapter VII. A Trip to China” in Eight Cousins; or, The Aunt-

Hill. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1875, pgs. 74-75.

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mass of silk jackets and slouchy trousers.” Fun See’s companion, Mr.

Whang-Lo, however was met with disappointment due to his adoption of

American clothing and ability to speak English, so much so that “Rose

considered him a failure.” 59 Rose had a very clear idea of what was

Chinese and what was not, but how is this possible, since she had never

stepped foot in China or met a Chinese person before? The only logical

explanation is that like so many other Americans of that time and in times

before, she obtained her knowledge though the means most available to

her: the items brought back as a result of the China trade, or more

particularly, the images on the items, which Americans believed to depict

the reality of China.

Rose, dismissed Mr. Whang-Lo because he did not fit into her idea of

what a Chinese person should look like or how such a person should act and

focused instead on Fun See. And even then, he was more an object to be

stared and laughed at, than an actual human being. Rose found him

“queer” and described him as looking “as if he had walked out of one of the

rice-paper landscapes on the wall, and sat nodding at her so like a toy

Mandarin that she could hardly keep sober.”60 Her points of reference in

regards to Fun See were a painting and a toy, both, no doubt items that

have been brought back as a result of a trip to China. Instead of seeing the

painting and toy as representative of the person, for Rose, it was the

59 Alcott, pg. 75-76.60 Alcott, pg. 76.

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opposite. The person was the representative of the object and so he

became an object himself, albeit a living, breathing one.

On the way home following her visit, Rose stated, “I feel as if I had

really been to China, and I’m sure I look so,”61 as if being surrounded by

Chinese objects replaced the experience of actually travelling there. Alcott

goes on to emphasize how the objects acted as a kind of magical transport

by stating, “She [Rose] certainly did, for Mr. Whang Lo had given her a

Chinese umbrella; Uncle Alec had got some lanterns to light up her balcony;

the great fan lay in her lap, and the tea-set reposed at her feet.”62 By

acquiring items from China, Rose took a little bit of the exotic home with

her and through her imagination and with the help of the imported goods,

she was able to transport herself from her uncle’s warehouse to the Far

East. In addition to obtaining a respite from daily life, Rose also found her

time at the warehouse educational.

“This is not a bad way to study geography, is it?” asked her uncle, who had observed her attention to the talk. “It is a very pleasant way, and I really think I have learned more about China to-day than in all the lessons I had at school, though I used to rattle off the answers as fast as I could go. No one explained anything to us, so all I could remember is that tea and silk come from there…”63

Rose’s education, however, was only on a very limited basis. She

learned about different kinds of tea and saw some of the kinds of things that

China manufactures for export, but she had not really learned anything new

about the country or its people outside of her Western perspective. If 61 Alcott, pg. 80.62 Alcott, pg. 80.63 Alcott, pg. 80-81.

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anything, her excursion reinforced previous perceptions, as seen with her

comparisons of Fun See to a toy. Like so many others, Rose’s primary

association with China came from the imports brought home by merchants

and had very little to do with the reality of the common people there. As the

objects came directly from its place of origin, people believed the depictions

on the merchandise to be entirely accurate. China and its people became

the representations of the imported objects instead of being the source

since any visual information people about the country came from images on

trade goods.

Many Americans of the time shared Rose’s views and experiences

with Chinese imports. In his book about the major countries of the world,

Samuel Griswold Goodrich wrote that

“[t]hough the Chinese have systematically excluded foreigners from their country, the prying eye of curiosity has discovered most of their peculiarities, and with these the world at large have been made acquainted. Every one is familiar with their dress, personal appearance, and aspect of their houses, from the drawings on their porcelain.”64

George Washington himself, in a letter to his aide-de-camp, Tench

Tilghman, admitted that “from my reading, or rather from an imperfect

recollection of what I had read, I conceived an idea that the Chinese, tho'

droll in shape and appearance, were yet white.”65 He seemed surprised that

64 Samuel Griswold Goodrich, Manners and Customs of the Principal Nations of the Globe, (Boston: Bradbury, Soden and Co.), 1845, pg. 342-343.

65 Letter from George Washington to Tench Tilghman, August 29, 1785, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799, American Memory Collection, accessed November 15, 2011, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mgw:@field%28DOCID+@lit%28gw280175%29%29.

Leung 27

this was not so. It is doubtful the books Washington read concerning China

had colored illustrations, so most likely the images of Chinese people on

porcelain influenced his mental image of Chinese people, causing him to

believe the depictions reflected reality. As proof of what China is like in

actuality, images on porcelain make a rather poor picture since all

decorative items are supposed to be pretty and pleasing to the eye,

providing a very one sided and overly positive representative of life in

China. For many Americans however, this was the easiest way for them to

access China, since the majority of the population could not afford the trip,

and not everyone had access to the literature. And even so, the information

found in the writings could be false, but having a physical object created

and decorated by people from the actual country gave credence to the truth

of the representation.

This painting is a very good example of some the highly idealized

images Americans saw on Chinese export merchandise.

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Figure 1: Mining the Kaolin, about 1820, Guangzhou, China; Opaque watercolor on paper, E81592.1

The painting is very colorful and almost bucolic in nature, showing men

going about their work, seemingly with ease, on a beautiful day where the

sky is bright and blue. What is most interesting about this picture is the

pristine nature of the entire image. Despite depicting a mining scene, there

is not a speck of dust, soot or grime to be found. The workers are all

scrupulously clean and properly and fully clothed and the roads are clear,

with even some grass along the edges. Mining is generally known to be

very hard and dirty work, but this painting would seem to suggest

otherwise. With images such as this one, it is not surprising that many

Americans believed China to be akin to a fantasyland, where even the

dirtiest and most difficult work can be done with ease, joy and cleanliness.

Image courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

Leung 29

In her guide to collecting chinaware, Alice Morse Earle described the

flights of fancy her imagination often took when thinking about porcelain.

In discussing a particular vase, she wrote how she had created “an Arabian

Nights romance of astonishing plot and fancy, in which a gallant Yankee

sailor, a hideous Arabian merchant, and a black-eyed, gauze-robed houri fill

the lead parts” 66 around it. This elaborate narrative about a vase seems a

bit ridiculous and over the top and yet many others probably had similar

reactions on seeing some of the admittedly, very beautifully decorated

porcelain, fans and other items brought back from China. By creating such

a story in her mind about the vase, Earle allowed herself to consider the

possibility that such a tale, or something similar, could in fact, be true.

After all, she had never been to China and fantastical things could very well

occur that would not be realistic in “staid New England.” Seeing such items

and allowing herself to daydream about the history or origins of them

provided an escape from the everyday.

Earle’s interactions with Chinese imports, like Rose, also enabled her

imagination to transport her elsewhere or to become something she was

not. In discussing the various stamps and marks that are often found on

Chinese porcelain, Earle wrote that “I was highly delighted, and indeed very

proud, when I discovered the meaning of these Chinese letters. I tried to

fancy that it was a significant coincidence – a friendly message from the old

world to the new – that pointed out that I too belonged to what is in China

66 Alice Morse Earle, China Collecting in America, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1892), pg. 193.

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the ruling class, the literati.”67 Understanding the Chinese characters gave

Earle a sense of accomplishment and enabled her to relate to what she

imagined to be the Chinese elite, despite the fact that the “letters” she

could understand were mere marks and stamps and not scholarly works in

the least. Earle displayed her ignorance, and to a certain extent, arrogance

in claiming the same standing as Chinese scholars when she knew and

understood so little of the language. She elevated herself in her own

imagination and inflated her ego with her meager knowledge in calling the

characters letters and thinking that knowing these few characters

constituted being a part of the Chinese literati. With her imagination, Earle

“equat[ed] the Orient with private fantasy, even if that fantasy was of a very

high order indeed, aesthetically speaking.”68

Travel writings, such as Osmond Tiffany’s The Canton Chinese, or The

American’s Sojourn in the Celestial Empire, with its descriptions of the

Chinese countryside did not aid in providing a more realistic depiction of

China either. While Tiffany did mention some of the poverty and existence

of beggars amongst the population, his emphasis was more on how the art

of the Chinese exports were true to life, perpetuating an image of a

romantic China. When describing the paintings of export artists, he wrote,

“nothing can exceed the splendor of the colors employed in representing

the trades, occupations, life, ceremonies, religions, &c. of the Chinese,

which all appear in perfect truth in these productions….[T]hese are all …

67 Earle, pg. 193.68 Said, pg. 176.

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true to nature and custom, he who studies them has a better opportunity of

seeing things as they actually exist in China, than if he stayed there ten

years, for he would miss half of them.”69

How Tiffany came to know about Chinese ceremonies and daily life is

not stated, though his knowledge is suspect, since during his time in China,

as a foreigner, he would have been restricted to the trading city of Canton

and a handful of its suburbs. On visiting the home of a tea merchant,

Tiffany wrote “We thus learned that the extraordinary representation on

porcelain and lac[quer] ware were not fictitious creations, but faithful

realities.”70 He was quite impressed with this particular merchant’s home,

which was full of bridges and ponds, but again, this was only one small part

of reality. The villa was obviously owned by a prominent merchant in

Canton, not the average shopkeeper. Being able to afford such a lavish

home, this merchant probably had influence and power, yet Tiffany chose to

focus upon this wealth and prominence as the basis for his “reality,” not the

beggars or average citizen, again reinforcing the exotic and romantic views

of China. Like Rose, he also failed to give credence to his observations in

China as being the “reality,” but rather switches the source of reality

around to his knowledge from paintings and imports he has seen back in

America. For Tiffany, the imports are the “reality” and the actual reality of

Asia as a place instead became “a theatrical stage affixed to Europe.” This

China described by Tiffany and imagined by so many Americans was fake 69 Osmond Tiffany, The Canton Chinese, or The American’s Sojourn in the Celestial

Empire, (Boston: James Munroe and Company), 1849, pg 84-85. 70 Tiffany, pg. 167.

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and only present for the purpose of entertainment, an “unlimited extension

beyond the familiar European world.”71 It had no existence outside the

scope of Western thought and imagination, and this fantasy had great

appeal as seen through the imported wares.

Museum exhibits expanded the American’s imagination on China

through elaborate displays. American access to Chinese imported goods

was no longer restricted to what they could buy and show in their own

homes. Museums showcased the collections of some of the more prominent

collectors of Chinese artifacts, which were open to the public and reached a

wider audience. Since they had access to more material, these exhibits

were better able to bring the China of the people’s imaginations to life

through dioramas and models of life in the Far East. One of the reasons

behind such exhibits, was most likely a result of some the philosophies

concerning the purpose of museums at the time. According to Luigi Palma

di Cesnola of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, “when it is

recognized that teaching is better done by object than by word, that the

thing becomes better known by studying itself than by reading or mastering

a description, the Museum, in some degree is indispensable.”72 The

museum, is supposed to provide a means of study that would better enhance

an individual’s knowledge of a topic and act as a supplementary resource in

conjunction to reading. “The purpose, then, of the Museum, is to furnish

71 Said, pg. 63.72 Luigi Palma di Cesnola, “An Address on the Practical Value of the American

Museum,” excerpt, Troy, NY: The Stowell Printing House, 1887, in Hugh H. Genoways and Mary Anne Andre, eds., Museum Origins: Readings in Early Museum History and Philosophy, (Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press Inc.), 2008, pg. 52.

Leung 33

such an object-library and lecture room as can be had in other way. It is to

be the silent but sure instructor of the casual visitor, while it entertains and

delights him.”73

Nathan Dunn, a former China trade merchant, opened his Chinese

Collection to Philadelphia’s public in 1839. A great collector of chinaware

and all things China, Dunn “happily conceived the idea of transporting to

his native shores, every thing that was characteristic or rare, whether in the

natural history, or the natural and artificial curiosities and manufactures, no

matter how costly they might be.”74 Like Houckgeest, Dunn also had his

own retreat dedicated to his collection of Chinese artifacts, Chinese

Cottage, at his estate in Mt. Holly, New Jersey which he built in 1832.75

Upon arriving home in Philadelphia, he chose to organize and present his

collection for the public, displaying “those rare and costly articles

constituting his collection: how many of these are perfect novelties even to

thousands who have visited China, let those decide who may soon have the

opportunity of doing so…”76 In order to attract visitors, Dunn promised to

show the public new items far more luxurious and awe-inspiring that they

have previously seen or even own. The main draw, then, was not

necessarily to educate, but to create enough of a display, a spectacle that

the public would pay money to see.

73 Cesnola in Genoways, pg. 5374 Benjamin Silliman, “N. Dunn’s Chinese Collection at Philadelphia, communicated” in

The American journal of science: the first scientific journal in the United States : devoted to the geological sciences and to related fields, Volume 35 (January 1839), pg. 393.

75 Goldstein, Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846, pg. 74.76 Silliman, pg. 393.

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As the mere presence of chinaware had lost its ability to create a

sense of wonderment, most likely due to the increase in manufacture of

American and European porcelain, Dunn gave his visitors to his museum a

spectacular exhibition. It was filled with treasures from a far-off land,

which invited patrons to gaze in awe and admiration and imagine

themselves in a different place, all without leaving the comforts of their own

country and familiar surroundings. Enoch Cobb Wines wrote:

“It is no longer necessary to measure half the circuit of the globe, and subject one’s self to the hazard and privations of a six months’ voyage on distant and dangerous seas, to enjoy a peep at the Celestial Empire. This is a gratification which may now be enjoyed by the citizens of Philadelphia, for the trouble of walking to the corner of Ninth and Sansom streets, and by the citizens of other parts of the United States, at no greater peril of life and limb than is connected with locomotion by means of our own steamboats and railroads.”77

Instead of having to spend a year or more traveling to China and back,

Dunn brought China home to masses. They did not have to experience the

dangers of travelling great distances across the ocean, or be subjected to

the rules that governed foreigners in Canton. Visitors could come and go as

they pleased, and view the imports at their own leisure, without any

restrictions. And while the public might have wanted to escape their daily

routine for several hours, they could easily return to the comforts of the

familiar by simply stepping out the door.

77 Enoch Cobb Wines, Nathan Dunn, Peale’s Museum (Philadelphia, PA). A Peep at China in Mr. Dunn’s Chinese Collection, with Miscellaneous Notices Relating to the Institutions and Customs of the Chinese, and Our Commercial Intercourse with Them, (Philadelphia: Printed for Nathan Dunn), 1839.

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Nathan Dunn was not the only person to create a public exhibit

featuring goods from China. On September 8, 1845, John Peters Jr., opened

“The Great Chinese Museum” also known as the Chinese Museum in

Boston. Even though it was only open for a short time until February 6,

1847, before travelling to Philadelphia the exhibit attracted many visitors

and was one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts at the time.78

According to the Boston Atlas, within the first ten days of opening, the

Chinese Museum had approximately 6,000 visitors, and by the next month,

10,000 visitors.79 The museum was so popular that the price of admission

alone, was able to fund the museum for about a year and a half.80

In addition to providing an escape from daily life for a few hours, the

exhibit, like Nathan Dunn’s, sought to educate its visitors about Chinese

society, manufacture, daily life and customs, presenting the Chinese as an

almost equal to America, at least through its official catalogue. One of the

main reasons for this more enlightened approach was due to the Wanghia

Treaty, signed on July 3, 1844. The treaty was the first official trade

agreement between the two countries, and naturally, the government and

merchants of the China trade wanted the people’s support. This political

slant is not surprising as Peters was a member of the party, led by the

commissioner and United States Ambassador Caleb Cushing, to negotiate

78 Ronald J. Zboray and Mary Saracino Zboray. "Between "Crockery-Dom" and Barnum: Boston's Chinese Museum, 1845-47" American Quarterly ( June 2004), pg. 271.

79 "The Chinese Museum Is Attracting Crowds," Boston Atlas, September 19, 1845; "The People Continue to Rock," Boston Atlas, October 4 , 1845 in Zboray, pg. 285.

80 Zboray, pg. 285.

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the treaty with China.81 Peters had an invested interest in the success of

the trade agreement and wanted to reinforce the idea of the treaty being a

good thing. By presenting the Chinese in as positive a manner as possible,

he wanted to show the American people the kinds of exotic, luxurious

material that could be brought to America. Peters wanted to convey the idea

that the Chinese would be acceptable trade partners and the goods they

would provide would be more in quantity and of better quality.82

Even though this may have been one of the main aims of Peters,

whether or not the message was clear to the attending public is a different

matter. For many, the museum was merely an amusement to entertain and

nothing more. With its displays of entire rooms filled with imported goods,

reproductions and dioramas of life in China, visitors felt as if they had

stepped into another world upon entering its doors. In his guidebook for

the city of Boston, John Ross Dix wrote that “we accepted the polite

invitation of the proprietors, and went into the interior of – the Chinese

Museum – we had almost said China, and if we had, we should not have

been very far out either.”83 One of the main attractions of the museum, was

that it presented the objects in context. The Evening Transcript, a Boston

newspaper, had this to say about the museum:

“An examination of the innumerable articles composing this inimitable Collection has truly excited our wonder and admiration. The display ornamentally, is grand and

81 Jonathan Goldstein, “Early American Image of the Chinese through Artifacts and Chinoiserie” reprinted from Asian Culture Quarterly Vol. IX, No. 1, (Spring 1981), pg. 3.

82 Zboray, pg. 271-276.83 John Ross Dix, "A Visit to the Chinese Museum," in Local Loiterings and visits in the

vicinity of Boston, (Boston: Redding & Co.), 1845, pg. 106.

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gorgeous, but representing as it does objects immediately connected with the social habits, the religious worship, the mercantile customs, the mechanic operations, and the science of the Chinese, it is intrinsically valuable, and beyond description instructive, amusing and gratifying. We shall be satisfied if what little we have said of this superior Museum, without the power to do it justice, should attract the attention of the public towards it, as to something which shall increase their knowledge of a most remarkable country...”84

While the educational value of both museums was acknowledged by

the press, an assessment of the information the public absorbed remains

difficult. In any case, Peters’ catalogue did provide extensive information

about life in China, but people still viewed the exhibit and others as reality

instead of mere representations of reality. “In Curiosity street, [Canton] the

enthusiastic visitor will see large handsome shops, open to the streets, filled

with innumerable articles, arranged on shelves, the whole having the

appearance of a museum…”85 wrote Tiffany. He obviously had visited

museums before his visit to China, and perhaps even went to see Dunn or

Peter’s exhibitions, but he still managed to relate the people and his

observations to the displays of objects rather than the other way around.

Both museums demonstrated “a proclivity to divide, subdivide, and redivide

its subject matter without ever changing its mind about the Orient as being

always the same, unchanging, uniform, and radically peculiar object.”86

Even with the presence of the very informative catalogues and the display

84 “Opinions of the Press,” in John R. Peters, Miscellaneous remarks upon the government, history, religions, literature, agriculture, arts, trades, manners, and customs of the Chinese, as suggested by an examination of the articles comprising the Chinese Museum, (New York: John F. Trow, printer), 1849.

85 Tiffany, pg. 90.86 Said, pg. 98.

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of the objects in context, Dunn and Peters failed to present China in its

entirety, with both the good and bad. In the end, both exhibitions

objectified the country and failed to shift people’s basis of knowledge from

the goods themselves to the people and place.

In the spring of 1876, America celebrated its 100th birthday with the

Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Opening on May 10 and lasting until

November, this was America’s first time hosting a World’s Fair. As with

previous fairs, countries from all over the world were invited to set up an

exhibit showcasing their newest inventions, the best of their art and

architecture, and in general, make a grand show and impress the fair-goers.

China and Japan were the only nations represented from Asia and while

Japan received good reviews, the newspapers did not have much to say

about China. Most reports focused on describing the porcelain and items

brought over, but otherwise seemed ambivalent toward China’s exhibit as a

whole. In his guide to the Exposition, J.S. Ingram wrote of the Chinese

display, “the show-cases were themselves an attractive exhibit.” He goes

on to say “Here, also, were to be seen vases of strange and wondrous form,

and fine aquariums adorned with wreaths of flowers, serpents, birds, or

animals. Taken as a whole, the display was one of the most choice and

elegant collections ever seen...”87 While he did enjoy the display, there was

none of the wonder or awe that was present in the reviews of the Dunn and

Peters museums.

87 J . S. Ingram, The Centennial Exposition, (Reprint edition, New York: Arno Press), 1976, pg. 571.

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There are several reasons for the lack of enthusiasm of the Chinese

exhibit during the Centennial Celebration, where similar exhibitions had

previously been received with much more excitement. The 1820s saw an

increase in the quantity of Chinese porcelain in the American market, as

more and more ships ventured out and made the trip to Canton and other

ports. Given that China had yet to experience the industrial revolution,

everything was still made by hand, and in order to meet the higher demand

of goods, merchants began to take short cuts, which resulted in a decrease

in quality of merchandise.88 Enterprising Europeans also began

manufacturing their own ceramics so as not have to deal the very restrictive

Chinese government.89 Captain Charles Tyng, in his memoirs about his

seafaring days, recalls that the ship and crew “discharged the cargo and

took another cargo of teas on board, keeping stones sufficient for ballast, as

China ware was no longer shipped, the English ware having taken its

place.”90 This was circa 1820.

As a result, at the time of the Centennial in 1876, more than fifty

years later, Americans had become oversaturated with China and its goods.

The China trade had slowed down tremendously and many of the various

imports that used to be so valued and treasured, such as chinaware and

lacquer ware had become commonplace and incorporated into ordinary

daily life. While still quite pretty and decorative, such items no longer sent

88 Crossman, pg. 6.89 See Appendix A, images #5 and #6 for a comparison of similarly decorated dishes,

the latter of which was made in England.90 Charles Tyng, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833,

ed. Susan Fels, (New York: Viking), 1999, pg. 75.

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the American public into raptures.91 They had lost the ability to transport

viewers into fantasy land. China teacups were now, simply ordinary

teacups, found in any household, and no longer doors into a mystical world.

Displays such as Nathan Dunn’s Collection, John Peters’ Museum, and the

China exhibit at the Centennial had also become more common. Museums,

such as the East India Society (now the Peabody Essex Museum) also had

collections featuring Chinese artifacts and wares. They were no longer

novel distractions for the monotony of everyday life, but had become so

numerous that they did not elicit the sense of excitement and wonder they

once had.

91 Robert W. Rydell, All the World’s a Fair: Visions of Empire at American International Expositions, 1876-1916, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press), 1984, pg. 30.

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Opium Dens, Rats and Chop Suey: Fantasy meets Reality

In addition to an oversaturation of Chinese goods, events in the world

also helped to change American perceptions of China. The first Opium War

broke out in 1839 between China and Britain over trade, particularly the

smuggling of opium.92 By essentially creating a nation of drug addicts,

Britain had something the Chinese craved, which they used to bargain for

better trading rights. The Chinese government was aware of the increasing

issue of opium addiction and attempted to stop the drug from entering into

the country. The conflict eventually broke out into a war where the

superior British navy solidly vanquished the Chinese junks and forced China

to open more ports to trade and settle for treaties which highly favored

Western nations.93 The utter defeat of the Chinese was a huge

embarrassment and caused many Americans to rethink their previous ideas

about China. “With the first victory by a small British expedition in the

Opium war of 1839-40, the great prestige of the Chinese came tumbling

down.”94 Many once held China in great esteem as a great and powerful

empire, the birthplace of Confucius, inventors of gunpowder, moveable type

and paper currency, but they now saw the nation as weak and backward.95

According to Harold Isaacs, the easy British victory was the beginning of

“The Age of Contempt” where Americans once viewed China with awe and

92 Arthur Power Dudden, The American Pacific: From the Old China Trade to the Present, (New York: Oxford University Press), 1992, pg. 6.

93 Dudden, pgs. 6-7.94 Harold R. Isaacs, Scratches on Our Minds: American Views of China and India,

(Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, Inc.), 1980, pg. 98.95 Isaacs, pgs. 90 & 98.

Leung 42

admiration, but now looked down upon and sneered at the nation and its

culture.96 In their eyes, China had lost all of its ancient glory and the British

conquest and issues with opium addiction were evidence of that fact. As

Erasmus Doolittle wrote, “The first impulse of an American, when he sees

for the first time a Chinese, is to laugh at him.”97 The Chinese were no

longer worthy of respect and were now objects of derision.

On January 14, 1848, gold was found at Sutter's Mill in Coloma,

California. The news of this discovery created the famous California Gold

Rush which brought thousands of people from all over to California in the

hopes of striking it rich. The Chinese were no exception and even their

name for California, the Golden Mountain, served to display their

expectations of instantaneous wealth in the gold mines. Unlike other

immigrants, many came only with the intention to work. “On our soil they

take no root; bring few women save prostitutes; import their food from

home, of which rice is the chief staple; send home their money; send home

even their dead, embalmed, to rest in the family dwellings of their far,

twilight land, nursery of the human race, where the Orient joins the

Occident.”98 In the beginning the promise of gold and wealth through work

on the railroad served as an impetus for many Chinese men to make the

long trip across the Pacific in hopes of earning enough money to return

96 Isaacs, pg. 71.97 Erasmus Doolittle, “Recollections of China” in Sketches, by a traveller Western

Americana, frontier history of the trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900, ed. Silas Pinckney Holbrook, (Boston: Carter and Hendee), 1830, pg. 259.

98 Albert Deane Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean: Life and Adventure on the Prairies, Mountains, and Pacific Coast, (Hartford, CT: American Publishing Company), 1869, pg. 390.

Leung 43

home richer than they left.99 However, the reserves of gold slowly dried up,

work finished on the railroads and America faced a recession in the 1870s.

100 The political and economic environment was also very unstable in China.

During the mid 1800s, the Qing dynasty with its Manchurian rulers was

repressive and weakening, especially due to the opium trade and

smuggling. The Taiping Rebellion started in 1850 and until 1864, southern

China was in chaos. The rebellion was very violent, with soldiers destroying

crops and agriculture throughout the region and many people starved.101

The situation in China made travelling to America that much more

desirable, and without knowing when life would improve, more and more

Chinese chose to stay and try their luck in the new land.

These new arrivals were quite a disappointment to Americans, who

probably expected them all to be like Fun See in Eight Cousins and the

images found in their dishes and museums. Even though the Chinese who

came were not as Americanized as Mr. Whang-Lo, Americans, like Rose,

undoubtedly saw these new immigrants as failures in not living up to the

romantic ideals embodied in their products. The Chinese immigrants

changed Americans’ perceptions of China and Chinese people. Americans

wanted and expected the Chinese to look and act in a particular fashion and

had built up such lofty romantic ideas in their imagination. As a result,

many were severely disappointed and disillusioned when faced with the

reality of Chinese immigrants in America. An article written in anticipation 99 Kwong, pg. 12.100 Kwong, pg. 13.101 Tchen, in Genthe’s Photographs of San Francisco’s Old Chinatown, pg. 4.

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for the Centennial appeared in The New York Times addressing the

American disenchantment of Chinese people.

“Some travelers complain that the people of Eastern Europe and Asia are losing their old-time picturesqueness. Many of these natives are fast adopting the manners and customs, as well as the costumes, of Western civilization…But we shall have no more cloisonné, jade-work, wonderful lacquer-ware, and eggshell porcelain, if the Asiatics do not get over their rabid eagerness for sewing-machines, pianos, and self-raking reapers”102

The increased modernization of China appeared to create a sense of

lost dreams and fantasies for many Americans. As they were confronted

with the reality of actual Chinese people who could be quite ordinary and

possibly pose as a threat to take over jobs, Americans had a more difficult

time summoning their imagination to transport them to the exotic China

that they once had in their minds. They still saw the Chinese as

representative of decorated porcelain and objects instead of the reverse and

this manufactured image never fully went away. That bucolic China of their

dinnerware still served as their basis for reality and created a lot of racial

tension as a result. The beauty found in the images of China as depicted on

chinaware, paintings and other imported goods had created a very limited,

overly positive and romantic perspective of the nation and Americans were

loathe to deal with the not so pretty reality as presented by Chinese

immigrants. In their minds, the people were supposed to look like the

chinaware, not the other way around.

102 “Asia at the Centenary,” The New York Times, July 3, 1875.

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The article also shows a slightly more nefarious reasoning for the

disappointing loss of “picturesqueness” in that many Americans believed

“[t]he Orient existed for the West,” and their “attitude…was either

paternalistic or candidly condescending – unless, of course, they were

antiquarians, in which case the “classical” Orient was a credit to them and

not to the lamentable modern Orient.”103 The main reason for the

unhappiness as a result of China’s modernization, at least concerning the

people mentioned in the article, was the loss of the manufacture of luxury

items that Americans had become accustomed to purchasing through trade.

These people believed that a “modern” China would no longer produce the

import items, and so they would no longer be able to buy them. The

willingness or drive to modernize, instead of being a positive trait, was

described as “rabid,” diseased and unnatural, despite the American

complaints about the backwardness of the Chinese culture and civilization.

With the recession and influx of European immigrants, competition for

jobs was very fierce. It did not help that the Chinese were willing to work

for lower pay104 and made them very easy targets of discrimination and

racism. Unlike other immigrant groups before them, the Chinese were

unable to assimilate into mainstream American society. They were too

different in too many different ways, but especially when it came to

appearances and culture. Due to the long history of trade with China, many

Americans felt they knew the country and its people. After all, they had

103 Said, pg. 204.104 Kwong, pg. 12.

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seen the wares and manufactures, the people and dress from the goods

exported and read about the customs and cuisine in their schoolbooks.105

And while the Chinese coming to America were very different from how

many Americans imagined them, they still retained enough of their own

culture to make them very discernible from the American public.106 As a

result, many settled and lived in Chinatowns, which provided a safe place

for them to live and conduct business without much harassment.

While these neighborhoods served as a haven and home for the new

immigrants, many Americans who managed to retain their fantasies of a

romantic China saw them as merely a form of entertainment. On some

level, they “recognized [this society] as real and human [, with] religions,

government, laws, professions, and so on”107 but for the most part, there

was the underlying attitude that Chinatowns were amusement parks. Said

wrote that the Orient was a “theatrical stage whose audience, manager, and

actors are for Europe, and only for Europe.”108 This was definitely true of

how Americans viewed Chinatowns. They were carefully defined spaces

within a larger city and provided entertainment in the form of people,

sights, and sounds. What made these neighborhoods an even better and

more engaging pastime, though, were the restaurants which created an

additional layer to the experience with tastes and smells.

105 Miller, pg. 18.106 Miller, pg. 50.107 Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation, (London: Routledge), 1992, pg. 44.108 Said, pgs. 71-72.

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For many Americans, the presence of the Chinese in America was an

opportunity to experience China in a whole new way. It was all of their

romantic notions of the Orient come to life and made so much more

accessible, especially with the establishment of Chinatowns in major cities

such as San Francisco and New York. Life may proceed in its usual hum-

drum way everywhere else, but in Chinatown, ““China, as it is,” can be seen

here in San Francisco almost as well as in China itself.”109 The streets,

sidewalks and architecture may be American, but everything else was

distinctly Chinese. Throughout the entire neighborhood, “[t]he streets are

full of Chinamen and a few Chinese women dressed in Chinese fashion, the

men with shaven crown and…braided cue, walking with a Chinese shuffle or

a Chinese swagger, and talking loudly in various Chinese dialects.” 110 Here

was the living embodiment of so many fantasies. Where as previously it

required crossing miles of ocean, Americans could now take the train or

walk the city blocks to be transported into a totally foreign and exotic

locale. In his guide to New York City, Rupert Hughes compared this

phenomenon to something that only happens in fairy tales. “Speaking of

Seven-League Boots – we have changed all that. You can cross the Pacific

Ocean in one step. Just turn to your right from Chatham Square, and –

there you are! Chinatown is a different world.”111 No genies, mystical

beings or magical items are necessary here, just modern transportation and

109 Otis Gibson, The Chinese in America, (Cincinnati: Hitchcock & Walden), 1877, pg. 64.110 Gibson, pg. 64-65.111 Rupert Hughes, The Real New York (New York: The Smart Set Publishing Company), 1904, pg. 147.

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your own two feet. Instead of having to go to China, China had come to

America.

As mentioned previously, the arrival of the Chinese proved to be a

great disappointment to many Americans, bringing a darker, grittier reality

than people were expecting. In the face of the disillusioned idea of a

completely bucolic mystical China, some were able to bring together both

the unsavory aspects of reality and their previous fantastical ideas and

combine them to form a new romantic idea of China and the Chinese. Filled

with images of smoky opium dens, rat-eating immigrants, brothels filled

with exotic beauties, many Americans found themselves equally enthralled

by this darker, seedier side of China as they had been with fairy-tale like

imaginings on their chinaware. The media of the day also fueled these

fancies, with “…decades of lurid newspaper stories [creating] the myth that

this drop in New York’s ethnic ocean [Chinatown] was the place where evil

lurked.”112 The news and stories concerning the neighborhood were often

highly sensationalized and exaggerated.

This new China was morbidly exciting for many Americans and going

to Chinatown became some sort of adventure, where danger could be found

at every street corner. Hughes wrote that “[in Chinatown you felt

something sinister in the stealthy tread and prowling manner of these

Celestial immigrants,” and even though most were completely harmless,

“they suggest melodramas of opium dens and high binders.”113 Hughes’

112 Bonner, pgs. 95-96.113 Hughes, pg. 147-148.

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descriptions of the Chinese seem to portray something closer to the hard-

boiled detective novels or modern-day horror films than 19th century people,

and Americans most likely found trips to Chinatown equally thrilling and

entertaining. Hughes went on to state that “You happen on them in dark

hallways, or find them looking at you from strange crannies of ramshackle

structures like night-blooming felines,”114 which seems straight out of a

Victorian vampire novel. One reporter for The New York Times described

finding entertainment in Chinatown by trying to stump the local grocer by

asking for what he thought were strange and rare Chinese foods. “Our

grocers, when an inquiry was made for shark-fins, showed no possible

astonishment. One would have thought that that peculiar squaloid dorsal

appendage was in as common and usual demand with them as pigs’ trotters

at a pork-butcher’s. There must be somewhere within the purlieus of Mott-

street great secret hongs, where are stored all those culinary delicacies that

Chinamen crave for…There was another Chinese delicacy that had to be

asked for, and that was the edible bird’s nest. Certainly, we thought, that is

beyond the catalogue of Mott-street. But this was no country cross-road

grocer.” 115

A reporter for the Grand Forks Herald described seeing “[a] caldron

worthy of the witches in “Macbeth,” during a trip to Chinatown. “One could

contribute eye of newt and toe of frog, and other several kinds of lizards, a

114 Hughes, pg. 148.115 “Ichthyophagous Matters: Some Chinese Raw Materials – Certain Culinary

Problems,” The New York Times, June 13, 1880.

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third black beetles and grasshoppers.”116 It was disgusting and a bit

gruesome, but certainly interesting and not something he would have found

at a Western grocery. Americans came to Chinatown for the unexpected

and sights such as this. The entire environment was foreign, exotic and

outside of their every day experiences. The newfound fascination with the

decidedly sordid aspects of life and China found the perfect venue in a new

fad from London. According to an 1884 article in The New York Times,

““Slumming,” the latest fashionable idiosyncrasy in London – i. e., the

visiting of the slums of the great city by parties of ladies and gentlemen for

sightseeing – is mildly practiced here by our foreign visitors by a tour of the

Bowery, winding up with a visit to an opium joint of Harry Hill’s.”117 The

trend was soon practiced by Americans as well, and made various

neighborhoods in major cities the new hot spots to while away the time.

By way of slumming, Chinatown was now becoming a tourist

destination, able to provide entertainment for Americans from all walks of

life. The grocers, restaurants and temples were more family friendly,

whereas for those seeking darker, more thrilling entertainment, there were

always the brothels and opium dens. Opium dens were particularly popular

and Hughes wrote how “A. J. Joyce was also hunting [for an] experience.

He was bitterly disappointed at being unable to find any opium hells, though

he came near being thrown neck and crop out of a number of private

116 “Food Eaten by the Chinese Coolie, Who Enjoys Dried Cockroaches,” Grand Forks Herald, November 9, 1905.117 “Slumming in This Town: A Fashionable London Mania Reaches New-York.

Slumming Parties to be the Rage this Winter – Good Districts to Visit – Mrs. Langtry as a Slummer,” The New York Times, September 14, 1884.

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apartments where his intrusion was received with the same indignation it

would have met had he tried to go slumming on Madison Avenue.”118 Mr.

Joyce seemed to forget that Chinatown was actually a home for living

breathing people. He was invading people’s personal spaces and private

homes without asking or being invited, so it was no wonder that he was

treated as an intruder.

For him and many others, Chinatown was akin to their version of

Disney’s Epcot center, a place to have fun and experience a bit of

stereotypical culture by eating the cuisine and buying souvenirs. People

went to Chinatown to “see the sights...and see “the fun.””119 The

inhabitants might as well have been automatons, there for the tourists to

take pictures and stare. The author of The New York Times article noticed

this perspective of many of the “slummers” as well, stating “so far the

mania [of slumming] here has assumed the single form of sightseeing – the

more noble ambition of alleviating the condition of the desperately poor

visited has not animated the adventurous parties.”120 Chinatown and its

inhabitants were simply a destination for entertainment and allowed

Americans to experience something new and exciting for a few hours before

returning to the comfort and normalcy of their own homes and lives.

Horatio Jennings Ward wrote that “[n]obody ever goes slumming in the

Bowery without taking in Mott Street and its crooked tributaries, and there 118 Hughes, pg. 156.119 Horatio Jennings Ward, “Sight-seeing,” in New York’s Chinatown: an historical

presentation of its people and places, by Louis Joseph Beck, (New York: Bohemia Publishing Company), 1898, pgs. 316-317.

120 “Slumming in This Town…,” The New York Times, September 14, 1884.

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was no exception in this case. The whole thing looked like a put up job.”121

Chinatown was far beyond people’s usual every day existence, and it looked

practically fake, just like a monstrous diorama.

To a certain extent, this was true. Tourism helped support many of

the local business so merchants adapted to cater to American tastes,122

which meant visitors only saw a very small part of life in Chinatown. A

reporter for the New York Tribune wrote that “Chinatown in New-York City

is slowly becoming a feature of metropolitan life. Day and night it is

ransacked by visitors from the eastern part of the United States and even

from Europe. It is almost needless to remark that they see little of the

interior Mongolian life.”123 This reporter also acknowledged the very

superficial façade of Chinatown most Americans saw when they ventured

out into the neighborhood. But interestingly enough, he also displayed a

rather superficial understanding of the country by conflagrating Mongolia

with China despite the two being very distinct nations and peoples. People

saw what they wanted to see, be it the exotic mystical China transported

into their own backyards or the dark underbelly of opium dens and brothels,

but few ever ventured past the romantic tourist perspective to see the

reality of simply fellow humans trying to find their way in the world. In this

regard, Chinatowns were almost like cabarets, where for a price, a guide

could take a group of visitors for a dinner and show. Americans could see

121 Ward, “Sight-seeing,” in Beck, pgs. 317.122 Chang, pg. 163.123 “The Chinese in New-York: Glimpses of the Celestial Colony. How They Live and

Save Money – Laundries – Gambling Dens – Restaurants,” New York Daily Tribune, June 21, 1885.

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the sights, the temples or the opium dens, and then sit down at a restaurant

where real Chinese people would cook and serve authentic food.

Chinese cuisine proved to be a major attraction for tourists to

Chinatown. It was so different and unfamiliar, that even during the China

trade, Western merchants felt it was necessary to comment on it. Mentions

of birds’ nest soup, shark fins, rats and puppies abounded, so much so, that

in the same way Americans believed the images on porcelain to be

representative of the real China, they believed that these items made up the

better part of the Chinese diet.124 By visiting the restaurants, people could

totally immerse themselves in the culture. They could sit where the Chinese

sat, smell the same smells and especially, eat the same food. After all, “food

is third only to air and water as a basis of life and, much more than the

others, is an important element of culture and social relationships.”125 Most

Americans, then and now, tended to think of Chinese food as all of one type,

when in actuality, the cuisine is quite varied, differing greatly from one area

to the next. The cuisine is generally divided into four regions: northern

(Beijing and Shandong province), eastern (Shanghai), western (Sichuan

province) and southern (Guangzhou and Hong Kong). Sometimes the Fujian

province is also considered as having its own distinct regional cuisine.126

124 Miller, pgs. 69-70.125 Joseph R. Conlin, Bacon, Beans, and Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western

Mining Frontier, (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1986) in Franklin Ng, “Food and Culture: Chinese Restaurants in Hawai’i,” in Chinese America: History & Perspectives – The Journal of the Chinese Historical Society of America (San Francisco: Chinese Historical Society of America with UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 2010), pg. 113.

126 J.A.G. Roberts, China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West, (London: Reaktion Books), 2002, pg. 23.

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Northern food typically uses more wheat and is known for its use of

noodles and dumplings. Some famous dishes include Peking duck and

Mongolian hot-pot. Eastern cuisine from the Shanghai region also uses

noodles and is famous for Nanjing pressed duck and pulled noodles.

Western food is known for being spicy, with such dishes as dan dan noodles

and hot and sour soup. Southern food, due to geography and climate,

incorporates lots of rice, vegetables and seafood. Southern Chinese food is

considered to be the best, probably as a result of the vast variety of dishes.

There is even a saying which highlights this point. This is the ideal Chinese

life: Be born (or marry) in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou and

die in Liuzhou.127 Suzhou is famous for beautiful and intelligent people,

Hangzhou for the scenery and landscape, Guangzhou for food, and Liuzhou

for wood (to make coffins). Even in the present day, the inhabitants of the

south are known for being “fastidious about the quality of their food, as well

as the manner of its preparation,”128 especially in regards to how fresh the

ingredients are.

The Cantonese fussiness in regards to their food travelled with them

overseas and even drew the notice of the American media. A reporter for

the New York Daily Tribune observed that “[t]he Chinese are particular in

regard to their meats and insist upon all poultry being alive in the morning

of the day on which it is eaten.”129 In addition to regional differences,

127 生在蘇州, 住在杭州，吃在廣州，死在柳州128 “The Chinese Boarding House,” Harper’s Weekly, vol. xxxii, no. 1667, December 1, 1888.129 “The Chinese in New-York: Glimpses of the Celestial Colony,” New York Daily Tribune, June 21, 1885.

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Chinese cuisine also encompasses different economic strata. Formal and

banquet style dining is very different from the every day, with banquets

usually consisting of at least ten dishes and every day, about five. There is

also what is considered famine food,130 things eaten only in times of dire

need and when the people are near starvation.

With the China trade based out of Canton and the majority of the early

immigrants coming from southern China due to economic turmoil in the

region, Americans became most familiar with Cantonese-style food and

cooking methods, which served to inform their ideas of Chinese food as a

whole. While China trade merchants mainly stayed within their respective

areas and ate their own cuisine, some were invited to dine with Chinese

merchants. For these western merchants, it was likely their first time

encountering Chinese cuisine. During one such meal,

“[t]wenty separate courses were placed on the table during three hours in as many different services of elegant china ware, the messes consisting of soups, gelatinous food, a variety of stewed hashes, made up of all sorts of chopped meats, small birds cock’s-combs, a favorite dish, some fish & all sorts of vegetables, rice, and pickles, of which the Chinese are very fond. Ginger and pepper are used plentifully in most of their cookery. Not a joint of meat or a whole fowl or bird were placed on the table.”131

These first Chinese meals were definitely of the banquet variety since only

the wealthy Chinese merchants could afford to host foreign guests in such

style. In addition to having a large variety of dishes, banquets usually

130 J.A.G. Roberts, China to Chinatown: Chinese Food in the West, (London: Reaktion Books), 2002, pg. 23.131 Bryant Parrot Tilden, Bryant Parrott Tilden of Salem, at a Chinese Dinner Party:

Canton: 1819, ed. Lawrence Waters Jenkins, (Salem, MA: Newcomen Address, The Peabody Museum), 1944, pg. 21.

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lasted for several hours as well. “At say eight o’clock, when we supposed

our sumptuous chop stick of fruits most exquisite pastry, with a great

variety of sweet meats, were placed on table with more choice white and

red wines, and now also a peculiar white Chinese wine…”132

Due to the elaborate nature of such meals, American merchants most

likely encountered some dishes which the Chinese considered delicacies.

The most often commented foods were usually things such as birds’ nest,

sea cucumber, bear’s paw and shark fin.133 These dishes were completely

foreign to the American palate and probably drew the attention of the

merchants since they were so unfamiliar. Like any other immigrant group

to America, the Chinese sought to recreate their home away from home,

which naturally included the cuisine. What an average Chinese person ate

on a daily basis was very different from the elaborate meals described by

the China trade merchants. Very few people actually ate that way, and

definitely not all the time. While more “normal” meals still had a lot of

variety, they were much simpler than the food served at banquets.

“For breakfast their favorite dishes are rice, tripe, fish, and meat balls, but they may be said to live principally on rice…They eat no bread at any meal. The mid-day meal is the dinner. It consists of rice, pork, fish, and usually some Chinese vegetable stewed with meat or poultry, and soup, which is served last…All food is cut into convenient morsels to be picked up on chop-sticks, for the Chinaman will not do at table the work of carving, which, he insists, belongs to the kitchen. The supper is very light, consisting of the inevitable rice and one or two small portions of meat.”134

132 Tilden, pg. 22.133 Roberts, pg. 21.

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Contrary to popular opinion of the day, the typical Chinese diet consisted of

mainly rice and vegetables and very little meat, most of which would have

been easily identifiable to the average American.

This simple fare, however, aside from rice, was not what many

Americans thought Chinese people ate regularly. Instead, “[a] large portion

of the community believe implicitly that Chinamen love rats as Western

people love poultry…”135 and that they also ate puppies, bugs, and all sorts

of vermin and things a typical American would not even consider putting

anywhere near his or her mouth. Where did this notion of Chinese people

eating anything and everything originate? While missionaries and

merchants may have seen the very poor buying and selling such items for

consumption, they were hardly considered a part of the regular diet.

However, as these Westerners were prone to observe and take note of

anything they found particularly odd or peculiar, doubtless mentions of rats,

bugs, puppies and kittens came up often in descriptions of the local cuisine.

They also probably thought that this was a part of regular cuisine and this

idea was perpetuated in school books and popular images throughout the

country. 136

The following two cartoons appeared in subsequent issues of the

humorous magazine, Yankee Notions, June and July of 1853. The first,

Figure 2, appeared in the June issue, entitled “Brother Jonathan’s Universal

134 “The Chinese Boarding House,” Harper’s Weekly, December 1, 1888. For an example of a typical Chinese breakfast and meal, see Appendix B.

135 “Mott-Street Chinamen Angry – They Deny That They Eat Rats,” The New York Times, August 1, 1883.136 “Mott-Street Chinamen Angry,” The New York Times, August 1, 1883.

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Restaurant” accompanies a “transcription” of a conversation between the

proprietor of the restaurant and the reporter, where Brother Jonathan does

all of the talking. He discusses his customers, which are all caricatures of

various nations of people, and their meals. In regards to “John Chinaman,”

he has this to say: “I’ll be swollopped ef that ‘ere John Chinaman han’t gone

and eat up eenamost all the stock of

pups and cats... I suppose that pup

he’s jest eat has got to fighting

with that cat he had for breakfast, or

is huntin them rats I made him a

present of yesterday.”137 The

cartoon shows the various clientele of

the restaurant, with “John Chinaman” dressed in a long robe and conical hat

with a very long mustache. The artist shows him seemingly relishing his

meal of rat soup.

The other cartoon, Figure 3, is of a

stereotypical-looking Chinese man

kneeling on the floor of a kitchen

trying to get a cat out from under the

137 Yankee Notions, volume 2, no. 6, (June 1853), pg. 176.

Images obtained under the Creative Commons license

Figure 3: Yankee Notions, July 1853; artist unknown

Figure 2: Yankee Notions, June 1853; artist unknown

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table whilst holding a knife behind his back. The caption reads, “The

CHINAMAN, driven to despair for want of a national dish, attempts the

destruction of the Landlady’s favorite Tabby.”138 Despite the fact that the

magazine and these cartoons were meant to be funny and humorous, they

reinforced stereotypes of appearances and eating habits about Chinese

people. The implication was that Chinese people, especially men, wear

their hair in a long queue, long robes, and conical hats, have slanty eyes

and a rather sinister appearance. They eat rats, dogs and cats, so anybody

renting rooms to Chinese people should be careful of their household pets,

or they might end up on a plate as someone’s dinner. The artist, in this

way, depicted the Chinese as very much the “other,” completely different

from the American public and helped to foster misconceptions about the

people and culture.

Stereotypes about Chinese eating habits were taught not only through

cartoons, but in the schoolroom as well. In describing a person’s initial

hesitation at trying a Chinese dish, Lucien Adkins wrote that at first, “he is

certain it has rats in it, for the popular superstition that the Chinese eat rats

is in-bred. He remembers his schoolboy history, with the picture of a

Chinaman carrying around a cage of rats for sale.”139 American children

learned early on that the Chinese ate rats and this idea was continually

138 Yankee Notions, volume 2, no. 7, (July 1853), pg. 203. 139 Lucien Adkins, “A General View” in New York’s Chinatown: an historical presentation

of its people and places, by Louis Joseph Beck, (New York: Bohemia Publishing Company), 1898, pg. 296.

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reinforced through school, culture and popular media. The following was a

children’s jump rope rhyme:

“Chinkie, Chinkie, ChinamanSitting on the fence;Trying to make a dollar Out of fifteen cents.Chink, Chink, ChinamanEats dead rats;Eats them upLike gingersnaps.”140

The image of Chinese people eating rats was especially common and even

used in an advertisement for rat poison. The company, Rough on Rats,

circulated a trade card depicting a Chinese man holding up a rat to his

mouth by the tail to promote their product. A Boston newspaper, reported

that “horse flesh, rats and mice are standard articles of food, and sold

publicly at the butcher’s,”141 despite the fact that none of these meats

actually made up a part of Chinese cuisine. However, there was “no doubt

that in times of great famine they ate anything to keep them from

starving.”142 This idea was perhaps a bit too normal and realistic for

Americans since they continued to associate Chinese cuisine with rats and

bugs.

Still, reports kept circulating about the Chinese penchant for eating

all sorts of inedible creatures. A reporter for the Grand Forks Herald in

North Dakota describes an encounter with a grocer in Chinatown. He

looked in a barrel to see “what look like dried prunes.”

140 Bonner, pg. 16.141 “Chinese Food,” Christian Watchman, December 11, 1840.142 “Mott-Street Chinamen Angry,” The New York Times, August 1, 1883.

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“What are those?” you ask a grinning Chinaman. Popping one into his mouth, he answers “That belong cocklyloachee. Velly good.” They are dried cockroaches.” The same writer goes on to report that “earth-worms when fried crisp are relished, and so are silkworms when they have done their work and nothing more can be got out of them. Locusts are thought to have a better flavor and to be more nutritious if they are thrown into boiling oil when alive.”143

It was not a large jump for many Americans to associate the Chinese

with the vermin they supposedly ate. “What a Chinaman does not eat is not

worth eating. Everything, from root to leaf…to entrails, goes into his

unscrupulous stomach. Hawks, owls and other omnivorous creatures find

their match in him, and are eaten by him.”144 Given this description of the

Chinese, it was very easy to imagine the entire populations as one big

stomach, the top consumer and maybe even as a garbage bin. As a result, it

is not surprising that Americans would then believe that the Chinese would

eat such things as bugs and puppies. Since they would eat anything and

everything and with the ever increasing number of immigrants arriving

from China, there was a great fear that they would swarm and end up

taking over the entire United States, just like the cockroaches and rats they

supposedly ate.

143 “Food Eaten by the Chinese Coolie,” Grand Forks Herald, November 9, 1905.144 “Food Eaten by the Chinese Coolie,” Grand Forks Herald, November 9, 1905.

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Figure 4: "The Problem Solved, The Great Fear of the Period that Uncle Sam May be Swallowed by Foreigners"

One particular cartoon poster illustrated this concern very clearly.

Published by the news agents White & Bauer, the poster reads, “The Great

Fear of the Period: that Uncle Sam may be swallowed by foreigners.”145 The

artist showed two people literally attempting to swallow Uncle Sam. In the

end, the Chinese man is left all alone, having swallowed everyone else, with

the caption underneath reading “The Problem Solved.” The cartoon

suggested that given the Chinese penchant for eating anything and

everything, they would even gobble up the entire country and maybe even

the world, if given a chance. Therefore, the artist wanted this poster to 145 “The Problem Solved, The Great Fear of the Period that Uncle Sam May be

Swallowed by Foreigners” (San Francisco: White & Bauer, News Agents), Courtesy of John Tchen, Wong Chin Foo Collection, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA).

Courtesy of John Tchen, Wong Chin Foo Collection, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA)

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serve as a warning that the American public should be wary of the

seemingly ever-growing number of Chinese immigrants, lest they should

lose their power and control of the country.

Even if Americans did not view the Chinese as a threat, many still saw

them with disdain, and the cuisine certainly did not help. During a trip to

Chinatown, a New York Times reporter described poking around a grocery

store asking the owner about various foods. The grocer proudly displayed

his wares including “a long pendulous substance, looking for all the world

like a variety of the fuschia. It had a decidedly rank disagreeable odor,

slightly recalling the smell of a bad Connecticut tobacco cigar” which

turned out to be some sort of cabbage or lettuce. 146 Upon this discovery,

the reporter wonders, “Will some ethnologist be good enough to trace from

this strange cruelty of an innocent vegetable the connection between…the

Chinese with his dreadful cabbage. Why should…people pervert the

cabbage? It cannot arise from simple chance; the cause of it lies deeper, in

race...”147 For this reporter, the fact that the grocer chose to subject a

perfectly good cabbage to fermentation and render it to such, in his opinion

at least, a repulsive state, demonstrated some greater ethnic flaw in the

people as a whole. Since the grocer did not prepare the cabbage in some

way that was appealing to his American sensibilities, the reporter felt free

to question the race as a whole.

146 This is most likely some version of the Korean cabbage dish, kimchi.147 “Ichthyophagous Matters,” The New York Times, June 13, 1880.

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Not many critics of Chinese cuisine were so obvious in their views

that “inedible” food was a sign of an ethnic defect, though this was implied.

Samuel Bowles described a large banquet he attended in San Francisco’s

Chinatown, where the local Chinese merchants had invited many of the high

ranking officials of the city for a lavish meal in one of the best restaurants in

the area. 148 While Bowles acknowledged the luxury of the meal, writing

that “the dinner was unquestionable a most magnificent one after the

Chinese standard; the dishes were many of them rare and expensive; and

everything was served in elegance and taste,” there was a something vital

missing. He stated that everything was grand, “but” and it was a very large

“but,” “as to any real gastronomic satisfaction to be derived from it, [he]

certainly “did not see it.”” Bowles also seemed to consider himself a bit of a

gourmand since he went on to state that “my own personal experience is

perhaps the best commentary to be made upon the meal, as a meal. I went

to the table weak and hungry, but I found the one universal odor and flavor

soon destroyed all appetite…”149 Not only was he unable to appreciate the

dishes, he found the overall taste so off-putting that he barely ate anything

at all.

Luckily for Bowles, another guest shared his opinion of the banquet

and contrived a way for both of them to leave the banquet early, “when it

was two-thirds over, and “[get] something to eat, …a good square meal!”

They found an “American restaurant; the lost appetite came back; and 148 Samuel Bowles, Our New West: Records of Travel Between the Mississippi River and

the Pacific Ocean…etc. (Hartford, CT: Hartford Publishing Co.), 1869, pg. 409. 149 Bowles, pg. 412.

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mutton-chops, squabs, fried potatoes and a bottle of champagne soon

restored us.”150 Despite not seeing anything resembling rats or puppies,

Bowles and his companion could not stomach the Chinese dishes, which in

turn, left them to subconsciously question the humanity of their hosts. He

did not consider the banquet food to be edible, finding offense with the odor

and taste. It was so repulsive that he actually lost his appetite, despite

feeling quite hungry at the start of the dinner. Upon obtaining provisions

that were more familiar and to his liking, his appetite magically returned

and he and his new friend were able to enjoy a meal at last. They finally got

their “something to eat” which was apparently impossible at the Chinese

banquet.

This anecdote implies that Bowles did not find the banquet fare fit for

human consumption. The food did not even qualify as “something to eat,”

much less a meal and he was forced to find something resembling

sustenance elsewhere. By so handily dismissing such a lavish meal, Bowles

also dismissed his hosts. Such a banquet required a lot of preparation,

especially for such distinguished guests as city officials. Julian Jerrold, a

writer for The Illustrated American, described a similar meal of twelve

dishes. He stated that no one should “think a dinner like this can be got up

on the spur of the moment. The Chinese cook wants four days’ notice at

least in order to do justice to his art.”151 The dinner that Bowles attended

should have taken at least that long to prepare, but he did not deem his 150 Bowles, pg. 413.151 Julian Jerrold, “A Chinese Dinner in New York” The Illustrated American Volume 22,

(New York: The Illustrated American Publishing Company), 1897, pg. 313.

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hosts’ efforts worthy of his respect simply because the food was not to his

taste. Others also found Chinese food to be absolutely disgusting. Despite

the fact the Chinese consider it a rare delicacy, a writer for Leslie’s

Illustrated was of the opinion that bird’s nest soup tasted “like steam from a

locomotive mixed with the odor of oily smells.”152 Far from being a

gastronomical treat and luxury, the writer found the dish completely

inedible and insubstantial. The implication was that normal humans would

not even think of eating such a dirty nebulous mass of nothing. The Biloxi

Daily Herald of Mississippi was honest enough to comment that “[t]o a

Chinaman, English food is just as nauseous as we think theirs to be,”153 at

least acknowledging that disgust of cuisine was most likely mutual and not

always one-sided.

In addition to “unpalatable” food, Bowles and many others like him,

found chopsticks to be a major frustration in dining in the Chinese style.

Bryant Tilden had the opportunity to attend a banquet in Guangzhou and

while he admired the meal and was open to trying the food, he was

dismayed at the lack of silverware. He wrote that “servants came in

bringing a most splendid service of fancy soups, among them the celebrated

bid nest soup, as also a variety of stewed messes, and plenty of boiled rice,

& same style of smaller bowls, but alas! No plates and knives and forks.”154

He described his efforts to eat despite the absence of familiar utensils,

152 Leslie’s Illustrated, January 9, 1896 in Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?: The Chinese in New York 1800-1950, (Teaneck, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press), 1997, pg. 97.

153 The Biloxi Daily Herald, October 24, 1900.154 Tilden, pg. 20.

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stating, “the treacherous-like chopsticks are round at one end, and square

at the other, and we untutored barbarians ignorantly made use of both.”155

While it seemed that Tilden and his compatriots managed to enjoy a decent

meal in spite of their clumsiness with chopsticks, Bowles had a more

difficult time. During his ill-fated dinner, after several attempts with the

utensils, he gave up, “fell back resignedly on a constitutional incapacity to

use the chop-sticks” and ended up simply “sitting with a grim politeness”156

through the entire second course. It is also possible that his inability to

master the use of chopsticks caused Bowles to feel inadequate. The

Chinese were naturally “very expert in the use of these awkward utensils,

and can pick up anything with them from a chunk as large as an egg to a

particle as small as a pin.”157 Tilden, and apparently others as well, seemed

be able to manage them, aside from some initial fumbling. No doubt

Bowles’ frustration with chopsticks, when everyone else did not seem to

have any problems with them, factored into his general dissatisfaction with

the banquet as a whole.

Bowles most likely had to venture out of San Francisco’s Chinatown to

get what he considered a decent meal, but not all Americans found the

restaurants of the neighborhood to be so unpalatable. Americans no longer

had to content themselves with passively filling their imagination with mere

images on plates, but could physically and actively see the hustle and

155 Tilden, pg. 21.156 Bowles, pg. 412.157 Louis Joseph Beck, New York’s Chinatown: an historical presentation of its people

and places, (New York: Bohemia Publishing Company), 1898, pg. 54.

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bustle, hear the chattering of foreign dialects, and most of all, smell and

taste the food at the many restaurants available. The restaurant scene in

Chinatown enabled Americans to experience China in a new way, vastly

different from any they had before. For the first time, they could use all five

of their senses, instead of just sight and touch with their chinaware.

Restaurants, to a certain extent, gave Americans the fullest encounter of

China possible. John Frost had a chance to wander into Chinatown and

decided to stop by at a restaurant for a meal. He wrote that “It was styled

the ‘Canton Restaurant;’ and so thoroughly Chinese was it in its

appointments, and in the manner of service, that one might have easily

fancied one’s self in the heart of the Celestial Empire.”158 Restaurants had

the opportunity to be a lesson on a foreign society for the culturally

sensitive diner. Food is an important part of any culture and this is

especially true of Chinese society. Food was not just for consumption and

fuel for survival, but considered medicine, nourishment for maintaining a

healthy life and curing ailments, and was practically an obsession.159 As a

result, “[f]oodways are an emblem of ethnicity and identity, and restaurants

are an expression of foodways.”160 In that respect, through food and

restaurants, diners could learn a great deal about a people and their

culture.

158 John Frost, History of the State of California, (Auburn, NY: Derby and Miller), 1851, pgs. 100-101.159 Roberts, pg. 26.160 Ng, pg. 113.

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Albert Dean Richardson attended the same banquet as Samuel Bowles

in San Francisco’s Chinatown, but had an entirely different experience.

While Bowles was decidedly disappointed and unimpressed with the meal,

Richardson was pleasantly surprised. “The food was all brought on, ready

cut, in fine pieces…There were three hundred and twenty-five dishes.

Whatever was lacking in quantity was made up in quality, for the choicest

cost one dollar per mouthful.” Even the lack of silverware did not prove

daunting. “We ate only with ivory chop-sticks – long, round, polished, and

both held in the right had. After learning the knack, one even takes up rice

between them with surprising facility.” 161 He admitted that though he

found a few dishes not to his liking, “most were toothsome. The oysters and

sharks’ fins were especially savory. Bird’s nest soup is from a mucilage

which certain eastern birds collect for building materials. Under an inviting

name it would be popular at the St. Nicholas.”162 Unlike Bowles who was

put off by the entire affair, Richardson attended with an open mind and

palate, and unexpectedly surprised himself by enjoying certain foods he

would have considered previously inedible. And while eating with

chopsticks was no doubt a challenge, he managed well enough to feed

himself and even pick up rice. Through this experience, Richardson was

able to broaden his horizons and obtain a richer experience and possibly a

greater respect for the culture.

161 Richardson, pg. 438.162 Richardson, pg. 439.

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Chinese restaurants gained more popularity with the American public

during Li Hongzhang’s visit to the United States in 1896. Li was a high

ranking Chinese official and the media coverage surrounding his stay in

New York City was tremendous. The newspapers followed his every move

and even documented the food he ate. “Instead of providing realistic

coverage of Chinese food culture, the American media’s scrutiny of what Li

ate delivered an exotic and mysterious image of Chinese cuisine.”163 He was

considered an example of true “Oriental” lifestyle and indirectly aided in

increasing the general appreciation for China. In the beginning, Chinese

restaurants did not cater at all to American patrons, existing solely for their

fellow immigrants. They were seen as exotic, but thanks to the slumming

trend, more Americans began patronizing the restaurants.164 An 1890

article in The Illustrated American discussed this new fad, saying that these

restaurants had no menus and weird smells, but this was all considered to

be exciting by some,165 probably because it was so different.

The restaurants soon became one of the main draws for tourists to

Chinatown, and “much patronized by members of the Smart Set.”166 The

Oxford English Dictionary defines the ‘smart set’ as “the extremely

163 Haiming Liu, “Chop Suey as Imagined Authentic Chinese Food: The Culinary Identity of Chinese Restaurants in the United States,” Journal of Transnational American Studies (Santa Barbara: UC Santa Barbara, American Cultures and Global Contexts Center, 2009), pg. 5, accessed May 27, 2011, http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2bc4k55r.

164 The Illustrated American, November 29 1890, in Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?: The Chinese in New York 1800-1950, (Teaneck, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press), 1997, pg. 96.

165 Bonner, pg. 97.166 Harriet Quimby, “Epicurus in Chinatown,” The New Metropolitan, July 1903, pgs.

427-432 in Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?: The Chinese in New York 1800-1950, (Teaneck, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press), 1997, pg. 105.

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fashionable portion of society (sometimes with implication of being a little

‘fast’).”167 No doubt these members of high society helped to set the trend

of going down to Chinatown for meals among the general American

population. Indeed, “[n]one of the foreign quarters…attract[ed] so much

attention on the part of the sightseer as this one. At all times the streets

are kaleidoscopic,”168 and especially busy during dining hours. With the

regular Chinese customers coming in during meal times and the increased

numbers of tourists passing through at all hours of the day and evening, it

was no wonder that the restaurants were “practically open day and night.”

169 Some specialized in particular types of dishes or regional food. In

describing the variety of food found in New York’s Chinatown, a reporter for

the New York Tribune listed several establishments on Mott Street alone.

“No. 4 Mott-st. is noted for its pates and dumplings, No. 11 for soups and

stews, no. 14 for style and fancy dishes, no. 18 for meats...”170

Many of the smaller restaurants were not as lavishly decorated as the

banquet halls described by Bowles and Richardson. They were often very

simply furnished hole-in-the-wall type establishments and many of their

target customers, their fellow immigrants, cared more about how the food

tasted than how richly the place was decorated. The Chinese placed the

food of the first importance and atmosphere was a distinct and distant 167 The Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. “Smart set,” http://0-

www.oed.com.library.simmons.edu/view/Entry/182448?redirectedFrom=smart%20set#eid221934312 (accessed October 26, 2011).

168 Quimby, in Bonner, pg. 105.169 “The Chinese in New-York: Glimpses of the Celestial Colony,” New York Daily Tribune, June 21, 1885.170 “The Chinese in New-York: Glimpses of the Celestial Colony,” New York Daily Tribune, June 21, 1885.

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second. An article in the July 1893 issue of Once a Week magazine

described such a restaurant, considered the Chinese version of the famous

New York restaurant, Delmonico’s. “Were it not for the red banners on the

walls, the eating house would be as bare as a barn; and assuredly, it is as

uninviting as a pig-sty. Yet the visitors to Chinatown love it dearly, and

laugh and chatter there in a corner; the ladies, especially, on their first visit,

cannot prevent themselves going into ecstacies over the tiny teacups. Thus,

today, the “slummers” eat, drink, and are merry in their new experience

with strange dishes.”171 Being able to appreciate Chinese food and even

some of the “odder” delicacies soon became a sign of cosmopolitanism and,

to a certain extent, took on a form of food snobbery, especially once people

of high society started frequenting Chinatown establishments and

developed a taste for the cuisine.

As Americans became more accepting of Chinese cuisine and its

popularity grew, Chinese restaurants started to move out of the confines of

Chinatown. In New York City, many settled more uptown, in the theater

district, where restaurant owners found a new client base among the

theater goers who were looking for a quick bite to eat late at night. The one

thing the new uptown restaurants lacked, however, was the general

atmosphere of otherworldliness people could only find in Chinatown.

“These new uptown places are not so good, either in a moral or culinary

way, as those down in Chinatown. It is usual to speak as if Mott and Pell 171 Once a Week, July 1893 in Arthur Bonner, Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?: The

Chinese in New York 1800-1950, (Teaneck, NJ: Farleigh Dickinson University Press), 1997, pg. 97.

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sts. were the city’s sink of iniquity, and so they are in some respects, but

there are no Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood as disreputable as

one or two uptown…Uptown the bills of fare are more limited.”172

Americans were starting to become discerning in regards to Chinese cuisine

and came to expect a certain level of quality and cost for their food, which

was, more often than not, quite inexpensive.

One thing all of the Chinese restaurants had in common was cheap

prices. The affordable nature of many eateries, including greater

acceptance of many dishes, attracted people from all walks of life, especially

given that most “[p]rices are lower than in American eating places,”173 by

more than half. The New York Daily Tribune describes the cost of “[a]n

average lunch for an Oriental[:]…tea, rice, chicken and fish. The cost of

these is for the tea, nothing; rice, five cents; chicken, fifteen, and fish, five

or ten; in all twenty-five cents. The same meal in an American restaurant

would cost him sixty cents or upward. An ordinary dinner and its cost are:

Chicken soup, nothing; tea, nothing; rice, five cents; duck, fifteen; perfumed

pork, ten; macaroni, ten; fish, five; meat-ball, five; rice-wine, eighteen. The

amount served is sufficient for two guests.”174 For many working-class

Americans, Chinese food was the more financially sound choice. The

inexpensive nature of most of the meals allowed those under greater

172 “Chinese Restaurants. Those Uptown Becoming Increasingly Popular with “Bohemian” Classes,” New York Tribune, February 3, 1901.

173 “The Chinese in New-York: Glimpses of the Celestial Colony,” New York Daily Tribune, June 21, 1885.174 “The Chinese in New-York: Glimpses of the Celestial Colony,” New York Daily Tribune, June 21, 1885.

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financial strain to have a rare treat: the ability to be transported to a

different world and experience something foreign and exotic, all without

breaking the bank. It was therefore no wonder that Chinese restaurants

became so popular, especially once Americans were able to get past their

initial preconceptions and wariness for the cuisine. “So many who, while

possessed of a small share of this world’s goods, still affect “sportiness”

frequent the restaurant[s] for its cheapness and grow to enjoy the high[ly]

flavored dishes. There is also a free and easy atmosphere about the

Chinese eating house which attracts many would-be “Bohemians,” as well

as a goodly share of a class below the lowest grades of the city’s many

graded Bohemia. Visitors loll about and talk and laugh loudly.”175 The

economic mixing pot that characterized much of the Chinese restaurant

patrons seemed to be part of the charm and added to the general

atmosphere of many eateries.

Despite the lower social and economic status of some of the

customers, most Americans found “[t]he clientele of the downtown places

[to be] above suspicion, as a rule. Chinese drop in for their meals, and

dwellers from uptown come either from curiosity or because they have

learned to like good Chinese cooking.” 176 In addition to enjoying some

excitement out of the ordinary, the presence of high society customers

enabled those of a lower economic status to, in a very small way, be a part

of fashionable society by participating in a trendy fad. People also enjoyed

175 “Chinese Restaurants. Those Uptown,” New York Tribune, February 3, 1901.176 “Chinese Restaurants. Those Uptown,” New York Tribune, February 3, 1901.

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the food for “the memory, and probably the bragging rights…”177 for having

eaten something new and exotic and the claim to cosmopolitanism.

The Chinese owners did not much care who made up their clientele as

long as they were paying customers. “Many of the guests in these

restaurants come regularly. Frequently men and women come with pails to

buy the food and take it home. Negroes are in disproportionately large

numbers. They seem to like the Chinese, and, indeed, the noise in the

kitchen reminds one of the similarly condition of Southern kitchens under

negro management.”178 As African Americans were frequently barred from

patronizing so many restaurants all over New York City, it must have been

refreshing for them to be able to enjoy a meal where they faced no

discrimination and were simply viewed as a part of the clientele.179 Perhaps

there was also a sense of kinship since both minority groups faced very

blatant discrimination from the American public. Here in the restaurants of

Chinatown, however, everyone was welcome, providing you had the money

to pay, which given the low cost of a meal, meant customers ranged from

local Chinese laborers to members of the ‘smart set.’ Hughes described the

patrons of one restaurant as “a mixed array of wide-eyed and loud-voiced

sightseers, of solemn Chinese deftly stoking themselves by means of

chopsticks from bowls held close to their mouths, and of Bowery youth

177 Coe, pg. 125.178 “Chinese Restaurants. Those Uptown,” New York Tribune, February 3, 1901.179 Coe, pg. 169.

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earnestly filling themselves with chop suey – that substantial hash made of

duck and chicken giblets, bean shoots and celery stewed to a mucilage.”180

Chop suey was a meal consisting of bits and pieces of leftover meats

and vegetables stir-fried together and served over rice. It was wildly

popular, especially in New York City, with many Americans thinking “chop

suey was a Chinese dish.”181 The name is a bastardization of the Chinese,182

generally translated as ‘mixed bits.’183 In actuality it was most likely either

an adaptation of a Chinese dish or something made up to appeal to

American customers.184 As reported by The New York Times in 1904, “chop-

suey is no more a national dish of the Chinese than pork and beans…there

is not a grain of anything Celestial in it.”185 There are many stories that tell

how chop suey came about. The oldest story is set during the California

gold rush where several burly American miners burst in on a hapless

Chinese cook, asking to be fed. Seeing as he was about to close for the day

and afraid to offend, the cook took whatever leftovers he could find from

dishes he cooked earlier in the day, stir fried everything together and

served this to the miners, who found it absolutely delicious. When asked for

the name of this delectable concoction, the cook answered with ‘chop

180 Hughes, pg. 157.181 “Chop Suey Injunction: Lem Sen of ‘Frisco Here to Allege Copyright Infringement,”

The New York Times, June 15, 1904.182 雜碎183 The Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. “Chop-suey,” http://0-

www.oed.com.library.simmons.edu/view/Entry/32283?redirectedFrom=chop%20suey#eid (accessed October 26, 2011).

184 Roberts, pg. 139.185 “Chop Suey Injunction,” The New York Times, June 15, 1904.

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suey.’186 According to another source, Li supposedly invented chop suey

while he was staying at the Waldorf Astoria during his visit to New York

City. Having brought his cooks along with him and unable to find anything

available to his liking, he gave them orders to create a dish according to his

specifications, resulting in chop suey.187

None of these stories seemed to dissuade Americans from the belief

that chop suey was a bona fide Chinese dish. Authenticity, at least as

perceived by Americans, was of great importance to many western patrons.

Many Bohemians and members of the smart set appreciated the mix of

people at Chinese restaurants and the experience of immigrant

communities. Through places such as Chinatown and Little Italy, they could

be “transported into a milieu that more accurately reflected the true nature

of the city than all the Fifth Avenue ballrooms.” 188 They found the ritzy high

class French restaurants favored by the likes of the Astors and Vanderbilts

to be superficial since they represented only a very small fraction of the city

population. Chinese restaurants and other immigrant neighborhoods held

great appeal for Bohemians, (who were primarily of the well-to-do middle

class, writers, poets and artists), since they were much more affordable and

at least to them, closer to the reality of New York than any uptown French

gourmet restaurant could ever be. The presumed authenticity of the food at

Chinese restaurants also held a large part of the appeal. At these

186 Shirley Fong-Torres, “A Moveable Feast” in A. Magazine, Inside Asian America, Winter 1994, pg. 44187 Liu, pg. 5.188 Coe, pg. 157.

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restaurants, Americans believed they could have genuine Chinese food

made by living and breathing Chinese people straight from China. “In the

first place, it should be understood that most of these place are really what

they are supposed to be, eating houses, carried on under Chinese

management. The cooks are invariably true Celestials… The food is

prepared, therefore, according to the most approved methods of the Middle

Kingdom, with the result that in cheapness and savoriness (if you like it) it

can easily outclass similar places run by American cooks. The Chinese is a

master of the art of making palatable dishes out of next to nothing, or

rather, a little of everything.”189 Seeing as how chop suey fit the criteria set

here, people refused to think of chop suey as anything other than distinctly

Chinese.

In describing a Chinese dinner, Jerrold wrote that chop suey was “the

solid course of the meal. It was the standard Chinese dish of chop suey.

This is a stew of beef, chicken or pork, with bean sprouts, mushrooms,

water-lily roots, sprouted grain and unknown flavorings. At this stage our

artfully conducted appetites were just ready for a solid dish like this, and

the liberal bowls of chop suey were soon disposed of.”190 From his

description, it seemed that chop suey made up the main course of the meal,

which was highly unlikely. Jerrold was most likely mistaken in his

identification of the dish. Chop suey would not have been part of the menu

of a formal dinner since it was considered something only the poor ate.191 189 “Chinese Restaurants. Those Uptown,” New York Tribune, February 3, 1901.190 Jerrold, pg. 313.191 Coe, pg. 167.

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To serve such a dish would have been disrespectful to the guests and

shameful on the part of the host. Ironically enough, the Chinese, at least

those still in China, had no idea what chop suey was.192 According to The

New York Times, “when Prince Pu was doing Chinatown the other day one

of his escorts, who was anxious to please him, said: “And now, your

Highness, we will eat some of your nation dish – chop suey.’ “‘What is chop

suey?’ asked Prince Pu innocently.”193 Aside from the fact that there was no

such thing as a national dish, the supposedly national food of China was

completely foreign to a member of its ruling family.

Nevertheless, chop suey continued to be immensely popular and drew

many people to Chinese restaurants. According to a January 1896 article in

Leslie’s Illustrated,

“Chow chop sui calls Americans to Chinatown. An American who once falls under the spell of chop sui may forget all about things Chinese for a while, and suddenly a strange craving that almost defies will power arises; as though under a magnetic influence he finds that his feet are carrying him to Mott Street. A good meal of chop sui, some duck, or op, some boiled chicken, or gai, rice, and tea costs about fifty cents [while] chop sui, rice, and tea alone could be had for thirty cents.”194

192 Incidentally, even in the present, many Asian-Americans still do not know what chop suey is. I had only heard about it in the context of Chinese take-out, but after hearing it mentioned by a co-worker, I was curious, since I didn’t know what it was myself. So I asked my mother. The first thing she told me was to never order it at any restaurant and then went on to explain that the name itself was indicative of the dish. The mixed bits were generally the scraps of food from other dishes, or the end pieces that would normally be thrown away, so, not the choice parts of anything. She said it was a dish created so as not to waste leftovers. Essentially you would not be getting good ingredients and is not something you would want to spend money on.

193 “Chop Suey Injunction,” The New York Times, June 15, 1904.194 Leslie’s Illustrated, January 9, 1896 in Bonner, pg. 97.

Leung 80

The writer’s description of the appeal chop suey makes the dish seem quite

addictive, almost like a drug, which is a bit ironic since Chinatown and

Chinese people were not so long before, very strongly associated with

opium addiction. Now the tables have turned and the Chinese have made

Americans into chop suey addicts.

Restaurants serving chop suey were called chop suey houses and soon

popped up all around New York City. For most of these eateries,

““Yocakman,” “chop suey” and “chowman” are the pieces de resistance.

They answer the purpose, certainly, for 25 cents’ worth of some kinds of

chop suey, served with rice, will make a toothsome dish for two people.”195

Incidentally, none of these dishes are truly Chinese. While some of the

dishes served in such restaurants may have been able to trace their roots

back to China, most had been changed and adulterated to appeal to the

American palate. Such restaurants were often open until late into the night,

which made them especially popular with the after-theater and night reveler

crowds. “From Atlanta to New Haven to Portland, Maine, eating a bowl of

chop suey at midnight among a crowd of ruffians, fallen women, and

thespians meant that you had achieved a state of worldly urban

sophistication.” 196 With the increase of popularity among bohemians, chop

suey grew from being a low-class dish for peasants, to a sign of high class

cosmopolitanism.197

195 “Chinese Restaurants. Those Uptown,” New York Tribune, February 3, 1901.196 Coe, pg. 171.197 Coe, pg. 167.

Leung 81

Many people also found chop suey appealing because there were no

signs of any of the ‘weird’ things they believed Chinese people ate. Lucien

Adkins often took friends to Chinatown for meals and highly recommended

his readers to introduce their friends to the wonders of chop suey. He

wrote,

“Take a friend to Chinatown for the first time and watch his face when the savory chop-suey arrives. He looks suspiciously at the mixture…He quickly puts aside the chop sticks, which are evidently possessed of the devil, and goes at the stuff with a fork. It is a heroic effort, but it is not sustained. The novice gets a mouthful or two, turns pale, all the time declaring that it is “great.” It is a long time before he can be persuaded to go again, but he is sure to surrender eventually to the enchanting decoction, and soon there are times when the knowing hunger for chop-suey, and for nothing else, draws him to dingy Chinatown, alone and solitary, if he can find no one to accompany him. For awhile he half believes there must be “dope” in the stuff. He is now certain that there are no rats in it. He is confirmed chop-suey eater.”198

And so the chop suey craze began. No bird’s nest, rats or puppies could be

identified as ingredients in the dish, which mainly consisted of vegetables,

and any meat included was most definitely chicken or pork. As a result, it

was deemed, to a certain extent, safe for human consumption, and

Americans found it to be surprisingly tasty. For that reason, “chop suey,

the only Chinese dish most white Americans had tasted, had become

emblematic of Chinese food as a whole.” 199 They knew they could always

order this dish and know what they were getting, no matter what restaurant

they visited. Chop suey, then, enabled Americans to combine both the

198 Adkins, in Beck, pgs. 296-297.199 Coe, pg. 171.

Leung 82

foreign and familiar together in one dish. In this respect, chop suey served

as a forerunner to modern Chinese take-out.

Conclusion

The effects of the romanticization of China still continue to the

present. Not only have Western perspectives subjected the country and

geographic region to its fantasies, but the people as well. Even though

fans, cups and plates are no longer the main source of images of the “exotic

East,” mass media has become its modern-day replacement, perpetuating

the narrative of China and Asia as a place of exoticism, mysticism and

decadence despite, and perhaps in spite of, an increased and deeper

knowledge of the people and country, 200 all in the name of entertainment.

Instead of porcelain and chop suey, there is now Crouching Tiger Hidden

Dragon and dim sum.

In his dissertation on the history of the image of China in early

America, Stuart Creighton Miller presented the idea that “the human mind

does not see and then define, but instead defines an object or situation and

then sees what it has defined.”201 Due to the images on export merchandise,

Americans, for the most part, had defined China and Chinese people as

romantic. So when they were forced to contend with the blatant reality of

200 For a more modern perspective on Orientalism, see Sheridan Prasso’s book, The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient, (New York: Public Affairs), 2005.

201 Miller, pg. 12.

Leung 83

China with the arrival of the Chinese, there was a decided split where some

were disillusioned and others held onto their fantasies.

Americans wanted to believe so much in the ideal, that the “[m]emory

of the modern Orient disputes imagination, [and] sen[t] one back to the

imagination as a place preferable, for the European sensibility, to the real

Orient.”202 The appeal of the invented fairytale China was so strong, that

the American public had equally strong feelings when it came to facing the

deconstruction of their wonderland. For those disenchanted by reality, the

previous romantic definition would always be the standard to which the

immigrant Chinese, their culture and food, would always be held and found

lacking.

Those able to continue along the same idealized vein, saw an

expansion of their fantasy and were able to apply the romantic definition to

new things by way of cuisine and Chinatowns. The fantasies and romance

no longer existed solely in their minds or in the form of flat images, but now

had a three-dimensional, all encompassing quality which they fully

embraced. In the end, Americans defined export merchandise as the

standard of romance, and Chinese cuisine and Chinatowns as either

entertainment and amusement or disgusting non-edible fare and the center

of vice. In all cases, Americans boxed China and its people into a specific

framework, for better or worse, and in the end, saw and tasted what they

wanted.

202 Said, pgs. 100-101.

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Leung 85

Appendix A:Chinese Export Merchandise

All of the following images are courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

1. Tea Caddy, about 1870 China; Silver, E79056.AB

2. Folding Fan, ca. 1850 China; wood, paper, ivory, iron, E38375

Leung 86

3. Punch bowl, about 1765, Jingdezhen, China; Porcelain, AE85436.

The image on the bowl is a depiction of the city of Canton. The flags of Spain, France (White Bourbon), Sweden, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark can be seen in front of the respective hongs, which were building complexes where the Western traders lived and conducted their business.

4. Tureen and stand, 1770 – 90, China; Porcelain, E80322.A-C

Leung 87

5. Nanking Platter, 1790 – 1800, China; Porcelain, E49440

6. Plate, ca. 1760, Liverpool, England; Tin-glazed earthenware, E81506

Leung 88

This is an early example of a plate of European manufacture, decorated in the Chinese style, imitating the colors of motifs of similar goods created in China. It appears to be a rougher imitation of the plate above, despite having an earlier date of creation.

7. Tending the Silkworms in Cocoons, 1790, China; Opaque watercolor on

paper, E81661.6

Leung 89

8. Teapot, 1700 – 1720, China; Porcelain, E80203.AB

Appendix B:

Leung 90

Chinese Cuisine

These images are courtesy of Norman Leung, November, 2011.

1. A typical Cantonese breakfast.

Porridge with lean meat and 1,000 year old egg, and a fried donut on the side.

The egg is actually an egg that has been soaked and preserved in a mixture that changes the taste and color. The process takes from several weeks to several months, not the 1,000 years as described in the English translation of its name.

2. A home-cooked style meal.

Leung 91

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