Part I: The main idea


My project is about how Chinese food is affected by American society. The main idea is to tell a story about cultural adaptation through investigating the food industry, a big part of Chinese culture. The adaptation process begins when one culture enters another one. The society changes over the years, and so does the authenticity of the cuisine.

There are many factors involved in the evolution of American Chinese food. The international relations between the U.S and China affect Americans' attitude towards Chinese people. The attitude determines the degree of American's tolerance for Chinese food and whether they are willing to try the exotic dishes. The Chinese cooks adjust the taste of the food according to American preferences. Therefore, the political environment between the two countries plays a role in the food evolution. 

Chinese immigrants are regarded as a homogeneous group. However, it is not as simple as it seems to be. Every Chinese immigrant brings a part of their culture into this foreign country. The Chinese cuisine brought to the United States has undergone a long process of evolution alongside this country. American Chinese dishes carry the traditions of China and the social characteristics of the United States. 

The United States is an inclusive country that brings together people from all over the world. Those people bring their unique culture into this foreign country. These cultures have grown with the United States over the years, and have evolved into new cultures. Some people say that America is a "melting pot," which assimilates immigrants' heterogeneity. I think it is not a negative evaluation, but a natural process of cultural adaptation. I hope that my project generates more thoughts on how one culture adapts to another through looking at the evolution of Chinese food in the United States.
 

There are four main components in this project: a timeline of the historical events from 1850 to present, a collection of local stories, a gallery of menu covers, and a visualization of menu data sets.

• The timeline shows how the international relationship influences America's acceptance of Chinese food. It includes political decisions between the two countries from 1850 to 2017.
• The local interviews come from three Chinese restaurants in Lewisburg, P.A: Pandaly, Fuji Steakhouse, and Yung Ting. The restaurant owners share their own stories of their adventures in the U.S.
• The gallery includes eleven menu covers from the data collection. There are annotations pointing out some interesting features on each of the picture.
• The data visualization comes from the historical menu data sets. It gives people a chance to explore the data themselves. The digital tools make the data easy to understand and interesting to play with.