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Comment by thepasswordis | Hacker News Reader

Some version of this comment has been smugly posted on every single discussion about Chinese food since the beginning of time.

If you are living in America, and you want the food made by the people in your community who are Chinese, would it make sense to call it Chinese food?

Chinese food, as in: the food the Chinese people make.

Italian food, as in: the food Italian people make.

Indian food, as in: the food that Indian people make.

America is a country made up of immigrants from other countries, so when they are here making the foods that they used to make in their home countries, we call it "Chinese food", "Italian food" etc.

I understand why this can be confusing to people who aren't used to living in culturally diverse countries. It is normal in The United States to interact with people from all over the world. Saying "Chinese food" does not literally mean food from China, it means food made by Chinese immigrants to The United States.

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> If you are living in America, and you want the food made by the people in your community who are Chinese, would it make sense to call it Chinese food?

That still wouldn't include crab rangoon. It's just as homespun American as key lime pie. No Asians of any variety were ever involved, as you can tell by the fact that it is made of cheese.

> Saying "Chinese food" does not literally mean food from China, it means food made by Chinese immigrants to The United States.

Not even close. It means food that is sold in restaurants that are called Chinese restaurants. If it meant food made by Chinese immigrants, it would include Mongolian barbecue (which is Chinese food) and all Japanese cuisine (which isn't, but the Chinese like opening Japanese restaurants because the American price of Japanese food is higher).

> America is a country made up of immigrants from other countries, so when they are here making the foods that they used to make in their home countries, we call it "Chinese food", "Italian food" etc.

This seems to contradict the rest of your comment. Are you taking the position that "Chinese food" refers to food that is made by American Chinese for whatever reason, or that it refers to food that is made by Chinese in China? If the second, what are you objecting to in your parent comment?

> America is a country made up of immigrants from other countries, so when they are here making the foods that they used to make in their home countries, we call it "Chinese food"

Ok but nobody in China makes "crab rangoon".

> I understand why this can be confusing

That sounds a little patronizing. Obviously I am familiar with the concept of migration. I was simply surprised by something that is so wildly different from any reasonable notion of food that originated in China. The line from China to chow mein or general tso chicken is much more clear than the line to crab rangoon.

> Saying "Chinese food" does not literally mean food from China, it means food made by Chinese immigrants to The United States.

But now we're getting into the territory calling pizza Mexican food because most people in the back of the house at pizzerias in the USA are of Mexican origin.

I think in the past 20 years or so fusion food has started to gain more respect.

Particularly as second and third generation immigrants gain adulthood, it's easier to recognize that Tex Mex, Cal Mex, UK Takeaway Indian, American-Chinese, LA Korean, etc. are their own categories of food worth celebrating. Yes Korean tacos from a truck aren't "authentic Korean" but they're not trying to be.

I usually just tack Country-X on food when we're talking about the fusion version. It's a little unwieldy but makes the point clear.

I don't think that this is how it works. In Italy almost all sushi restaurants are run by Chinese immigrants, but we definitely don't think of sushi as Chinese food.

On the topic, "Chicken Tikka Masala" is actually of British origin, and "Butter chicken", while purportedly developed in India, caught on more in the Western world as a representation of Indian food than it did in India.

So, as an ethnic Chinese, when I make spaghetti carbonara in the United States, I'm making "Chinese food"?

Interesting.

I haven't made or eaten crab rangoon before, so does this fact make spaghetti carbonara "more Chinese" than crab rangoon?

I mean, personally I think the English language is still trying to adopt to the multi-ethnic situation in the USA, which is why crab rangoon would be classified as "American Chinese food" instead of "Chinese food". But I guess language is flexible enough that if enough of you insist on calling it that, eventually it will stick.

May you suggest another term for the food that Chinese people outside of the US actually make and eat? Maybe "authentic Chinese food" sounds too ethnonormative for your culturally diverse palate, but I can't think of any good alternative, and simply using the same term for both types of "Chinese food" seems counter to the cultural diversity you espouse -- I mean, unless "people all over the world" just means Americans.

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