Chinese restaurants are often the most tangible representation of Chinese culture for non-Chinese people and for Chinese people, a visible forum for public expression of culture in arenas for limited ethnic expression. As a result, Chinese restaurants represent a contested site of negotiated symbols of ethnicity. Standards of authenticity are often used to judge a Chinese restaurant's quality but notions of authenticity about culture contain essentialist and static assumptions about what is traditional. However, traditions constantly change and adapt in response to several factors, economic feasibility being one of them. Chinese food is less monolithic but subject to a variety of regional and international influences. Contemporary restaurants in Columbus, Ohio speak of adaptation in the production of their food for general accessibility. Chinese restaurants must produce what sells well which then becomes known as the quintessential Chinese dish. Responses to surveys about Chinese restaurants taken by Ohio State University students show that many people do not seem to care about authenticity in Chinese food yet notions of authenticity are still maintained to describe what is "good" Chinese food.
Food carries intimate meaning for many societies and what one eats often carries symbolic value for social identity. Historically, eating at Chinese restaurants has maintained exotic imagery for non-Chinese patrons. It was greeted with suspicion yet the consumer would be seen as an adventurer or exotic voyager. Survey responses by contemporary Ohio State University students still show glimmers of the historical exotification, but the definition of Chinese food is used not so much to describe the cuisine as much as it is a way to describe what is or is not American,
Chinese restaurant owners must tap into expectations of Chinese restaurants and its food and reproduce it in order to survive as a business. Restaurant owners often investigate other Chinese restaurants before opening their own to find out what is successful. Though the decorations in the restaurant contribute to the performance of an expected identity, they also represent unconscious displays of cultural identity. The ubiquity of Chinese restaurants has not yet allowed it to become "American" in mainstream culture, perhaps because of its propensity to exist in small family businesses rather than as large corporate chains of ethnic food such as Taco Bell. In the American context, Chinese restaurants continue to exist on an identity of foreign-ness which can allow for the definition of what is not foreign or what is to be considered American.