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yan dissertation 7-18-13.pdf (825.36 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Negotiating Authenticity: Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants

Yan, Nancy
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1374153098

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
This dissertation investigates a key folkloric concept – authenticity – through an exploration of the Chinese restaurant. Scholars tend to be wary of using the term authenticity in conjunction with cultural expressions because of its association with dangerous nationalist movements, problematic boundaries, and potential for essentialism. Authenticity is often understood in the vein of continuity to the past; such an understanding implies singularity, stability and bounded concreteness rather than dynamism and fluidity in cultural expressions. As a result, in scholarship, claims of authenticity are often avoided or deconstructed as invalid or false. However, I argue that claims to authenticity can be valid and legitimate and that authenticity should be considered as multiple and flexible. I examine one Chinese restaurant, one Chinese dish, and a small collection of vintage Chinese restaurant menus to investigate discourses on authenticity. Ding Ho, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, embodies several features typical of Chinese restaurants but also contain anomalous elements in their operations which, according to some on-line restaurant reviews, mark the restaurant as inauthentic. However, I suggest that anomalies are not evidence of pollution of a Chinese restaurant’s authenticity but instead indicate variations within the category. Discourses on a Chinese restaurant’s authenticity include, for example, some patrons’ desire for access to the separate Chinese language menu that some Chinese restaurants have. Such conversations often contain echoes of Orientalist narratives. Wor Sue Gai, the dish I focus on in my discussion, is a chicken dish often found in Chinese restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, and it is believed to be a local invention. While the actual origins of Wor Sue Gai are unclear, conversations about the dish on internet food discussion boards point to both Columbus, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan as its birthplace. Unlike chop suey, Wor Sue Gai’s Chinese-ness is not in question, although it is presumed to have been created in the United States. However, it still maintains a Chinese identity as well as a regional identity associated with both Columbus and Detroit. These multiple identities tell us that Wor Sue Gai, like any cultural expression, can sustain several co-existing identities. Authenticity is not about a single origin so much as it is about claiming a cultural expression as their own. As cultural artifacts, Chinese restaurants menus serve as the public presentation of the restaurant’s identity. Earlier Chinese menus tend to have distinct separations of Chinese and American dishes, indicating the need to gently introduce Chinese cuisine and culture to an unfamiliar patron base. Analysis of the types of dishes, the transliterations of the names of dishes from Chinese to English, and visual images and illustrations on the restaurant menus reveal that authenticity is often contextual and negotiated to accommodate the restaurant’s clientele. Chinese restaurant menus operate as markers of social relationships This dissertation argues that there are multiple authenticities in any cultural expression, that claiming authenticity is a valid act, that its authenticity can be based on claiming, and that claims of authenticity are contextual and relational.
Amy Shuman (Advisor)
Judy Wu (Committee Co-Chair)
Patrick Mullen (Committee Member)
Ray Cashman (Committee Member)
185 p.
Asian American Studies; Folklore
authenticity; Chinese restaurant; Chinese food; folklore; foodways; Asian American; Asian American folklore; Chinese American; Wor Sue Gai;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Yan, N. (2013). Negotiating Authenticity: Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1374153098

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Yan, Nancy. Negotiating Authenticity: Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants. 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1374153098.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Yan, Nancy. "Negotiating Authenticity: Multiplicity, Anomalies, and Context in Chinese Restaurants." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1374153098

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.