Over the years, ethnic food has become more and more widely accessible. After coming home from a long day and feeling exhausted, you and your loved ones collectively decide to order takeout instead of making dinner. Nowadays, there are so many restaurants to choose from, with food ordering apps like DoorDash offering categories for food based on regional origins, such as Chinese, Mexican, Asian, and Spanish. In just a few clicks, you can have almost any food you want delivered right to your front door.
Ethnic foods have traveled all over the world, and, now, each country has more than its own cultural dishes. Could you imagine if you could only eat Vietnamese food in Vietnam? Many people would never get to experience pho! Instead, you can eat Vietnamese food in many countries outside of Vietnam and, likely, in the comfort of the very town or city in which you live.
The first introduction of Asian dishes in America can be linked back to the California Gold Rush in the mid-1800s, which brought many Chinese immigrants to America. The first Chinese restaurant, the Canton Restaurant, opened in 1849. This one restaurant led to many more, eventually forming the booming business that Chinese cuisine is today.
When foods are brought to new places, they’re often changed and adapted. For example, fusion restaurants — where two or more cuisines are combined into one dish — can bring great flavors together and create new dishes that allow people to appreciate the cultures that are represented in the recipes. With ethnic foods traveling around the world, however, there has become an issue of food becoming whitewashed. Whitewashing ethnic foods can look like simplifying recipes, commercializing the food, and culturally appropriating the dishes. Chi Hameed, a South Asian-Canadian college student, says, “It’s sad because cultural foods hold lots of meaning to the people who eat them and grew up around them. [Whitewashing dishes] changes people’s perceptions of what true multiculturalism is and makes people less open to trying real, authentic food.”
A big company name that comes up when talking about whitewashed ethnic food is Panda Express. The first Panda Express was opened in 1983 by Chinese-Americans, Andrew and Peggy Cherng, and Andrew’s father, Ming Tsai Cherng. Today, this family-owned restaurant has expanded into over 2,000 restaurants. Panda Express has a lot of whitewashed elements — such as its Apple Pie Roll which aims to be a combination of the iconic American dessert and an egg roll. The defining reason why Panda Express isn’t cultural appropriation is because it was created by Chinese-Americans. Panda Express may not taste the same as food directly made in China, but it’s still Chinese food. Panda Express is an example of people successfully sharing their food with the world and building a successful life for their families.
With the huge successes of ethnic fast-food chains such as Panda Express, we still need to make sure mom-and-pop restaurants — a term to describe independent and often family-owned businesses — are receiving love. The food at mom-and-pop restaurants is usually homemade with love, but these restaurants can be forgotten as people flock to big-name fast-food restaurants instead.
A recent example of cultural appropriation of ethnic foods was a controversy involving Simu Liu and Bobba. Bobba is a company that makes bottled drinks claiming to be a better, simpler, and healthier version of bubble tea — a drink that originated in Taiwan. The two Bobba owners, Sébastien Fiset and Jess Frenette, went onto the show “Dragon’s Den” — Canada’s version of “Shark Tank” — and pitched their company idea to the “Dragons” in hopes of gaining money to support their business. In their pitch, they claimed that “[people] are never quite sure about the content [of bubble tea].”
Simu Liu, a Chinese-Canadian actor and a “Dragon,” expressed his concerns about the company’s idea being a form of cultural appropriation and Bobba “taking something that’s very distinctly Asian in its identity and ‘making it better.’” Fiset replied, “It’s not an [ethnic] product anymore, not with the popping bobas.” Contradicting himself, Fiset later goes on to say his “best partner is in Taiwan” and that this partner is “the cultural part” of his product.
When asked why they decided to join the bubble tea industry, Fiset explained that he saw how popping boba was rising in popularity, so he felt he needed “to come out with something [to sell].” This incident blew up on social media with many people, specifically those of Asian descent, making fun of the company by doing things like getting bubble tea and quoting things Fiset said. One TikTok post, by user @momentsofrose, shows the creator getting a bubble tea drink with the caption, “How life feels getting my no longer ethnic, mystery ingredient drink — the only thing that would make it better if it was in a can and watered down.” The blatant rejection of the product’s ethnic roots makes it feel as though Fiset simply took the name for bubble tea and made a new product that completely forgets the original creation and its cultural roots.
Even though boba originated in Taiwan and Bobba has a business partner from Taiwan, their bottles have no mention of the country. Liu was talked over and dismissed for his feelings multiple times throughout the episode. Because Liu was the only East Asian Dragon on the show, many viewers felt this was unfair.
The difference between these two companies, Panda Express and Bobba, is the founders and the people who helped the companies come to fruition. Chinese-Americans taking their own food and creating a new take on it is a lot different from white people taking something from another culture and claiming they made it “better.” That’s cultural appropriation.
Making sure people of color are heard is so important. Be willing to listen, learn, and change. Portia Hall Rockne, who teaches a U.S. history class at Franklin that focuses on Asian American studies, says, “[What can be done differently is] we can try new things and respect things and be willing to pay for things. … We can spread awareness about new things and trying new things.”
We need to support small businesses because the owners of mom-and-pop restaurants are passionate and ready to serve you authentic, homemade recipes. These restaurants, even if it can come with harsh realities and sacrifices, wish to spread the thing they love that’s so dear to them: their cultural dishes. Every culture deserves to be shown appreciation for their unique foods and costumes, and these restaurants are offering a key way for someone to do just that.
