"IF ONLY FOOD COULD SOLVE EVERYTHING"
While racism continues to create disharmony and to be a prevalent problem in society, one essential factor still unites us all: food. Food is not only a necessity for survival, it is also a necessity for culture and writing allows us to record and share that culture. In 1914, two sisters, Sara Bosse and Onoto Watanna wrote one of the first Asian cookbooks in the United States, Chinese-Japanese Cook Book, in which they shared a wide variety of Asian dishes, from soups to fried rice to desserts, with the American public. This collection teaches people not only how to make particular foods, but also the history linked to them.
Since the nineteenth century, Asian Americans have been constantly discriminated against legally, socially, and economically. Chinese and Japanese immigrants were especially targeted against with exclusions in labor and restrictions on immigration, which contributed to the overall negative sentiment towards Asians and Asian Americans. Anti-Asian violence and riots were common, and as we entered the twentieth century, xenophobia and prejudice only intensified. Bosse and Watanna created an Asian cookbook with the intention of bringing their ethnic culture to the forefront in order to force people to confront, resolve, and accept the differences that exist between groups. The sisters were half-Chinese, but Watanna took on a Japanese identity and learned Japanese culture through books. Perhaps they chose to compile Chinese and Japanese food recipes not only because the foods represented the ethnicities they were and identified with, but also because they hoped to draw attention to these two specific cultures in hopes of appeasing the negative attitudes toward them. However, despite their intent to do so, Bosse and Watanna were not successful in encouraging the nation, particularly Whites, to accept authentic Chinese and Japanese foods or Chinese- and Japanese-Americans, as the recipes they selected failed to deliver the correct message. The cookbook’s preface unfortunately weakens the effectiveness of their objective to showcase their cultures to be worthy of acceptance as they present their cuisines as inferior and in need of justification. When they state, “when it is known how simple and clean are the ingredients used to make up these Oriental dishes, the Westerner will cease to feel that natural repugnance which assails one when about to taste a strange dish of a new and strange land,”[1] there are multiple implications that hinder the move away from looking at Asian cuisine with disdain. One implication is that there is a general association of dirtiness and disgust with Asian foods and people. Another implication is that Asian things are new and strange, meaning anything Asian is a deviation from the norm, which affirms the fact that White is the normal state. The third implication is that it is natural for Westerners to be repulsed by Asian things just because they are different. The term “Oriental” is also used multiple times; this derogatory term implies inferiority and the view of people as objects, and the authors’ use of that term as Asians points to their recognition of and submission to their position. Their compliance ultimately impedes their hope for equality. Bosse and Watanna present Asian things as only acceptable after Westerners have approved them, and the collection they have formed is intended to gain Westerners’ approval so as to help Asians gain status. While Bosse and Watanna have selected a large variety of dishes, the choices are not surprising; all the picks are familiar typical foods served in Asian-American restaurants. They say the recipes are all genuine, however, tweaks were made to cater to the Western palate so as to ensure Americans will not be shocked or deterred by the different taste or appearance. Preparation was also taken into consideration as the sisters chose foods that “can be prepared with the kitchen utensils of Western civilization.”[2] By making choices based on how accessible the dishes are and how easily they are made, the more authentic choices exemplifying more accurate Asian tastes may be excluded for the purpose of convenience. Similarly, most of the ingredients used in the recipes can easily be found at supermarkets, which once again exhibits willingness to make accommodations to suit Westerners’ ease and satisfaction. There is also a contradiction in their claim that the recipes are genuine and have been handed down a long line of noted Chinese cooks; some of the ingredients used extensively, such as onions and carrot, are not indigenous to China so they are less common in Chinese cuisine. Authentic Chinese cuisine also typically emphasizes vegetables, however, most of the recipes in this cookbook emphasize meat as the main ingredient. The modification of ingredients shows an incorporation of Western foods and tastes to make the original Asian foods more appealing and likely to be accepted. These adapted recipes say much about Western culture: cultural assimilation was an integral part of society during that time and essential in creating some form of agreement or peace between groups. Without some shared aspects, different groups may remain in conflict with subjugation of one by others. While attempting to make adjustments to appeal Westerners, Bosse and Watanna did move forward by trying to break certain assumptions about Asians, specifically their lack of cleanliness. Bosse and Watanna’s implication of an association between Asian food and people with dirtiness surfaces once again in the “Rules for Cooking” section. They emphasize the significance of hygiene by providing extremely detailed instructions, such as washing vegetables and fruits in fifty different waters, methods to check the level of freshness, and what to use to wash utensils. By making clear what needs to be done to ensure sanitary conditions and food and by providing the details to allow Westerners to replicate the process, Westerners would be forced to conclude Asians and Asian things are not disgusting as previously supposed. Though it seems like a standard cookbook on the surface, Chinese-Japanese Cook Book is multifunctional in that it teaches, tells history, and reflects social problems of the time. The selection of recipes and preface certainly reveals Asians’ continual struggle for acceptance in the Western world, the sacrifices that must be made to achieve that goal, such as modifying one’s native culture to make it more appealing or similar to Western culture, and the racism Asians endured during this process. Many of the Asians living in the United States during the time of publication of this cookbook were immigrant workers and Bosse and Watanna’s collection caters to this socioeconomic class by providing recipes that use accessible and affordable ingredients and can be made in any Western home. Despite the informative aspects of this cookbook and the convenience and usefulness of the recipes, Chinese-Japanese Cook Book fails to achieve its main goal to accurately preserve authentic Chinese and Japanese cuisine, and ultimately failing to gain acceptance of authentic Asian foods from others. Unfortunately, the cookbook offers Westernized versions of authentic recipes, fueling White domination and rejection of non-White cultures. |