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The Unexplored Secondary Ramp In The Decades Long Eastward March of Chinese Food Out Of The San Gabriel Valley

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As I had written numerous times for the old Menuism site, as well as in other articles and speeches, after the beginnings of a Chinese community in Monterey Park in the 1960s, there was a decades long, eastward march of an expanded Chinese community coupled, of course, with a corresponding, though lagging establishment of authentic Chinese restaurants.  As described in that article, the eastward march centered between the San Bernardino Freeway (Interstate 10) and the Pomona Freeway (Highway 60), though extending to adjacent territory to the north and south of these boundaries, following the path of new residential housing community developments, often in hillside areas, that are so beloved by Chinese Americans.  Around the turn of the 21st Century, the eastward march advanced beyond the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles County, and veered down Highway 71 into Chino Hills and then Corona, and then ultimately up Interstate 15 to Eastvale, as new residential community developm...
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Chinese Banquets of My Youth (Mostly Thrown By People I Didn’t Know—But That’s OK Since They All Came To My Wedding Banquet ).

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As many of you have read before, I ate very little Chinese food growing up.  That’s because mid-20th century familial Chinese America was largely American born with Grandpa and Grandma often the only family members from China.  Indeed my primary exposure to Chinese food was at Chinese wedding and birthday banquets, where many of you may have read that I only ate soy sauce and rice and passed on all of the entrees (except for bird’s nest soup if it was on the menu).  And believe me those banquets were commonplace events.  
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Growth of Authentic Chinese Food in the United States -- Drug Dealing Opens Even More New Frontiers For Chinese Dining

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Once upon a time, authentic Chinese food could only be found in American locales where there was a large Chinese population, such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.  Because of the accident of the patterns in the earliest Chinese immigration to the United State, being a large city did not ensure the presence of real Chinese food.  Until 50 years ago, you could not find authentic Chinese food in cities like Dallas or Atlanta, but you could in Augusta, Georgia, Clarksdale, Mississippi or Butte, Montana.     After changes in American immigration laws in 1965 ended an eighty year period of near Chinese exclusion from migrating to the United States, large numbers of Chinese came to the United States from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and eventually Mainland China, as well as other Asian countries.  Unlike the original Chinese migrants from the 19th century who were almost exclusively migrating from rural areas, the new wave of Chinese migration was almost enti...
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My Personal Oral History Interview With The Chinese Historical Society of Southern California

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To me it didn't seem that long ago when I did an oral history of my Grandfather Wong who came to the United States some 110 years ago.  But in fact that was probably sometime in the 1970s, so I shouldn't have been surprised when the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California came along to do an oral history interview with me.   This interview is a slight departure from the other postings on this blog since it does not directly have anything to do with Chinese food in America.  But those of you familiar with my work know that to me, Chinese American history is inexplicably tied into Chinese food in America, and in fact you will probably will remember many of the episodes recounted here from being mentioned in my past food articles. David R. Chan Interview Chinese Historical Society of Southern California   Interviewer: William Gow, Ph.D. Narrator: David R. Chan Location: Zoom Interview Interview 1 of 1 Transcription:   ...
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