on asian stereotypes pt. 1 (or: Panda Expresses vs. PF Chang's)
Ever since a sophomore theater class, when a TA told me that it's not okay to call asians "oriental", I've become somewhat sensitive on the subject. And now, in my film class on Japanese auteurs, where I constantly read European criticisms of Japanese cinema (and am constantly exposed to my professor's distaste for it), I seem to have a radar out for western fetishization of eastern culture. People (even asians) often don't find this an issue. But my thoughts can be summed up in a shocking comparison between Panda Express and PF Chang's.
YOU WILL BE SHOCKED if you read the following post with a finger in the electrical outlet.
Consider the Panda Express, the emblematic Chinese fast food restaurants. The mere mention of the name brings a cringe to any self-respecting chinese. They sell food laid out in trays cooked in the most exaggerated versions of popular asian sauces -- sweet & sour, mandarin, or teryaki. And everything is either fried or drenched in oil. Clearly, the target audience here is Americans. I mean, seriously, when the hell did orange become one of the primary flavors associated with Chinese food? The restaurant has taken all the Chinese dishes, looked at what is most different from American dishes, and exaggerated the differences 100 times, in fear that the poor white kid eating this stuff won't realize it's Chinese. This is fetishizing at its finest. It cheapens the Chinese culinary arts down to three sauces, makes Chinese cuisine look easy, and bets that Americans won't be able to tell the difference. In fact, it makes the bet that Americans will like the fetishized version of Chinese food even better. Because of this -- and because the food is crap -- we hate Panda Express.
And then there's the PF Chang's of the world. PF Chang is actually not a good example, but I'm talking about certain expensive, lavishly-decorated and up-scale Chinese restaurants in general. There are large calligraphies hanging on the wall. Dividers with Chinese paintings dot the room. And frigging stone lions guard the entrance. These places cannot help to keep hitting you over the head with the fact that you are dining in a chinese restaurant. But is this so bad, if the food is good?
These restaurants are businesses after all; therefore, their intention is not to educate customers on Chinese culture, but to attract customers hungry for Chinese food. As a result, the decorations are there to create an atmosphere that is emphatically, undeniably Chinese -- or, at least, Chinese according to the Americans. Will they know it's Chinese if there aren't calligraphies on the wall? Will they know it's Chinese if we don't give them fortune cookies at the end? Most of the customers don't actually care about Chinese culture; they just want to satisfy their thirst for the exotic, the unfamiliar, for one night. And so these restaurants wrap up Chinese culture neatly into a marketing package and sell it to customers interested in indulging in Chinese for a night. The package therefore is a highly fetishized version of the Chinese culture, and there is something very unsettling about that to me.
Is it the restaurants' fault? Not really; they are a business after all, and they do what they can to attract customers. It is the customers' fault? Not exactly; god knows I've done it countless times to countless other cultures. But this is my culture, damn it! If I don't raise the issue, who will? How can I stand on the sidelines and watch my beloved culture cheapened and solicited on the street, like a prostitute with too much make-up or Yang's mother after 10pm? I can't, and I won't.
We don't see this demonstrated to an extreme often. Living in the Bay Area has spoiled us; we are usually surrounded by ethnically-enlightened people and businesses, and don't get fetishized packages shoved down our throat. But if you venture a little farther away, you start running into these things.
Another thing. Why can up-scale Italian/French/etc. restaurants have a hip, modernist decoration that is ethnicity-agnostic, while an up-scale Chinese restaurant must be decorated in a fetishized manner? Etc., etc. I could go on and on about this, but it's getting late...