From Haifa, Israel, to Cape Town, South Africa, Chinese entrepreneurs and restaurateurs have brought delicious Chinese food across the globe. Unraveling a complex history of cultural migration and world politics, Cheuk Kwan describes a fascinating story of culture and place, ultimately revealing how an excellent meal always tells an even better story.
Dotting even the most remote landscapes, family-run Chinese restaurants are global icons of immigration, community, and delicious food. The cultural outposts of far-flung settlers, bringers of dim sum, Peking duck, and creative culinary hybrids like the Madagascar classic soupe chinoise, Chinese restaurants are a microcosm of greater social forces—an insight into time, history, and place. From Africa to South America, the Jade Gardens and Golden Dragons reveal an intricate tangle of social schisms and political movements, offering insight into global changes and diasporic histories, as the world has moved into the twenty-first century.
Author and documentarian Cheuk Kwan, a self-described “card-carrying member of the Chinese diaspora,” weaves a global narrative by linking the myriad personal stories of chefs, entrepreneurs, laborers, and dreamers who populate Chinese kitchens worldwide. Behind these kitchen doors lies an intriguing paradox which characterizes many of these communities: how Chinese immigrants have resisted—or often been prevented from—complete assimilation into the social fabric of their new homes, maintaining strong senses of cultural identity, while the engine of their economic survival—the Chinese restaurant and its food—has become seamlessly woven into cities all around the world.
An intrepid travelog of grand vistas, adventure, and serendipity, Have You Eaten Yet? charts a living atlas of the global Chinese migration, revealing the synergies of politics, culture, and family.
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“In my many decades of traveling across continents and oceans…’Have you eaten yet?’ is a phrase I hear often…More than a casual social greeting, the question conveys to me a sense of familiarity, of culture, history, tradition, and of home. It took the keen eye of a great storyteller like Kwan to spin all that to a most enjoyable and meaningful book.”
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Martin Yan, chef and host of Yan Can Cook on public television