John Jung (1) (1937–)

I have mixed feelings, because I liked this book as a valuable collection of oral histories but it really could've used an editor to polish up the text and figures.

I am the granddaughter of a southern Chinese grocery store owner (albeit in a different state), so when I read this, I see what my gung-gung and po-po faced, as well as Mom and my aunties and uncles. My maternal grandparents passed before I was born, so oral histories are valuable to me as a way to connect to them. The paperback copy has an extra foreword and end notes about exhibitions added in 2018, so it seems like an odd omission to not mention the AJ Youtube video interviewing some of the same Delta Chinese folks (though the YT video credits John Jung as a resource). The comments on that and other videos of Delta Chinese seem surprised at thicc Southern accents coming out of Asian faces, but to me they sound just like my aunties and uncles, from that same second generation.

Some of the end parts seemed extraneous (southern Chinese Americans: they do wedding banquets like coastal Chinese Americans!), but they do demonstrate the uniqueness of a community that's close knit while geographically spread versus the distinct neighborhood lines of Chinatowns. When you're a minority of a minority, you hold tight to familiarity, especially in such a structurally segregated environment. I also felt like this could have spent more time on the complicated nuances of having stores in Black neighborhoods while often cultivating anti-Blackness as an assimilation tool because it's something the Asian American community continues to struggle with today.… (més)

Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton by John Jung is written in a textbook style. The chapters that I enjoyed the most were the ones that veered away from that. It is very well documented. What I learned about the Chinese who were originally from the Guangdong Province and settled in the Mississippi Delta was the tenuous tightrope that they had to tread daily. They had to depend on the blacks for their economic support but they aspired for a higher quality of education than what was available for the blacks.

This group of Chinese who came to the area in the 1860s to the 1870s despaired of the arduous farm work and little pay that was first offered to them at first. They saved what they could and often formed partnerships to start up grocery stores. With all the family including the children working long hours in the grocery, they were able to make some money. Often they could not figure out where they belonged in this white/black society. Which restaurants could they go to? Where do they sit at movies? Who could they date? What is the best strategy for survival?

Now I have some answers to some questions that I had not even thought about asking myself. This is a very thought provoking book. Why did the Chinese stay apart from the whites and the blacks? The answers are in this book. The only part that I was missing was what did it feel like? I have a mixed marriage. I can tell you that when we sold our house because of a broken window and unspeakable things written on our car, it really hurt. There still needs to be a book written about the emotional experience of racial hatred that exists today.

I highly recommend this book if you want to know more about the Chinese American history in the United States.

Although I won this book from FirstReads, that did not influence my thoughts or feelings in my review of this book.… (més)

John Jung has taken us down another memory lane and this time we brought along our appetite. Sweet & Sour evoked hundreds of memories of Chinatowns, favorite soul food dishes, haunts of opulent and garish banquet halls and the more frequented and beloved hole-in-the walls. These are the collective memories shared by families and friends. Sweet & Sour is also an anthropological study. Chinese cooks across these United States and Canada created an everlasting love for Chinese food enjoyed by all cultures. Find a “chop suey” house and generations upon generations will cite their favorites, be it chow mein, fried rice, beef brisket stew or even chicken feet. Without a doubt this is by far Jung’s best work and with the greatest universal appeal.

Sylvia Sun Minnick, Samfow: The San Joaquin Chinese Legacy

John Jung again demonstrates a marvelous ability to blend archival data with fascinating first-person accounts to bring to life the family-operated Chinese eateries that are quickly disappearing from today’s society. Following solid historical groundwork, Jung uses narratives of 10 individuals who grew up in such places to take readers inside old-time chop suey houses. Their stories provide a candid telling of the personal, familial, and cultural significance of these familiar cafes. As with his earlier books on Chinese family-owned laundries and grocery stores, the author sheds a fresh and ample light on a subject even more familiar. And once again he does it so well from the inside out.

Mel Brown, Chinese Heart of Texas: The San Antonio Community 1875-1975.

Sweet And Sour is a powerful historical exploration of an American institution: the family-owned Chinese restaurant. John Jung succeeds in bringing to life the exterior side of such Chinese eateries across the nation--their appearance, their location, and of course, their hybrid, Americanized menu offerings. In addition, by means of a variety of interviews and primary sources, he focuses attention as well on their little-known private side, the daily routines and harsh working conditions that made them run. Jung underlines the contributions of all family members, including children, that were necessary for success.

Greg Robinson, A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America

Sweet and Sour: Life in Chinese Family Restaurants tackles the long-neglected topic of Chinese food with a focus on Chinese restaurants. This well-researched, thoughtfully conceptualized monograph brings academic rigor and adds historical depth, as well as the perspectives of an insightful scholar and a second-generation Chinese American, to our understanding of the development of Chinese food in the realm of public consumption in the United States and Canada. It promises to elevate that understanding to a higher level... Through this book, I hope, consumers at the ubiquitous Chinese restaurants can also gain a deeper appreciation of historical forces and human experiences that have shaped the food they now enjoy.

Yong Chen, San Francisco Chinese 1850-1943:A Trans-Pacific Community, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine

Sweet and Sour covers many important aspects of the Chinese restaurant business and it is a great contribution to the study of Chinese food in America. This area really deserves more attention than it has had.

Haiming Liu, “Food, Culinary Identity, and Transnational Culture: Chinese Restaurant Business in Southern California,” Journal of Asian American Studies, (2009). “Chop Suey as an Imagined Authentic Chinese Food: Chinese Restaurant Business and its Culinary Identity in the United States” The Journal of Transnational American Studies (2009).… (més)