Chop, Fry, Watch, Learn: Fu Pei-Mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food by Michelle T. King

★★★★★

The back flap of the book's dust jacket says Fu Pei-mei's cookbooks "have become beloved emblems of cultural memory, passed from parent to child, wherever diasporic Chinese have landed." Indeed, like the author, I am of that particular slice of Asian America that can characterize myself as "Chinese American by way of Taiwan" (p. xxii), and I remember my immigrant mom having all 3 cookbooks, though only the first in the series was heavily used, with stains and handwritten notes. Consequently, I went into this book - a book that shines a light on the food-centered nostalgia of my childhood - feeling pre-disposed to adore it. (Thanks to my niece for recognizing my potential interest and gifting me this book!)

Michelle T. King offers up Chop, Fry, Watch, Learn as a "history of Chinese food as seen through Fu Pei-mei's life and career... in all its global, gendered, political, and technological dimensions... [reflecting] multiple generations of families, connected across oceans by an abiding love of Chinese food." (p. xxi)

I especially appreciated the thread of discourse describing and explaining the use of the label "Taiwanese", which has evolved over the decades and has noticeably shifted in my own lifetime and experiences. (p. 15-16, 191) Equally fascinating to me was Fu Pe-mei's influence in worldwide gastrodiplomacy on behalf of the Republic of China, distinct from the People's Republic of China, a delicate, complex, and nuanced effort that continues today with those wishing to promote Taiwan and Taiwanese food as distinct from China and Chinese food. (p. 150-153, 186-187, 193) (Indeed, I was reminded of a recent trip to Taiwan when we had a delicious banquet-style dinner of what I would have called "Chinese" dishes but what the restaurant advertised as "Mandarin".) The author doesn't shy away from exploring current, less flattering, even scornful public perception of Fu Pei-mei, as seen in her examination of a TV series based on Fu's life that was not well received by those who thought it "only reinforced the hierarchical legacy of mainlander-Taiwanese relations." (p. 182)

I enjoyed the "East vs. West" contrast between Fu Pei-mei's general philosophy of cooking as "an act of energetic devotion to the family" (p. 28) and that of her contemporary Julia Child, who wrote that her book Mastering the Art of French Cooking was for those "who can be unconcerned on occasion with... children's meals, the parent-chauffeur-den mother syndrome or anything else which might interfere with the enjoyment of producing something wonderful to eat." (p. 29)

I loved this book for its presentation of modern Taiwanese history as seen through the lens of cooking - including Fu Pei-mei's TV shows, cookbooks, cooking classes, and their relevance to overseas Chinese home cooks and immigrant communities - and especially for its personal connection to my own family history, allowing me to see familiar dishes and even my own mother in a larger context. I'm inspired to break out those cookbooks and learn a new dish or two.