"It is never only a Chinese restaurant. It’s choices of life that we are discovering from this." --- Beibei, student participant
Students in my Spring 2019 course, "What is Chinese Food?" at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were asked to interview Chinese restaurateurs from North Carolina and share their story in the form of a webpage narrative. The purpose was not to review local Chinese restaurants, but to learn more about the personal histories of the people behind the food. How did they end up in various corners of North Carolina from their far-flung points of origin? What have been their struggles and challenges, their passions and successes?
Megan (center) with Ho (L) and Emily (R) at China Wok
Some students returned to their hometown Chinese restaurants to interview owners of businesses they had frequented for years, but did not know well. Others approached a restaurant they had never stepped foot in before and ended up with the personal history of a generous stranger. Some interviewed second-generation children of Chinese restaurateurs in the state, who are now fellow students at UNC Chapel Hill. A few even interviewed their own parents, hearing intimate stories of hardship and struggle for the first time.
The restaurants described are almost entirely family businesses, where Chinese food has long been a practical means to a livelihood. For many, this has been labor of necessity and the only way for an immigrant family to survive; for others, this represents a passion for food or a joy found in serving customers.
Amy's handiwork at Mr. Dumpling
In recent decades, a great majority of Chinese restaurateurs, including those on this site, have migrated from the vicinity of a single city in China: Fuzhou in Fujian Province on the southeast coast. But others interviewed hail from major Chinese metropolises such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Xi'an. Still other overseas Chinese included in this group found their way here from Taiwan, Burma, Malaysia, and India.
How did these migrants land in towns and cities scattered around North Carolina-- from Sneads Ferry, Chocowinity, and Wilmington in the Coastal Plain, to Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, Cary, Apex, Thomasville, Lewisville, Charlotte, and Wingate in the Piedmont, to Burnsville in the Mountains? How did they end up calling these places home?
These are their stories.