HAVE YOU EATEN YET?

A documentarian recounts his journey touring Chinese restaurants around the world.

According to Kwan, one of the few things that unites China’s incredibly diverse diaspora is a shared love of Chinese food in all its iterations. It was this shared love that motivated the author, who speaks English, French, Japanese, and a few Chinese dialects, to travel “more than 200,000 kilometers…from the Amazon to the Arctic Circle” in search of Chinese restaurants and the histories they contain. The histories are what interest Kwan the most. Making good on his promise to use food as an “entry point,” the author describes every establishment he visited through personal, political, and historical lenses. In Havana, Kwan met a Cuban-born Chinese octogenarian who was also a talented singer specializing in Cuban music. After being robbed in Mombasa, Kenya, Kwan flew to Mauritius, and he traces the history of the Hakka people who settled on this African island in the 16th century. In Haifa, Israel, Kwan learned about how the descendants of Chinese refugees from Vietnam assimilated into Israeli society. “When I was looking for a Chinese restaurant in Israel, it was a challenge to find one run by ethnic Chinese,” he notes. “Most owners were Israelis, with Chinese as cooks or managers. Many even employed Thai cooks, adding a distinctive Thai flavour to their Israeli-Chinese cooking.” Throughout these encounters, Kwan offers bits about his personal life, including his Hong Kong family’s peripatetic life. His rich descriptions, humorous tone, and extensive research make for a pleasurable reading experience. The connections he draws between far-flung places are particularly impressive, revealing a deep empathy and knowledge about the people he encountered. Kwan’s inclusion of his personal history—and the histories of his film crew—gives the book an added feeling of intimacy. Only occasionally does the author feel out of touch—e.g., his lack of a critical lens about Israel’s tumultuous history.

A heartfelt and entertaining culinary and historical survey of the Chinese diaspora.