https://www.scmp.com/rss/330661/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com As Australia draws closer to its federal election on May 21, in an era it had once coined the “Asian Century”, one thing continues to stand out: the lack of Asian-Australians in its parliament. According to an election watch brief released last year by the University of Melbourne, only three candidates with Asian ancestry were elected to the 151-seat lower House of Representatives in the 2019 election, when the current government was formed. Asian-Australians make up between 14 to 16 per cent of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3177611/china-australia-tensions-and-racism-fuelling-asian-reluctance-join?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3177611/china-australia-tensions-and-racism-fuelling-asian-reluctance-join?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 13 May 2022 20:00:29 +0000 Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor by Anna Qu, pub. Catapult Inked in typewriter font on Anna Qu’s forearm is the title of her debut memoir: Made in China. The tattoo came first, she says, and testifies to the deeply personal nature of this project for Qu. Ten years in the writing, Made in China is a skilful and emotive excavation of a traumatic childhood split between China and the United States. As well as playfully reclaiming an often pejorative tag, the title attests to a personal... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3142373/living-us-operating-chinese-bitter-childhood-recalled?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3142373/living-us-operating-chinese-bitter-childhood-recalled?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 24 Jul 2021 11:45:08 +0000 The earliest Chinese migrants to Britain were employed by the British East India Company. They arrived in the East London docklands in the 1780s, aboard merchant vessels carrying tea, ceramics and silk. The ships docked in an area that was then known as Limehouse, a thriving, industrious entrepot and already the most cosmopolitan district in the most cosmopolitan city in the land. Among the few first-person accounts that exist from Chinese sailors of the period is an oral one given by Xie... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3135218/once-upon-time-chinatown-struggles-londons-first?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3135218/once-upon-time-chinatown-struggles-londons-first?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 29 May 2021 05:15:12 +0000 “Chinese bars are everywhere, and the cappuccino is in a state of shock.”  So go the translated lyrics of a slightly xenophobic 2013 Italian pop song by the Milanese duo “Il Genio.” It is about Chinese migrants taking over neighborhood cafes in northern and central Italy. Six years later and, according to an article in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera earlier this month, 11.5% of bars in Milan are run by first- and second-generation migrants from China. Italy has one of the... https://www.scmp.com/society/how-chinese-families-have-become-italian-baristas/article/3039584?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/how-chinese-families-have-become-italian-baristas/article/3039584?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 27 Nov 2019 11:00:04 +0000 Sour Heart, winner of this year’s LA Times Book Prize, has made a splash for its striking portraits of Chinese immigrant families in America. Reading the short-story collection from Chinese-American author Jenny Zhang is like peering into the mind of a brash teenager coming of age in a chaotic immigrant household. It’s a body of work characterized by unrelentingly grotesque scenes, devastatingly beautiful prose, and lots of scatological humor. Most of the protagonists are young Chinese-American... https://www.scmp.com/identity/jenny-zhang-author-sour-heart-beauty-poop-and-immigrant-experience/article/3000322?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/identity/jenny-zhang-author-sour-heart-beauty-poop-and-immigrant-experience/article/3000322?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 18 Dec 2018 03:30:32 +0000 If it seems like every Chinese household in the world has a bottle of Lee Kum Kee oyster sauce in its pantry, we have a culinary accident to thank for it. The story goes that Lee Kum-sheung, the founder of Lee Kum Kee, created the seafood-flavored sauce in 1888 while working at a small teahouse in Guangdong province. He was cooking oysters in the kitchen but was so busy with customers that he left the stove on, according to company lore. When he smelled a strong scent coming from the kitchen,... https://www.scmp.com/food/how-kitchen-accident-gave-birth-beloved-sauce/article/3000264?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/how-kitchen-accident-gave-birth-beloved-sauce/article/3000264?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 26 Nov 2018 17:04:28 +0000 Meet Dory Fung, the Houston native who is the Executive Pastry Chef at Poitín and also a pastry instructor at Houston Community College. She makes for us her modern spin on a dim sum classic: coconut milk almond jello with hibiscus-soaked lychees. Chef Fung grew up in a Cantonese seafood kitchen that’s been a staple part of Houston Chinatown for decades: Fung’s Kitchen. She’s currently the fifth generation chef in her family, following in the footsteps of her father who started cooking in Hong... https://www.scmp.com/videos/coconut-almond-jello-chefs-plate-ep-4/article/3000144?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/coconut-almond-jello-chefs-plate-ep-4/article/3000144?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 27 Sep 2018 03:48:14 +0000 Throughout history, overseas Chinese have relied on their kitchen acumen to sustain themselves and their families, often amid virulent social conditions. They survived by adapting their food to the local palate, devising culinary offshoots like Chinese-American chop suey, Chinese-Indian chicken lollipops, and Chinese-Peruvian chaufa. The hyphenated diaspora foods they created are frequently maligned as inauthentic or watered-down, a narrative that Peter Kim, executive director of Brooklyn's... https://www.scmp.com/food/what-do-you-mean-when-you-call-dish-authentic/article/3000081?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/what-do-you-mean-when-you-call-dish-authentic/article/3000081?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 14 Sep 2018 08:07:15 +0000 General Tso's chicken is perhaps the single dish most associated with Chinese food in the U.S. And many associate it with Hunan cuisine, since it first appeared in a Hunan restaurant in New York City. But the dish doesn't come from Hunan, or China, even. General Tso's chicken was an invention from a Taiwanese chef who adjusted his version of Hunan cuisine for the American palate. Hunan food in America is vastly different from China's Hunan. The latter's food is often compared to that of Sichuan,... https://www.scmp.com/food/general-tsos-chicken-not-china/article/2153601?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/food/general-tsos-chicken-not-china/article/2153601?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Jul 2018 09:30:15 +0000