TGIF Feature: The racist history of Chinese restaurants

Soupy Shen Jian bao at China Live.

THIS JULY FOURTH, we celebrated America's birthday in the most American way we could -- we ate at a Chinese restaurant.

We had a delicious luncheon of salt and pepper crab, BBQ ribs, garlicky Chinese asparagus, pork belly bao, Shen Jian baos and more at China Live in San Francisco's Chinatown. Basically, Chinese street food at a sit-down restaurant. Authentic? Debateable. Delicious? Yes!

Go anywhere in the U.S. and chances are you’ll be able to find a Chinese restaurant. There are more Chinese restaurants than there are McDonalds, so you might have a strong argument in saying that Chinese restaurants are more American than that hamburger chain.
But the reason why might surprise you—but did you know they all started because of racist laws meant to ban Chinese immigrants?

Fusion put out this original video below explaining how this came to be. We're not looking to play the blame game here, but it's always good to know the background story. I'm just glad that Chinese restaurants are a gastronomic fixture in this country.

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