Cheng 1

Andy Cheng
Mrs. Stanford
ENG 124
2 November 2016
Freaking Chinese Restaurant
General Tsos chicken, or L19, is the most ordered meal at the local chinese restaurant.
This classic chinese dish is the staple of many chinese restaurants across America and is
generally thought of as a traditional Chinese dish. However this dish is not one that is made in
China today and is actually is a dish that is made to please the American palate. Many dishes
served at Chinese restaurants today take inspiration from classic provincial dishes from China,
but with an Americanized twist. This is even the case with the Chinese restaurant down the street
from Canton South High School. Peking Chinese is a place where immigrated Chinese culture
meets with the American flavor that is all around and is also an expression of who I am as a
Chinese American citizen.
America is a mixing pot of cultures from all around the world and a place where people
from less developed countries dream of immigrating to. The Cheng family was no different than
any other foreign family in this aspect as it was the goal of my grandparent to move the family to
America. However, the way that my family came to the point of calling America our home is a
little different. My family's immigration process started with my grandpa, Hau Kwan Cheng, and
his desire to make a better life for his family. The livelihood that my family had in China was
financially unstable so a decision was made to move the family to America for a better chance at
life. My grandpa set out to achieve this goal of making America our family's new home and went

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to Mexico to start the process in the 1970s. In Mexico, there was a simple way of getting into
America: jumping the border, and thats what my grandpa did for his family. From there, Hau
made his way to New York City and started to work whatever jobs were available to earn money
for the rest of the family to come to America. Some years later, my family's lucky break came in
the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 under Ronald Reagan. This gave Hau his full
citizenship for the United States after being an illegal alien for several years(United 1). From
there, it was a relatively simple process, compared to my grandpas previous endeavours, of
filling out a plethora of paperwork for the immigration of more Cheng members into America.
Two of those Chengs were my parents, who got married in America and decided to settle in a
more family friendly place than New York City. They eventually settled in Canton South, Ohio
as it was a quiet place with an opportunity to start a business. Peking Chinese on Cleveland
Avenue was the business my parents opened up and is the current livelihood that sustains all of
the family ambitions.
The lit up yellow sign flaunting the Peking Chinese name to potential customers is the
first thing people notice when they go to my familys restaurant. This sign displays that the
Chinese food we sell is available for pickup and delivery. What the sign doesnt show is how the
restaurant is an embodiment of the old traditions that my family carried over from China and the
new ones that were introduced from living in America. One such tradition is the holidays that are
celebrated each year by my family; we still celebrate certain Chinese holidays, such as Chinese
New Years, and we also celebrate traditional American holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas,
and Halloween. The types of food that are eaten in my household are also a mix of more western
foods and some traditional dishes. Some classic asian foods such as rice, steamed fish, tofu, and

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bok choy are eaten alongside American foods such as burgers, ribs, fries. This mixing of food
cultures in my family directly ties into the American influences that are apparent in the food that
is sold at Peking Chinese. In particular, the most pronounced influence is how the dishes are
warped from Chinese tastes to American ones which consist of more sweetness and frying the
food. My parents and many other Chinese restaurant owners made these changes to the classic
dishes to satisfy the palates of the customers we are serving. All this molding of Chinese culture
into an American form is also a part of my personality and values. My most prominent example
of this is the language I speak everyday is English along side some Chinese jargon that is used to
communicate with family. The traditions that my parents brought from China are ingrained into
my very nature, but they are not alone as many American ways were picked up through the
process of living in America.
Home is a place where someone feels comfortable in and is where they belong. America
is the only country that I would consider home but the culture of this land is not the only one in
my being. The mixing of Chinese and American values which is apparent in my personality is
expressed through my familys restaurant, Peking Chinese, also. Chinese customs are the
backbone of both the restaurant and I but there is definately a significant amount of American
influence on both. Being American is an idea that was pursued greatly by my grandpa so that our
family could have a better life. I am grateful for the struggles that he endured so the rest of the
family could come to America for a better life. If not for Haus journey across the Mexican
border, I would not have grown up in America and would have a completely different life in
China. Where someone is from is an important part of their very being and should not be

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forgotten. Whether this place is a foreign country or just across town does not matter as lessons
can be learned from the past and applied to better the future.

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Works Cited
United States. U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services. Immigration Reform and Control Act
of 1986. UCIS, 6 Nov. 1986. Web. 02 Nov. 2016.
<https://www.uscis.gov/tools/glossary/immigration-reform-and-control-act-1986-irca>.