The area of Flushing that we covered is densely populated with dominantly Asian Americans, and its food scene reflects such demographic. Here we provide a bit of historical background to the region we focused our project on and the people that populate it.
The Asian Americans who live in Flushing include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese Americans, who altogether make up 70.9% of Flushing’s inhabitants, as of the 2010 Census.
How Did They End Up in Flushing?
During the 1970s, Chinatown, Manhattan, was mostly made up of Cantonese-speaking Asian American immigrants. The Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants decided to settle in Flushing instead, because they found it hard to relate to those in Chinatown. Those in Chinatown had poorer housing conditions, and lower education standards and working levels, while those who came to Flushing were more likely to attain a higher socioeconomic status and education levels.
Today, Flushing, otherwise known as the “Second Chinatown,” is teeming with ethnic eateries and supermarkets. The Asian American population of Flushing has been steadily growing over the past few decades, and is now the second-largest Chinese community in New York.
Acculturation of Asian American Food
Faced with foreign customs and yet not wanting to discard their traditions, Asian immigrants and their children adjusted by acculturating their food habits. Acculturation is a phenomenon where members of one cultural group adopt practices and values of another group, and authenticity is measured by how close the subject in question is to the qualities of its bona fide counterpart. While this seems to indicate that the acculturation in Flushing sacrifices the authenticity of food served, the phenomenon we perceived is that Flushing’s various eateries testify to the coexistence of American culture with traditional immigrant cuisines.
