"Chop Suey" at Museum of Chinese in the Americas, NYC

MOCA at 70 Mulberry in Chinatown has a great little (the museum itself is tiny) photo exhibit entitled "Chop Suey" showing great old neon signage from old Chinese restaurants in the Northwest.

Of note to TCers is a great photo of Lee's Tahitian in Richland, Washington. Anybody know anything about this place?

The MOCA is a great museum. Much of their permanent exhibit might interest TCers, in particular a collection of vintage matchbooks from several old Chinese American restaurants.

Here's what MOCA's website says about the exhibit:

Chop Suey
June 22nd, 2004 through October 2004

Driving thousands of miles along the American Northwest through dirt roads and off-the-beaten-paths, Rick Wong was on an expedition to document a phenomenon that was slowly changing the region’s scenic landscape and, quite literally, the flavor of America. “Chop suey houses” that once lit up the evening sky with their bright neon signage and that once filled many-an-insatiable appetite with its distinctive fare were gradually disappearing. Wong ruefully captured the stories of these eateries and their owners and will present them in Chop Suey, a colorful photographic exhibit opening at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas on Tuesday, June 22, 2004.

Having adapted traditional Chinese recipes to fit the American taste palette, chop suey is said to have originated from the Chinese laborers and miners in the American West or, as another theory proposes, from Chinese Ambassador Li Hung Chang’s visit to New York City in 1896, where his personal cook attempted to please the Chinese and American patrons with a dish that used celery, bean sprouts, and a meat sauce. Much like the dish, chop suey houses were equally adapted to blend American and Chinese aesthetics, most noticeably in the eclectic exterior and interior décor. In his photographic essay, which sprung out of an idea for a coffee table book and was assisted by a Washington State King County Arts Commission grant in 1991, Wong focuses on the outside neon signs that are used to attract customers with catchy names like “Flower Drum” or hackneyed images like dragons or rickshaws. Their vivid colors and gentle glow seem to melt into the Pacific sunsets and yet provide a striking balance against the Western architecture.

When MoCA approached the photographer to take his research one step further by collecting the stories of the restaurants’ owners, Wong back-tracked through the Northwest and managed to find the original owners of a few. In some cases, these restaurants that once served fried egg sandwiches, egg foo young and chop suey with brown gravy sauce, were closing down in favor of more “authentic” Chinese restaurants. In other cases, younger generations were unwilling to continue in this line of the family’s business and the original owners either moved out of the area or had passed. Luckily, Wong’s photographs will provide a living legacy of these “shining” examples of American cuisine. Chop Suey opens Tuesday, June 22, 2004 and will run through October, 2004.

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2004-08-12 07:50 ]

that sounds really cool, wish I could check it out but I;m in cali, is there a link to some of the pics?
theron

only one photo on moca's websight

if anybody knows more about rick wong & this exhibit ...

very cool. i love old signage ~ and old style cantonese food!

wasnt there another person, in the bay area, who did a chinese food road trip to small cities in the west? she interviewed chinese americans who were running restaurants in tiny towns..i remember reading a blog a year ago.. but for the life of me, cant remember now..

This was once in Vancouver, quite a well done sign!(made in the 1940's)

[ Edited by: Tikiwahine on 2004-08-13 15:39 ]

On 2004-08-13 15:19, dogbytes wrote:
wasnt there another person, in the bay area, who did a chinese food road trip to small cities in the west?

Yes -- an artist in Berkeley is trying to collect takeout menus from every Chinese restaurant in the US.