In Jen Lin-Lui’s book entitled “Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey Through China”, the author immersed herself in a honest-to-goodness travel narrative searching for the authentic flavor of Chinese cooking. Her culinary adventures were effectively translated from the perspective of someone not familiar with the land and culture of her Chinese ancestors. Born and raised in the USA, Miss Lin-Lui sought to get hands-on kitchen experience as material for her book interlaced with interesting settings and characters that brought life to a collection of recipes. In the end, such quest also transformed her into a deeper understanding of herself and the mores of societal acceptance.
Jen Lin-Lui described a critical obstacle in seeking to gain trust from those she sought to obtain her material and from those with whom she wanted to be more closely tied. Miss Lin-Lui’s own description of her identity was not calculated or insincere, nor was it borne of a desire to set herself apart. It was an urge that brought her to call herself a Chinese-American, ironically for the first time while she was in China.
Calling herself Chinese-American befuddled the locals who find it inconceivable that she could be more American than she was Chinese. She offered them an explanation but it was taken that she was pretending to be something she was not. Unfazed, she “straddled the expatriate bubble and the world outside it, not quite belonging to either.” “It was the first time I had to seriously grapple with issues of race, identity, and where I fit in”, Miss Lin-Lui ventilated.
Her romantic relationship with a Caucasian in China, which she only touched on in latter chapters, hopefully offered Miss Lin-Lui more than fodder to help her deal with her issues—perhaps adding to a more complete meal in her next book.
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