Surveying the Genealogy of Chinese Restaurants in Mexico

Abstract

Drawing on my personal experiences and preliminary research, this chapter conducts a general survey of the assortment of Chinese restaurants that dot the landscape of Mexico. The exemplary cases in the study are mostly from the metropolitan area of Mexico City and the adjacent states in the central part of the country. For the purpose of expediency, the Chinese restaurants in Mexico are tentatively divided into four categories: franchised Chinese restaurants hailing from the United States, regional Chinese restaurants specifically catering to the Chinese palate, fast food Chinese restaurants targeting the more general clientele, and Chinese restaurants owned by Mexicans who used to work in Chinese or Asian restaurants in the USA. The study finds that while the high-end restaurant chains, so far most of which are from the USA, aim at the metropolitan mid-class clientele who are more concerned with dining environment, convenience, and style, the Chinese restaurants with regional specialties are primarily interested in luring Chinese immigrants and visitors. In the meantime, the numerous fast food Chinese restaurants with steam table buffet, opened by Chinese immigrants old and new, make up the bulk of Chinese restaurants in Mexico and on a daily basis narrate the story of survival, adaption, and acculturation. Last but not least, there also exist hundreds or even thousands of Chinese restaurants owned and managed by Mexicans who previously worked in Chinese or Asian restaurants in the USA, and this type of Chinese restaurant is gastronomically less noticeable but culturally more significant in the genealogy of Chinese restaurant in Mexico.