“Take-Away” My Childhood: The Second-Generation British Chinese in the Catering Trade

Abstract

The British Chinese have long been under-studied and thus, barely understood. Moreover, as the catering trade is an important industry of the British Chinese, those who work in this business are often the target of assault for they need to face people from the outer world, including the unfriendly and even aggressive ones. This paper then focuses on the British Chinese subjects who work in the catering trade, with special attention to the second-generation British Chinese children who are asked to “help out” to facilitate the operation of the business. In their writings, these young people depict their parents’ toiling labor and vent their anger on racism and seclusion from social life. Literary productions about or by the second/third generation British Chinese are sparse and dispersed. Based the available pieces created by the second/third-generation British Chinese, this paper aims to examine their struggles working at family-run catering businesses from Miri Song’s sociological perspectives.