{"id":52,"date":"2020-08-19T23:26:03","date_gmt":"2020-08-19T23:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/?p=52"},"modified":"2022-08-09T15:16:48","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T15:16:48","slug":"live-at-the-china-royal-a-funky-ode-to-fall-rivers-chow-mein-sandwich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/?p=52","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Live at the China Royal: A Funky Ode to Fall River&#8217;s Chow Mein Sandwich&#8221; (Essay, 2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/american-chinese-restaurants.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53\" width=\"233\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/american-chinese-restaurants.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/american-chinese-restaurants-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Wang, Oliver. &#8220;Live at the China Royal: A Funky Ode to Fall River&#8217;s Chow Mein Sandwich.&#8221; In\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.routledge.com\/American-Chinese-Restaurants-Society-Culture-and-Consumption\/Banh-Liu\/p\/book\/9780367273163#:~:text=Book%20Description,-With%20case%20studies&amp;text=New%20narratives%20by%20various%20international,civic%20spheres%2C%20and%20socioeconomic%20differences.\">American Chinese Restaurants<\/a><\/em>, pp. 105-120. Routledge, 2019.<em> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Anthology chapter (solicited, refereed)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Discusses the dual histories behind the chow mein sandwich as a uniquely, regional Chinese American dish and the Pacific Islander band that recorded a tribute song to the sandwich in the mid-1970s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Background: The chow mein sandwich is a hyper-regional dish, popularized during the 1920s in\/around southeastern Massachusetts cities, especially Fall River. In the 1970s, a popular Fall River restaurant, China Royal, hired a house band \u2014 Alika and the Happy Samoans \u2014 who were part of what I describe as the &#8220;Polynesian pop circuit&#8221; of Pacific Islander performers catering to the decades-old fascination of the &#8220;South Pacific&#8221; within American popular culture. The essay traces the histories of both the sandwich and the group and how the two intersect through Alika and the Happy Samoans&#8217; song, &#8220;Chow Mein Sandwich.&#8221;   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wang, Oliver. &#8220;Live at the China Royal: A Funky Ode to Fall River&#8217;s Chow Mein Sandwich.&#8221; In\u00a0American Chinese Restaurants, pp. 105-120. Routledge, 2019. Anthology chapter (solicited, refereed) Discusses the dual histories behind the chow mein sandwich as a uniquely, regional Chinese American dish and the Pacific Islander band that recorded a tribute song to the&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academicessay","category-asian-americans","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oliverwang.net\/cv\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}