There is no fortune cookie in China

The evolution of cultural diversity of overseas Chinese at the local level

American talk show actor Trevor Noah once said that he thought fortune cookies were made in the kitchen by an Asian chef who knew fortune telling. However, when he came to Beijing, he discovered that there was no such thing in China!

Indeed, there are no fortune cookies in the country, although fortune telling is popular in China. But actually putting lucky words in food is not a good choice for Chinese people; it is said that this kind of behaviour triggered two revolutions in Chinese history, one of them led to the fall of the Qin Dynasty, the first unified dynasty in Chinese history, and the other ended the 98 years rule of the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols. There is a lot of responsibility on the biscuit’s shoulders.

In the minds of Chinese people from mainland China, fortune cookies and so called “Asian makeup” (1) are both typical characteristics that we can suddenly recognize in Chinese-Americans. In fact, based on interviews with the “old migrants” of Chinese people who came to Italy forty years ago, we can realise that even in Europe, Chinese restaurants do not have the tradition of serving fortune cookies in the beginning... This is where the concept of "Local to Local International" is needed.

"Local to Local International" is essentially multicultural creation, shaped by international mobility, connecting new contexts. I believe that "Local to Local International" has two dimensions: the first is international exchanges between different cultures at the local level, just like Mainland China has different connections with local cultures in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The second dimension is the diversity that a certain culture shows in a foreign country due to international mobility. This "Local to Local International" is further unique, that means this kind of “international” is not only different from its original, but also exhibits diversity among compatriots residing in various local and overseas settings.

As far as this article is concerned, except Chinese from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, it is generally believed that overseas Chinese in the West can be divided into three main streams: Chinese before the establishment of New China in 1912, Chinese before the 1990s, and Chinese after the 1990s especially after the 21st century. The first two parts are considered "old migrants" compared with "new migrants". Most of the "old migrants" have already become naturalised citizens in their host countries, even if they were never permitted to obtain a Chinese passport, often due to factors such as civil war and political circumstances. From a cultural perspective, the majority of “old migrants” were from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces in China, both located in the south of China, while the "new migrants" came from all over the country. There was a joke about the so-called "Orientalist" view in the Western world: "If you think it's very 'Chinese' as a Westerner, it’s probably not so 'Chinese' to a Chinese." Back to the point, the first ship of Chinese workers who went to the United States to participate in the construction of the Pacific Railway came to San Francisco in 1865, and the story of fortune cookies is closely related to them.

It is well known that fortune cookies are an important image of Chinese restaurants in Western culture. Especially in English-speaking countries, fortune cookies have become standard fare in Chinese restaurants along with "American-style Chinese food" such as General Tso's Chicken, and has even been endowed with the "ancient oriental magic" of prophecy. However, in China, the home of these Chinese restaurant operators, the vast majority of Chinese people have never heard of fortune cookies, and obtaining prophecies from food is not a common method of divination, even if it did exist historically.

There are many opinions about the origin of fortune cookies. A widely known theory is that this dessert existed in California in the early 20th century. Jennifer Lee wrote in the book "The Fortune Cookie Chronicle,” but Japanese scholars have verified that fortune cookies first originated in Japan. It began as a dessert provided by a Japanese businessman named Ogiwara Michichi who owned a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco. Later, Chinese manufacturers took over the making of fortune cookies during World War II and carried them forward - they became a mysterious marketing product created by merchants to cater Americans' imagination of Chinese culture. As a Chinese person, I quite agree with this view, because this kind of triangular pancake is not common in China. The inspiration for hiding little notes in food comes from another dessert called "mooncakes", which functioned as a method to transmit intelligence in the 14th-century uprising against the Mongol Empire. This, aligned with the success of Chinese revolutionary organisations such as the Xingzhonghui, which utilised the historical significance of mooncakes to symbolise the early 20th-century Anti-Qing Dynasty revolt, it is plausible to infer that the fortune cookie, serving as a "Pan-Asian" commodity, blends Japanese merchants, Chinese railroad workers, the Chinese revolution, and various other cultural elements.

The situation is different again on the European continent. The Chinese restaurants operators in Europe mainly come from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces in China, and these two provinces are also the main sources of Chinese overseas migrants (2). Their compatriots are widely distributed throughout the Western world. According to my interviews with Chinese restaurant operators in Vienna, Munich, Verona, Padua, Mestre and Trieste, it was found that the popularity of fortune cookie in Chinese restaurants is basically due to two internal and external motivations: internally, these Chinese restaurant operators’ relatives and friends in English-speaking countries suggested that they launch the same fortune cookie to promote marketing. Externally, local European customers who have experienced fortune cookies in English-speaking countries, and local young people who are widely accepting of American culture will ask Chinese restaurants if they can provide fortune cookies like American Chinese restaurants do.

But things always change at the local level. In cities on the European continent that are popular with overseas Chinese people, such as Milan, Vienna, Munich and Florence, many Chinese restaurant operators from other provinces in China do not accept fortune cookies. After all, why would they?. In order to use the pure traditional Chinese flavour as their signature, they naturally will not recognize this pan-Asian practice "mixed" with them.

On the one hand, many of the "old migrants" did not immigrate through formal channels, so their cultural contact with China has been delayed or even "isolated" in time and space. On the other hand, the "new migrants" are not familiar with what the "old migrants" created by living in the West, an unique culture that has built up for tens or even hundreds of years, especially due to cultural and customary differences that exist essentially in China itself. In contemporary Chinese academic circles, this "isolation" is considered a representation of Chinese culture through the lens of Orientalism, which refers to a subculture that caters to the Western world's inherent perception of China - "It looks very Chinese, but it does not belong to China."

But culture is always dynamic and bidirectional. In Trieste, a Chinese restaurant run by "new migrants" also supplies fortune cookies. When I received the fortune cookies, I once asked the restaurant owner: "Why do you give me fortune cookies even though I am Chinese?". And got replied: "Just do as the Romans do. We imagine that the Chinese restaurants in foreign countries should supply fortune cookies."

Here's the prophecy note in the fortune cookie I received:

(1) A makeup style that pursues dark skin, high cheekbones, slender eye corners and exaggerated eye shadow.

(2) This is also the reason why the menus in lots of Chinese restaurants seem so similar.

Bibliography:

J. 8 Lee, The Fortune Cookie Chronicle, Twelve, USA, 2008

Y. F. Zhang, Revolutionary groups in the Qing Dynasty, Peking University Press, China, 2011