Chinese American Food in the Future

While Chinese families still maintain the central role of food in their lives, this practice is diminishing in successive generations. About half of all Chinese immigrants own their own homes and cook Chinese and Western meals at home. Those who can afford to do so eat more and more meals away from home, usually in coffee shops or restaurants.

In the United States, many Chinese Americans still enjoy family and banquet meals with a whole fish to represent prosperity. They still celebrate Chinese New Year and at that time find their greatest attachment to their roots. While many have dropped some traditional food practices, theirs is a society that mirrors practices back in China, which has begun to allow many Western fast food eateries. The first American-born generation is changing considerably, as are the younger generations of Chinese in China and in other countries. They are consuming more fast food out as well as lots of carbonated soda, and they are bringing these and other foods into their homes.