Title: Chinese Cooking
Authors: Shirley Chen & Anne Wu
Publication Year: 1973
Publisher / Origin: Taipei, Taiwan (ROC)
Category: Regional Chinese cooking and cultural heritage
Format: Vintage Culinary Presentation Edition
Published in 1973 out of Taipei, Taiwan, Chinese Cooking by Shirley Chen and Anne Wu is a snapshot of cultural preservation and culinary history. Written in the wake of the Nationalist government’s relocation to Taiwan during the Chinese civil war. Mainland immigrants who fled the communists brought distinct regional traditions from every corner of China into the new capital of Taipei. Chen and Wu put this book together to systematically record authentic home style recipes before modern shifts changed the fabric of Chinese society. The book being printed in Nationalist China directly shaped it, as Taipei had become an unprecedented hub where recipes from Sichuan, Hunan, Shandong, and Guangdong, and among other provinces, were all concentrated in one place.
Taiwan was allied with the West during the Cold War while the mainland was isolated during the Cultural Revolution, English language books printed in Taipei became the main way international audiences accessed traditional Chinese food culture. The Nationalist government actively supported these publications to showcase Taiwan as the true defender of traditional Chinese heritage. When the book made its way to America in the 1970s, it hit at a turning point as post-1965 immigration shifts reshaped American food culture. Readers were growing tired of localized chop suey joints and wanted something different. Books like this gave Americans who were looking past takeout menus the opportunity to work with something new in domestic kitchens, proving that Chinese food was a deeply sophisticated science rooted in regional diversity, balance, and precise technique.
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