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Chinese, If You Please

Chinese, If You Please

By Leo Racicot

Chinese food never struck my uneducated palate as being exotic because from as far back as I can remember, the family liked to feast downtown at Chin Lee’s restaurant. (Unfortunately, these were unenlightened times and the place was referred to as “The Chink’s” by everyone in Lowell. To this day, I’ll hear fellow bus passengers saying, “Remember when The Chink’s was here in this stretch?” “This stretch” was the block between Bridge and John Streets. Lowell’s two five-and-dimes (Woolworth’s and Kresge’s) were in that block, as was the Union National Bank and next to that, Fanny Farmer’s Candy Shop. If I found Chin Lee exotic in any way, it was due to the fact that, in order to get to it, you had to ascend a flight of stairs; it was located on the second floor above the bank. I’d never seen a restaurant on an upper floor. There was something nicely secretive about it. Ironically, for a kid who turned his nose up at steak and a baked potato at home, I loved Chinese food — put a heaping plate of Chow Mein, with its mountain of crunchy noodles underneath in front of me and I was in my glory. I guess I regarded it as ‘fun food’. Years later, when I lived in Cambridge, and downtown Boston was a subway ride away, you could find me dining at a place in Chinatown called Buddha’s Delight, which was also on a second floor of an old Beach Street building and I know that one of the reasons I liked it is that its second-floor aerie reminded me of Chin Lee’s.

When Aunt Marie got her driver’s license and bought her Rambler, she liked to head the family out-of-town to area Chinese restaurants. Some of these were Cathay Garden on Route 110. Cathay’s sign was made in the shape of a pagoda and was considered “the fancy Chinese restaurant”. They served the best Peking Ravioli I ever had. I’ve been searching high-and-low all these years to find that exact flavor of ravioli Cathay made but never have. Other Chinese restaurants we’d hit were The Hong Kong (on Chelmsford Street), Tewksbury’s Jade East and The Lo Kai in Dracut. Jade East and Lo Kai are still in operation.  What I liked most about Chinese cuisine was the hodge-podge of colors and tastes its many dishes offered. I did realize most of what I was eating wasn’t considered authentic Chinese, that is to say, the kind of food cooked and served in China. It wasn’t until my Cambridge Library friend, Chi-Shiang, introduced me to “real” Chinese food in the early 2000s that I was bowled over with the freshness and limitless variety of authentic Chinese meals. He took me to explore the many Chinese eateries Harvard Square had at that time. Chi-Shiang so savored whatever he was eating that he’d make loud smacking sounds with his mouth. At first, I found this annoying but as time went on, I found myself smacking right along with him. Chi-Shiang, disenchanted with library work and then teaching and American ways, went back to his native Taiwan and decided, at a late age in life, to study medicine, and succeeded. Thanks to the wonders of email, this fine, gentle, learned man and I are still in touch, and I am so thankful that our paths crossed. He made me brave, egging me on to try foods I would never have thought to put in my mouth. One time, when confronted with snake meat, and not recognizing it, I said, “What’s this??”  Chi-Shiang snapped, rather militarily, I might add, “Leo. Just eat it!”  It was surprisingly good.

Of course, I, and all of us fans of Boston’s WGBH, were able to watch, if not eat, real Chinese food being prepared by Channel 2’s Joyce Chen who had her own show, Joyce Chen Cooks, which Joe and I never missed, along with shows like The French Chef with Julia Child and Making Things Grow with Thalassa Cruso (whom my mother insisted was a man). Joyce was a real character, and would interject advice as she cooked saying things like, “If you have a date coming over, omit scallion” or “If you have party, make more…”  She also a lot in her culinary haste would pick up a burning hot pan without thinking and found a dozen creative ways to express the word, “Ouch”. Joe and I couldn’t understand why these faux pas weren’t edited out but remember — this was live television. Julia’s shows in which she’d fumble the ball, so to speak, are now legendary. Who hasn’t heard of the episode where she dropped a potato pancake on the floor, lustily scooped it up, tossed it straight back into the pan saying, “And if you drop something, pick it up. If you’re alone in the kitchen, who’s going to see?”  I look back so fondly on these pioneers of educational television. Without them, so many Americans would never have known how to roast a Peking duck or re-pot a tired hydrangea.

Little Hong Kong in Boston’s Chinatown became a favorite place. It was the best little restaurant in Chinatown, a hole-in-the-ground; if you blinked, you’d miss it. If you didn’t know it was there (it was well-hidden below street level0, you were out of luck because the food was out-of-this-world. Surprising things happened there whenever I went in.  One time, a couple (an older woman and her boy toy) tried to pick me up, insisting I looked like the young Marc Chagall. This ploy at seduction didn’t work because all I wanted on that cold winter night was my Egg Foo Young (no gravy) and nothing more.  Another time, I walked in just as a little girl was being serenaded by her family and surrounding waiters with Happy Birthday so I joined in the serenading. As they and I were the only people there, they invited me to their table where I was given a plate and chopsticks and encouraged to dig in. A third time, I was eating when a coterie of gals bubbled in. Among them was an old pal from my O’Leary Library days, Maggie Calhoun. There’d been bad blood between us since last we were together but hot tea, Chinese pastries and shared laughter healed that and we parted friends again.

I love how delicate and non-invasive Asian pastries are, nothing like the sickly-sweet confections found in American bakeries and restaurants. Of course, the danger with this is that, as in the old Lay’s Potato Chips commercials, “Bet you can’t eat just one!” The myth we grew up hearing: “Eat Chinese food and an hour later, you’re hungry again” didn’t apply to that serendipitous gathering.

As the gut ages, some foods that I used to have no problem with fight their way back. I have to avoid my beloved Crab Rangoon, for example; I know my tired intestines will have a tough time digesting them.  And whenever Joe and I eat at the corner Asian place, happily forgetting the high MSG content in the dishes we’ve ordered, we’re fine until the salt-heavy seasoning enters our bodies. That’s when our very animated chats slow to a near-halt from the MSG coma we find ourselves in. I call this “taking a trip to La-La Land” followed by the need to go home and take an immediate nap.

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Chin Lee’s on Merrimack Street

Buddha’s Delight

A young Marc Chagall

Cathay Garden

Chinese food buffet

Chi Shiang

Lo Kai in Dracut, interior view

Peking Ravioli

Seen & Heard: Vol. 4 

Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days:

YouTube: Mark Carney’s Speech at World Economic Forum – On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Carney, an economist who previously led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, owes his election as Prime Minister to Donald Trump. For months preceding the April 2025 Canadian election, the country’s Conservative Party held large leads in most polls due mostly to “voter fatigue” with the Liberal Party that had long held power. However, Trump’s threats to make Canada the 51st American state created a surge in nationalism among Canadians that blunted this desire for change, and Carney won an unexpected victory. US/Canadian relations have further deteriorated due to Trump’s erratic tariff policies. In last week’s speech, Carney forcefully identified a “rupture” in the world order that has prevailed since World War II that relied on US leadership for global stability. Carney called for the world’s “middle powers” to assert their collective power through an “alliance of the middle” saying, “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” He called for “variable coalitions” that exclude the US to protect these other countries from American coercion. I found Carney’s speech to be refreshing. Too many people in this country assume that the world should be ruled by a handful of “great powers” like the US, China, and Russia, with other nations just imperial possessions lacking in autonomy. Anyone who studies history knows that is not how the world works, certainly not in the long term. The video of Carney’s speech is available here. 

Podcast: “Impolitic with John Heilemann” – Heilemann, a political analyst for NBC news, chief political columnist for Puck, and the host of this podcast, interviewed author and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman about his new book, Football, which was published last week. I’ve been a fan of Klosterman since reading his 2023 book, The Nineties, which synthesized the importance of that seemingly forgettable decade to modern world events. My existing fandom plus hearing this interview make me anxious to read this new book. Unquestionably, football is a cultural juggernaut with 92 of the top 100 television broadcasts of 2024 featuring that game. (The other eight were Games 6 and 7 of the World Series, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship, the Kentucky Derby, the Presidential Inauguration, the State of the Union speech, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, and the Academy Awards.) Despite its current dominance, Klosterman asserts that football will eventually go the way of boxing and horse racing. They still exist but are very much niche notwithstanding their former cultural dominance. Among the reasons he cites for football’s ultimate demise are the unwillingness of many parents to allow their children to play football in light of the long term health risks, especially from CTE. But Klosterman cited other things. He explained that football got its start in the 19th century because in the post Civil War era, “society” feared the men would become “less manly” without the opportunity to engage in mortal combat. Football served as a stand in for that and, in many ways, continues to do so. He also observed that society is likely to turn on today’s “toxic masculinity” that is often embodied in football. (Although Klosterman mentioned neither, the “performative toughness” embraced by the current regime in Washington and the erasure of mention of domestic violence allegations against two Patriots players made his observation resonate with me.) Finally, Klosterman cited advertising as a long term risk to the NFL. This seems counterintuitive given the stratospheric TV ratings, but his point is that the dominant force in one era often ignores challenges to its dominance due to current financial benefits. He illustrated that by recalling how dismissive newspaper editors were of the internet in its early days, proclaiming, “there will always be newspapers.” As much as I enjoy football, I suspect its dominance of the TV ratings has more to do with there being no competition of that scale. With so many attention-demanding options, people’s viewing choices are disbursed. Over time, those same forces will cause the erosion of football viewership which is an existential threat to the NFL. This new book is about much more than the demise of football. Klosterman almost sounded regretful when talking about that part since it will dominate the headlines and cause polarization among potential readers. The book seems much more a cultural history of football than anything else, which also makes it worth reading. 

Magazine article – “Won’t Back Down: The stubborn songs of Zach Bryan” by Kelefa Sanneh in the New Yorker – Although I enjoy country music when I hear it, I don’t hear it very often so Zach Bryan was not on my radar until he burst into Lowell history and culture by purchasing the former Saint Jean Baptiste Church on upper Merrimack Street to help create the long-planned Jack Kerouac Center. Bryan has frequently cited Kerouac as a primary literary influence on his song writing. One of his biggest hits, “Burn, Burn, Burn” channels a famous passage from On the Road in which Kerouac wrote, “The only people for me are the mad ones… the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles.” This New Yorker piece reviews Bryan’s newest album, “With Heaven on Top” which is described as “a shaggy record composed of twenty-four songs (and one poem” about chasing peace of mind around the world.” I haven’t listened to any of the songs yet, but I will. For now, it’s nice to see an artist who has invested in Lowell get the broader national exposure that comes with a review like this one. 

Movie: Sinners (2025) – One of the reasons I began this “Seen & Heard” column is to incentivize me to watch more movies and read more books. I’ve long been interested in both, but I’ve slid into our attention economy’s “doom scrolling” trap with more and more of my time. This focus shift paid off this weekend when I watched Sinners on Amazon Prime. Directed by Ryan Coogler, whose previous films include Creed and Black Panther, Sinners gained much attention last week when it set the record for the most Academy Award nominations ever with 16. Upon watching it, my reaction was, “Wow, what a great movie.” In its review last summer, the New York Times described it as “genre-defying, mind bending fantasia” set in the Jim Crow south. That’s particularly accurate since the movie includes vampires which is to me about as strong a put-off as you can have for a movie. But that’s where “genre-defying” comes in, because I saw it as a historical drama depicting the oppression of Black people in the American South – the movie is set in Mississippi in 1932 – and the way those people responded to that oppression. Music plays a huge role in the movie, mostly the Blues, but then the vampires emerge singing Irish folk songs which, as someone of Irish descent, was baffling to me. However, like a piece of Surrealist art, this had unexpected juxtapositions, suggesting (to me, at least) that stronger powers in society stay strong by pitting oppressed people against each other. Perhaps I’m just projecting my view of modern society onto this film.  

Book: Disney Adults: Exploring (And Falling in Love With) a Magical Subculture by A.J. Wolfe – This 2025 book by the founder of the popular The Disney Food Blog, looks at the growing cohort of adults whose children have grown or who are childless who repeatedly return to Disneyworld for vacations. Wolfe is among that group and the book offers an uncritical explanation in the face of what she rightly identifies as unfair and unjust societal criticism of so-called Disney Adults. Wolfe explains that affection for Disneyworld is a hobby but that plenty of other people have expensive hobbies and aren’t derided for it. She used the example of a guy who has season tickets to an NFL team. When you add all the costs and time, season NFL tickets would exceed that of twice-annual trips to Orlando. Why do Disney Adults get so much negative attention? The author suggests the perception at least is that women and LGPTQ people dominate Disney fans so there’s misogyny involved. She is also sympathetic to the challenges that corporate America faces in operating within a deeply divided country. She uses Disney’s uneven response to Florida’s 2022 “Don’t Say Gay” bill as an examplbe. Portrayed by proponents as empowering parents to control information about sexual orientation and gender identity received by their children in school, the LGBTQ community saw the law as a targeted attack on them rather than a measure for parental rights. Disney’s initial response was to say nothing about the bill which infuriated its LGBTQ employees and fans. In response to their protests, Corporate Disney spoke out against the bill which in turn incurred the wrath of the Florida political establishment and those Disney fans who supported the act. Wolfe also identifies another peril facing Disney leaders. Much of the affection people have for the place, she argues, is rooted in fun experiences in the past. People return to again experience the enjoyment they once felt. But when Disney changes something, as it inevitably must, people react negatively to change. She gives Disney high marks for listening to feedback and sometimes even responding to it. Overall, I’m pleased that I read this book. Many people I know are big fans of Disney and vacation there often. It’s not something I want to do, but as A.J. Wolfe wrote, it’s a hobby and, when it comes to hobbies, my attitude is “to each their own.”

Planning Lowell’s Centennial

Planning Lowell’s Centennial – (PIP #94)

By Louise Peloquin

     By rallying together, combining efforts and forging alliances, Lowellians tackled centennial celebration arrangements.

L’Etoile – Front page, January 9, 1026

THE SPLENDORS OF

THE CENTENNIAL FESTIVITIES

__________

Grand four or five-day pageant with 1,200 extras at South Common. – Magnificent ceremonies at the Auditorium on March 1 broadcast nationwide by radio. – President Coolidge would be our host. – Probable expenses from $35,000 to $45,000.

__________

MANY CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE REPORTS LAST NIGHT

__________

     At an assembly at City Hall last night, the Lowell Centennial Committee approved certain arrangements for this year’s gigantic celebration of Lowell’s 100th anniversary. Costs are presently estimated between $35,000 and $40,000.

     The celebration will include an entire week of pageants in June, all of them rivaling the splendid ones recently held in Lexington, Quincy and Gloucester.

     First of all, the festivities will consist in a four or five-day pageant at South Common. 1,200 people will re-enact Lowell’s history. This alone will cost approximately $35,000 but admission ticket sales are expected to largely cover expenses.

     On March 1, a grand ceremony to celebrate Lowell’s birthday will take place at the Auditorium. Eminent guests, including national and State dignitaries, will attend. The program will include speeches, instrumental music, and a 500-voice choir performance. On the morning of the same day, appropriate speakers and music will entertain the children of Lowell.

     On March 1, the guests of honor will be Governor Fuller; Cardinal O’Connell; Mrs. Rogers; Superintendent of Schools Hugh J. Molloy, who will be speaker of the day, and Mr. Ralph Shaw, official poet. Mr. George B. Chadwick was invited to compose an ode for the occasion.

     President Coolidge will most probably be the principal guest in June.

     All of these projects were reported to the Centennial Committee by its executive office yesterday. After approving the projects, the Committee voted to ask the City Council to appropriate a sum of $35,000 to finance the festivities.

     Each executive office member spoke about his preparation activities. John A. Hunnewell brought up publicizing and announced that the city’s three principal English-language newspapers were publishing historical essays about Lowell and were planning on preserving the texts by printing pamphlets to be distributed during the centennial. In the meantime, public school teachers will hand each essay out to students.

     Ralph E. Runels reported that the local cinemas had agreed to project views of Lowell as it was 100 years ago. These will be shown a short time before the centennial festivities. Mr. Runels also announced that he had made arrangements with the telephone company to obtain a direct telephone line with Boston radio station WEEI while General Electric promised to supply amplifiers in order that the March 1 program in the Auditorium be heard by the entire nation.

     Yesterday, Frank K. Stearns, president of the Centennial Committee, stated that all of the city’s clergymen had been invited to preach on the centennial in their respective churches on February 28th and that all were willing to cooperate with the Committee.

     Mr. Hunnewell said that the executive office accepted an offer from Tyler A. Stevens, manager of Central Edifice, for the use of suite number 327 which includes three apartments. This location will serve as Committee headquarters.

     George M. Harrigan indicated that the superintendent of schools and Mr. Harris, Lowell High School principal, had promised to participate in putting together the March 1 children’s program.

     John J. Walsh declared that the March 1 musical performances at the Auditorium and in the large High School hall will be of highest quality. He added that all of the city’s musical ensembles will have the opportunity to contribute to the ceremonies and to the June pageant.

     Mr. Hunnewell noted that a choral of 500 will perform on March 1. The committee in charge of organizing this choral is made up of : Arthur C. Spalding, president; James E. Donnelly; Dr. G. E. Caisse; Ora W. Hardy and Georges S. Drew. Letters have already been sent to different church chorals in the city requesting their support.

     Mr. Stearns mentioned that Ralph Shaw will provide a poem for the occasion and that George B. Chadwick, a former Lowellian, accepted to write an ode. The poem and the ode will be read in public on March 1.

     John J. Walsh and Charles L. Marren then presented both sides of the main question, i.e., should the June festivities consist in a pageant or an industrial exhibition.

     Mr. Walsh, president of the committee which visited Quincy, Portsmouth, Lexington and Gloucester, detailed the many reasons in favor of a pageant in Lowell. Mr. Marren, a Chamber of Commerce board member, then announced that the Chamber of Commerce offered to set up and finance an industrial exhibition to be directed by an expert.

     After much discussion, the Centennial Committee decided that a pageant was more appropriate for the occasion. It will probably be directed by Virginia Tanner who enjoys a nationwide reputation for such events.

     George M. Harrison presented the following estimate of expenses: March 1st celebrations, $5000; June festivities, band concerts, processions, fireworks, $5000 to $10,000; permanent commemorative plaques for historically-significant sites, $2,500; printing and office supplies, $1000; miscellaneous, $4000; safety margin in case of low ticket sales for the pageant, $15,000. Total, $35,000 to $45,000.

     Councilor John J. McFadden made a motion that the City Council be invited to the next meeting in order to perpetuate the Centennial Committee as it is today, including the newly-elected councilors. The vote passed.

     John P. Cryan, reporting in the name of the Butler commemorative committee, said that his committee was making progress. His report was accepted. (1)

 ****

1) Translation by Louise Peloquin.

China’s One Child Policy reverberates today by Marjorie Arons-Barron

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog.

Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America by Barbara Demick is a stellar piece of journalistic reporting in book form, laying bare in well-researched details the far-reaching impacts of China’s One Child Policy. For more than 30 years, Chinese women who became pregnant were subjected to forced abortions, mandated sterilization, and fierce beatings.  Unwanted babies, especially girls, were often killed and buried.

Assigned to the Los Angeles Times Beijing Bureau, Demick chronicles the complications if the parents were determined to keep their “illegal” children. She follows the gut-wrenching separation of identical twin girls in a rural village of China, to be raised secretly by family members so mother (Zanhua) and father (Youdong) could leave their village to earn more money to support the family. Because their births violated the legal limit, the government imposed huge fines on the couple, another force driving the parents to seek work far from their village.

In that situation, it was typical for Chinese Planning Officials to strip parents of their home and belongings and to seize the babies from families. In this case, Demick reveals how one twin, baby Shuangjie, was abducted by those officials, who declared her simply to have been abandoned.

Typically, government agents would hustle the kidnapped babies off to a Social Welfare Institute orphanage, refusing to provide distraught parents any information about the babies’ whereabouts.  Anguished parents would search for their children to no avail. Some of the parents committed suicide. Many of these stolen children would later be trafficked for forced labor or to be sexual partners, domestic servants or brides. As Demick records, the U.S. State Department estimated in 2015 that some 20,000 children in China were kidnapped every year.

In the 1990’s, when international adoptions became more desirable, the Chinese government figured a way out of the costs of maintaining these children as wards of the state. Working with favored adoption agencies, officials would charge substantial fees for arranging adoptions, effectively selling babies to families, often American, who were provided false documents filled with lies about the children’s “abandonments.”  By the early 2000s, China was the largest source of children adopted internationally, 95 percent of whom were female. The fee-supported revenue stream for the Chinese government incentivized more kidnapping.

This book, published in 2025, was built on the foundation of articles Demick wrote in 2009 about stolen babies filling international adoption demand. According to her, adoptive parents thought they were saving these children from institutionalization or death, but they were, she asserts, “becoming end consumers in a repressive system that might have fueled kidnappings.”

Demick follows Zanhua’s and Youdong’s search to find their Shuangjie, using the investigative skills of her profession and network of contacts. It took years, but eventually she found the adopted twin in a modest home in Texas. Working with all the parties involved, she arranged a reunion in China. By now, the separated Shuangjie and Fang were in their early teens.

The story doesn’t end there however. Demick explores how separated Chinese children sometimes feel at home in neither culture.  Those who legitimately had been abandoned, rather than abducted, have their own particular burden of stigma to carry. The adoptees often feel they are being unduly scrutinized, which is especially true of separated twins, frequently studied for scientific research on the eternal nature-versus-nurture question.

Ironically, the One Child Policy has helped create a population shortfall for China today. Fewer girl babies surviving a generation ago means fewer women of child-bearing age today. Today’s headlines proclaimed China’s birth rate – the lowest since 1949 – a demographic crisis. There are implications for the Chinese economy yet to be felt over the next decades.

Demick’s coverage of China’s great historic convulsions (from Mao’s Great Leap Forward, to the Cultural Revolution, the One Child Policy to the anti-democracy crackdown in 1989, thorough as it is, doesn’t minimize in any way the human impact on those affected. The anguish of the families is no less than the struggles of some adoptees to adapt to their new homes and countries while, as the author puts it, they are “tethered by blood to another family and country they struggle to comprehend.”

As a (former) journalist, I was particularly interested in how Demick dealt with the reporter’s dilemma of stepping beyond the mere reporting of a story to becoming a player, involving oneself in the evolving outcome for the benefit of the people whose stories so moved her. We saw this in New York Times columnist Nick Kristof’s memoir “Chasing Hope,” reviewed in October. In both cases, the writer’s decision to engage personally says much about the humanity of the person telling the story, amplifying the importance of the story being professionally researched and revealed. This dimension greatly enriches readers’ understanding and compassion.