As Casey Ho states on Twitter:
“So a group of colonizers decided to culturally appropriate congee. Good lord.”
A few months ago, I wrote an article on a white woman who reinvented and westernized mahjong, a traditional Chinese game, and gave no credit to its Asian heritage. This July, another white woman named Karen Taylor has created a company to westernize congee, another aspect of traditional Chinese culture. See the pattern yet?
Breakfast Cure is an Oregon-based company run by Taylor that sells prepackaged, westernized congee. On their website, they have stated that their mission is to “create delicious whole food breakfasts to give you the fastest homemade meal possible. Our Oregon porridge is inspired by traditional rice congee, an incredible, healing dish with references dating back to 1,000 BC.” Besides changing ‘congee’ to ‘porridge’, which is evidently a more westernized version, notice how they didn’t pay tribute to congee’s Asian origins but instead had the audacity to mention Oregon?
Naturally, word spread and the company faced major backlash on social media. The public accused Taylor of committing cultural appropriation against Asian culture, and not properly commending the heritage of congee. Whilst going through the website, which is still unfortunately still up and running, I noticed heaps of microaggressions, one of them being the fact that Taylor felt the need to change and ‘improve’ congee as if the traditional dish was beneath her. Despite the anti-racist claims she used to defend herself, her true intentions were already shown with the existence of this company: she does not respect basic Asian values or culture. Why did she feel the need to alter it in the first place? Simply put, it’s rooted in xenophobia towards Asians.
Something as simple as a few words can be rightfully labeled as microaggressions—for example, Taylor claiming to change congee to fit ‘your modern palate’. At first glance, this may seem acceptable, but after analyzing the word ‘modern’, it seems more like an insult. Is the existing rice congee not ‘modern’ enough for Western culture? Words like these truly unveil how the company feels about traditional, cultural food: it’s outdated and needs ‘saving’. This is where her discrimination against us truly surfaces.
In another part of her website titled ‘How I discovered the miracle of congee and improved it’ (which has since been removed following the backlash), Taylor states that she’s “spent a lot of time… making a congee that you can eat and find delicious and doesn’t seem foreign, but delivers all of the medicinal healing properties of this ancient recipe”. The xenophobia and underlying racism are so clear here. Essentially, what she’s saying is that she wants to create a version of congee that is physically healing but isn’t ‘foreign’—because ‘foreign’ is undesirable and uncomfortable for her. In a video interview shared on the site, which has also since been removed, she refers to congee as a ‘sort of weird thing’ that Americans need specific instructions on how to make. It seems as though Taylor does not actually like traditional congee and is in fact weirded out by it, which in itself is xenophobic, but is also the root as to why she feels the need to ‘improve’ it.
Around mid-July, Taylor, on behalf of the company, issued a statement on their website. “Recently, we fell short of supporting and honoring the Asian-American community and for that, we are deeply sorry,” the statement said. “We take full responsibility for any language on our website or in our marketing and have taken immediate steps to remedy that and educate ourselves, revising our mission to not just creating delicious breakfast meals, but becoming a better ally for the AAPI community.” The company claims to have already ‘educated’ themselves and become a ‘better ally’ to the Asian community.
Firstly, their ‘apology’ is not even directed to the right people—why just Asian-Americans? Do Asians not exist outside of America? Furthermore, as long as the company exists, it cannot claim to be educated or even be considered an ally. The whole company’s intention is to ‘reinvent’ and ‘improve’ traditional congee—what about that sounds respectful?
Not only is Taylor plainly disrespecting Asian culture, but she’s also incredibly tone-deaf to profit off of a westernized version of congee when Asians have been ridiculed, discriminated against, and stereotyped for simply enjoying their traditional food. Especially since the rise of hate crimes associated with COVID-19, Asians and their food have once again been labeled as ‘disgusting’, ‘weird’, or just about anything in that category. Chinese eateries around the world have closed down because people think it’s ‘dirty’. Asians are struggling to provide for their families because of this, and for a white woman to just come in, steal, and then have the audacity to reinvent congee—which undoubtedly we have been ridiculed for—is painfully ignorant.
Acts like Taylor’s ruin the integrity of cultural Asian foods, and this clearly isn’t the first time this has happened. Why do white people constantly feel the need to steal others’ traditions and ‘improve’ them as if we need it? As long as they want to westernize, alter, reinvent or do anything of the sort to a culture that isn’t theirs, they can never be an ally. They can never be respectful. Just because they don’t have ‘traditional’ food, doesn’t mean they can take ours.