A Campaign to Redefine “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” and Stifle Xenophobia
An introduction to CRS
This past year, a campaign to redefine “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” (CRS) was launched by activists around the world. CRS is actually defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a group of symptoms held to affect susceptible persons eating food heavily seasoned with monosodium glutamate”. The campaign’s argument is that this definition is not only scientifically false, but that it also upholds the racism and xenophobia that spawned the term in the first place. To understand this term, and the campaign working to redefine it, we first need to take a quick step back and give a bit of context.
That chemical compound at the end of the definition is commonly known as MSG, and you’ve likely consumed far more of it than you think. It’s a fairly common amino acid found naturally in foods like tomatoes and cheese. MSG has been extracted and used as a food additive due to its ability to tap into what is often called our fifth basic taste: umami. It was discovered in 1907 by Japanese chemist, Kikune Ikeda, who sought to find the chemical responsible for the incredible savoriness found in foods like asparagus, tomatoes, mushrooms, and seaweed. He would go on to be the first to isolate it, and subsequently produce it commercially as a table condiment. Like salt, MSG enhances and amplifies flavors, and would go on to become widely used in eastern Asia. In fact, it was embraced as a transition toward modernity in the kitchen and an avenue for improved savoriness in vegetarian diets. As US immigration restrictions on east Asian countries loosened in the early-mid 20th century, families from these nations entered the United States in larger numbers than ever before, bringing with them their cultural backgrounds and national cuisines. However, American palettes augmented the characteristics of these cuisines in many ways, gradually creating the “Americanized” versions of them that we see in many restaurants today. Nevertheless, MSG, and the flavor it brings, was embraced here as it was in East Asia, and quickly became an additive in a variety of American-made processed foods.
The birth of CRS and the downfall of MSG
No debate or discussion raising doubt about the safety of MSG existed until the late 1960s, after a man wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine, complaining about a sensation of numbness and discomfort after eating at Chinese restaurants. Unsubstantiated, these claims ignited debate and skepticism across the country, eventually producing the phrase “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” to categorize and explain supposed symptoms related to the consumption of Chinese food, and more specifically, MSG. Attacks on MSG didn’t stop there, food companies would quickly move to label MSG as a toxin, forcing Chinese restaurants to drop the now-traditional additive and display signs proclaiming “No MSG” in fear of completely losing their business. Despite scientific studies from institutions like the FDA and journals like Food and Chemical Toxicology, which repeatedly proved the safety of MSG for regular consumption, the damage was done. Entire generations of Americans have grown up believing MSG is unsafe, and that Chinese restaurants, by association, are dirty and can cause illness.
Debunked, Racist, Xenophobic
Since its inception, CRS and claims tying MSG to negative health effects have been debunked again, and again, and again. What’s keeping the stigma and fear alive isn’t science, it’s racism and xenophobia. America has a long-standing tradition of exoticizing Asian cuisines and viewing the establishments that create them as dirty and cheap. A side effect of this stigma on the diner can sometimes be the nocebo effect, a psychological phenomenon similar to the placebo effect in which a negative expectation is manifested in the body of the person harboring them. The real damage caused by this stigma, however, is experienced by those in this country working to keep their heritage and cuisine alive. We demand sweeter, saltier, deep-fried variants of their cuisine, and then have the gall to proclaim it “unhealthy”. Meanwhile, we hold no reservation with processed fast food chains like McDonald’s, Popeyes, and Chick-fil-a, all of which use MSG in their foods. It’s not motivated by science, it’s xenophobia. Famously, Lucky Lee’s, a Chinese restaurant founded by a white woman in New York City, promoted their food as a “clean” and “healthy” alternative to the “greasy”, “unhealthy”, “dirty” Chinese food we’re apparently used to. Why, then, do we not regard French or Italian cuisine with as much scrutiny? These two cuisines are famous for their generous use of butter, oil, and salt, yet we have no problem paying top-dollar for their cuisine who’s nutritional value is never called into question. As a country and a culture, we need to stop hiding behind these thin veils of a pursuit for nutritional excellence, which we openly embrace or ignore only when convenient. The motivation is not science, it’s racism.
This is not just ignorance, it’s actively hurtful to these communities — and anti-American
This outlook and attitude we’ve embraced as a country is much more than innocent ignorance, it’s actively harmful to these communities, these multicultural communities that make America what it is. Research has shown that attitudes toward immigrants, particularly in the vein of xenophobia, can have a tremendous impact on the value people are willing to place on their cuisine. In an interview with Voices of America, Krishnendu Ray, an associate professor of food studies at New York University, noted that there’s an “inverse relationship between migration of poor people from any region in the world and our respect for their culture and cuisine.” This means that these racist attitudes are devaluing the cuisine many families are keeping alive for their survival. When this is compounded with racist and xenophobic sentiments in relation to the current global pandemic, the economic constraints imposed by lockdowns and COVID-19 safety precautions, and growing nationalism in countries like the US, conditions for Asians and Asian Americans can quickly escalate from financially constraining to physically and emotionally abusive.
The future: collective action, anti-racism, anti-xenophobia
The #RedefineCRS campaign has come at a time when this very vortex of prejudice and economic instability are threatening the survival of Asian and Asian American communities in the US and around the world. Our responsibility as diners, as community members, as fellow Americans, and as human beings, is to take an active approach in extinguishing this racism and xenophobia. Redefining terms like CRS to highlight the racism with which they were created is certainly one piece of the solution. Others include things like the Welcome to Chinatown initiative, a fund working to purchase and deliver meals from NYC’s Chinatown restaurants to essential workers throughout the city. Others include simply supporting your local restaurants and calling out racism and xenophobia wherever you are. But, at a fundamental level, we have to practice and support anti-racism and anti-xenophobia, constantly working to put an end to our culture’s knee-jerk othering and exoticism, and instead replacing it the recognition that our success and happiness as a society is directly related to our capacity to embrace our multiculturalism.