Panda Express has grown tremendously since it opened its first door in 1983. Andrew J.C. Cherng and his father, master Chinese chef Ming- Tsai Cherng, founded a full service restaurant in 1973 called Panda Inn. They were in Pasadena, a suburb of Los Angeles, one of America’s ethnic melting pots. The Cherngs wanted to expand the full service Chinese restaurant but the competition would be too much in an area with a large Asian American population. Andrew Cherng saw that fast food, drive-thru restaurants was very successful in the United States. He then sought out to experiment with an “oriental” food version of that kind of idea since southern California offered a good market. Cherng moved away from the full service restaurant idea and expanded into the quick service restaurant field.

Panda Express has become one of the largest “Chinese food” restaurant chains in the United States, having restaurants in over 34 states. They are located in places like, mall food courts, supermarkets, shopping centers, key intersections, airports, and university and college campuses. It can practically be put in the fast food category now along the lines of healthiness. Panda express in addition to other Chinese fast food restaurants double the number of McDonald’s franchises. Many Americans, including Asian Americans, are gaining weight because of misconceptions about the food. Many think that it is healthy since there are vegetables in the meals. Panda Express is in the market for customers in the age eighteen to thirty four bracket, the working population who will most likely eat fast food. They are slowly raising their level to a hamburger, fried chicken, and Mexican food chain dominated market.

More importantly, I feel that Panda Express has taken a big step in the promotion of Americanized Chinese food. They have moved further away from traditional Chinese cuisine and moved towards modifying their food for Caucasian American tastes. Americanized Chinese food is taking over and “real” Chinese food is losing its authentic cultural aspect. Chinese food in America is recognized as a kind of fast food while many Chinese people are not proud to call it theirs. Immigrants from China that try this food for the first time usually do not like it at all. Much of what passes for Chinese cooking in America would sicken a traditional Chinese gourmet chef. Canned pineapples, canned fruit cocktails, corn starch, MSG, and heavy doses of sugar are found in these “bizarre” American creations. The basic formula appears to be: take the fattest piece of meat you can get, cook it in a lot of oil with the sweetest mixture of canned fruits and sugar you can make, add soy sauce and thicken the sauce to a glue-like consistency. Think about it the next time you get carryout!

Shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act was passed on May 23, 1975. President Gerald Ford allowed refugees from South Vietnam and Cambodia to enter the United States under a special status. The first wave of refugees consisted of about one hundred and thirty thousand. They were first airlifted to the Philippines and Guam and then to one of the refugee centers in the United States. The second batch of refugees began during 1978 and lasted through the mid-1980s. These were people who took to sea in overcrowded boats. The ones who escaped death at sea ended up in Southeast Asia and later on admitted into the U.S. This group included many ethnic Chinese who were persecuted by the Vietnamese government.
The children of these immigrants began moving up through the schools and a new class of academic achievers emerged. Asian Americans began to carry the image of being the “model minority”. This is because despite what they were faced with, many Asian American Immigrants excelled in schools across America. A good number of the immigrant families were stuck in poverty, especially the refugees in the year’s following the fall of Saigon in 1975.
There were children that were scarred from war trying to start a new life in America. Many of them had a hard time learning the new language, causing them to drop out of school. Regardless, during this time Asian Americans were scoring very high above average on the math section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test. In addition, they had higher grade point averages than their peers. Asian Americans had taken many places in prestigious colleges to the point where the country’s best universities were accused of setting admission quotas to restrict the number of Asian Americans on campus.
The reasons for this academic success have been attributed to many different things. One of the reasons is that Asian American parents tend to make their children work harder because they believe education is the key to success. Another reason is the theory that they average higher I.Q. points through genetic differences. These explanations worry Asian Americans because it would only increase racial stereotyping and it has.
These events have led Time Magazine to acknowledge and publish an article on this subject of “Asian American Whiz Kids”. This sounds like a success story for the American dream but the title of “model minority” throws you in a pool where you lose individuality and are discriminated against.

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David Tran is the founder of Huy Fong, an Asian American company that is most popular for it's creator's invented sauce, Sriracha. Sriracha was created in the early 1990’s and was the brilliant idea of Tran as he aspired to create his own American dream after leaving Vietnam with his family in 1979. By February of 1980, Tran was settled into Boston and began to invent his world famous sauce. Tran moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his family and began to start the manufacturing of the Sriracha sauce through family homemade operations. By reusing Gerber baby food jars, the Tran family began to create their family production. Soon, Tran had gained enough success to create the signature bottle that is known today. He uses a rooster for his astrological sign and has kept the same bottle and design since the making of the sauce. David Tran’s Sriracha sauce is an American product that creates a sense of authentic Asian identity and in that perspective, the company targets the Asian community with their products. “We’re happy to see these [American] chefs use our sriracha,’ said Huy Fong’s president, William Tran, the 33-year-old son of its founder. ‘But we still sell 80 percent of our product to Asian companies, for distribution through Asian channels. That’s the market we know. That’s the market we want to serve.’”

The Huy Fong commitment to the community has not gone unnoticed. Through the years of success, his base of operations has always been in Rosemead, California. As of recent, the company feels they are too cramped in workspace for the city of Rosemead and needs to move operations elsewhere. As the Sriracha company contemplates it’s relocation, officials from the city of Rosemead rushed to hold a meeting with the founder to keep the signature company in the area as a historical symbol of growth and success. While the company’s success gains more momentum, the worldwide effect of Sriracha has not gone unnoticed. Chefs in America and all over the demographics of Asia have adopted the sauce into many popular dishes today. The specialties are a highlight and flatter the founder of Sriracha hot sauce as he comments, “‘I’m always interested in what they do,’ Mr. Tran said, his voice filled with genuine wonderment.” However, flattery is received in more ways than one as Asian stores around America started to sell similar items like “Cock brand sriracha from Thailand, Shark brand from China, Phoenix brand from Vietnam and Unicorn brand, also from Vietnam.” Huy Fong created a small dent in Asian American culture and even traditional Asian culture by his success and recipe for an “Asian American” hot sauce that would be able to bridge two cultures. Most Asian American’s have followed this craze and most likely will have a bottle in their house. Americans are even beginning to like Sriracha, eating with things such as hot dogs and pizza’s as the bottle is hitting shelves in Wal-mart, Albertsons and stater bros.

The Karate Kid was a blockbuster film of the 80's which was released on June 22, 1984. The film was directed by John Avildsen and written by Robert Kamen. The Karate Kid tells the story of Daniel Larusso who recently moved to California from New Jersey. Larusso runs into trouble with some kids from the Cobra Kai karate dojo and is severely beaten until Mr. Miyagi jumps in and saves the day. Larusso pleads with Miyagi to become his sensei and teach him karate and Miyagi ultimately agrees and educates Larusso in life and karate.


The Karate Kid rode the wave of martial arts movies during the era which began with Enter the Dragon and Drunken Master. These films helped to make Asian culture more acceptable and heightened the presence of Asians in film. In The Karate Kid, Miyagi was the only prominent Asian martial artist in the film. The rest of the martial artists were white, which propelled martial arts and particularly Karate in American culture. The recognition of Asian martial arts acted as a bridge between Asian and American culture and helped to solidify Asian American culture.


The main factor from this movie which impacted Asians in America was the character of Mr. Miyagi, played by Pat Morita. Morita was most known for his past role as the abrasive foreign cook, Arnold, from Happy Days, which was a more foreign and comedic character. Mr. Miyagi is a handyman with roots in martial arts and has a past with the US Army. Through his background as a soldier as well as an everyday handyman, Miyagi is more easily identifiable as American. The role of Miyagi brought with it authority and wisdom as well as a sense of honor and discipline. An Asian role which demanded respect and commanded authority had not been seen in a long time and this helped the Asian image. This movie effectively brought back the stereotype of Asians as Bruce Lee and added a bit more flavor to it while doing so. The image of awkward Asian men was shattered and replaced by Miyagi's character. Although this movie did give the Asian stereotype a more positive light, Miyagi was still forced to harbor broken English which weakened his image as an Asian American.


Despite this, the role of the Asian protagonist greatly helped the image of Asian Americans both in Hollywood and in culture. The image of the authoritative Asian in Hollywood was made acceptable by The Karate Kid and the reputation of Asians was on the upswing. The Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi will forever be among the most popular and loved icons of pop culture of the 80's. And looking past the crane poses, being called Daniel-san and supposedly being able to catch a fly with chopsticks, they had a positive impact on Asian Americans as well.

The Goonies was a movie which was released on June 7, 1985. The film was directed by Richard Donner and written by Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus. The Goonies revolves around two brothers and their group of friends, who call themselves the Goonies. The Goonies stumble upon a treasure map belonging to the famed "One-Eyed" Willie. The gang proceeds to pursue the treasure shown on the map but are met by the Fratelli family who recently escaped jail and are also on a hunt for the treasure. The Goonies then have to survive and best a gauntlet of traps and obstacles to outsmart the Fratellis and ultimately claim the treasure.

The Goonies was a large success among the American audience and its popularity exists to this day. Among the Goonies in the movie is Richard "Data" Wang. Data, an Asian American, is seen as an extremely intelligent yet quirky character and was noted by his overstuffed overcoat. Data idolized James Bond and created numerous ridiculous inventions which ended up saving the gang at one point or another. In a blend of goofiness and intelligence, Data was a successful and popular character. Although there were positive aspects to the character, Data still suffers from a slight accent as well as a the tendency to refer to himself in the third person which is a less than ideal image.

At the time, Asian Americans were still struggling to find an identity in pop culture torn in a struggle between Bruce Lee and Long Duk Dong. The character of Data, I believe, provided a more moderate medium between the two extremes which ultimately became a part of the current Asian stereotype. Even though Data still possessed a bit of an accent and was still visibly foreign, he was also seen as an integral part of the Goonies and was not an outsider like Dong. I believe this role was a strong supporter and perhaps the pioneer of the image of the Asian as the "calculator" or the "wiz kid" which ultimately was the image of the model minority. On the flip side, although this image is an overall positive one, it still alienates Asian Americans from the average American kid.It's curious that although Data was intelligent, courageous and bold, Hollywood felt it necessary to also give him an accent and make him clumsy. Thus, the national image of Asian Americans remained as awkward and goofy figures with a thick accent and sub-par grammar. Despite this, I believe Data was a positive step in the image of Asians in America.

The movie, Sixteen Candles, was released to the American public on May 4, 1984. The film was directed by John Hughes and boasted a starlit cast which included Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and John Cusack. The movie was a huge success during the 80's and was a pop culture reference known by most teenagers of the era.

Sixteen Candles revolved around Ringwald's character, Samantha Baker, and her dramatic high school life around the time of her 16th birthday. Throw in some goofy characters here and there and you have the gist of the movie. Surprisingly, Ringwald's character and performance was eclipsed by that of Gedde Watanabe. "Gedde who?" you ask? Perhaps it would be better to refer to him as Long Duk Dong, the foreign exchange student who lived in Baker's house. This character and the success of the movie caused waves of disgust from the Asian American community.

Long Duk Dong's lines were few, but they were remembered by all who saw the movie. Echoes of "What's happenin', hot stuff?", "Oh, sexy girlfriend!" and "No more yanky my wanky" can still be heard today...trust me. Dong's limited appearance and role made a huge impact on American culture in which Asian Americans, unfortunately, got the short end of the stick. Long Duk Dong created a less than desirable stereotype for Asian Americans of the time in which all Asians were seen as FOBs (fresh of the boat) who spoke with thick accents and were all around socially awkward. There was actually few positive attributes to Watanabe's character to note, if any. Given the fact that Asian Americans didn't have a strong presence at the time, Dong gave all Asian Americans a significant social handicap. Before the time of Sixteen Candles, it was said most Asian kids in America were called or related to "Bruce Lee" which is in no way a bad correlation. The move from being called "Bruce Lee" to "Donger" resulted in all Asian American males crying for vengeance against Watanabe.

The effect that Long Duk Dong had on Asians in film is arguable. Prior to his role, Asians were seen more prominently in films such as Enter the Dragon and Drunken Master. Take notice that both of these films take place on foreign soil which maintains to a degree the foreignness of Asians while adding a bit of danger to their reputation. The fact that Sixteen Candles takes place in America where it is clear to see how an "Asian" would act in high school culture overrides the previously mentioned stereotypes. Since then, it has been an uphill battle for Asian American actors who have trouble finding normal American roles in commercials, TV and film. The Asian American community still awaits a strong Asian American presence in film who can spin them in a better light. But until that actor comes, we are all still victims to the name "Donger".