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Cultural Imperialism

I was in a Chinese restaurant the other day and the chopsticks came in a little red paper sleeve. Here’s an excerpt from the language on the sleeve:

Welcome to Chines Restaurant. Please try your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticke
the traditional and trpical of Chines glorious history and cultual.

then underneath

BAMBOO CHOPSTICKS
PRODUCT OF CHINA

Who’d have known?

How strange it is that in France, they worry about their language being contaminated by phrases like “Le Weekend” and their cuisine polluted by the Big Mac, while here in America we use the word ‘cuisine’ without a second thought and let the Chinese butcher our language in their invading restaurants. Half-seriously, does anyone for a moment worry that the ubiquity of Chinese restaurants are a cultural threat? In America we take the invasion and engulf it. We put szechuan peppercorns into our grits and eagerly make omelettes (another word we have imported joyfully) in a wok.

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