Yong Chen

Picture of Yong Chen
Professor, History
School of Humanities
PH.D., Cornell University, 1993
Phone: (949) 824-5557
Fax: (949) 824-2865
Email: y3chen@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
253 Krieger Hall
Mail Code: 3275
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Food, Asian-American history, Late 19th and 20th Century American social and cultural history, Immigration History, China-U.S. economic and cultural interactions.
Academic Distinctions
He served on the National Park System Advisory Board National Historic Landmarks Committee 2014-2018.
He was elected to the Executive Board of the Immigration and Ethnic History Society in 2004.
He is serving as the Associate Dean of Curricular and Student Services in the School of Humanities.
Research Abstract
Yong Chen received his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University. He is professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. is author of Chop Suey, USA: The Rise of Chinese Food in America (Columbia University Press, 2014), which received honorable mention in the 2015 PROSE Awards in the category of American History. Chinese San Francisco 1850-1943: A Transpacific Community (Stanford, 2000); and The Chinese in San Francisco (Peking University
Press, 2009). He is also co-editor of New Perspectives on American History (Hebei People’s Publishing House, 2010).
His research on diverse topics such as Chinese American history, U.S. ethnic food, and higher education has been published in various leading academic journals and has received much public attention in the United States and China. Civil Rights in America: A Framework for Identifying Significant Sites for the National Park Service, authorized and funded by the U.S. Congress. He has been frequently interviewed by various media organizations (such as Radio France Internationale, ETTV, Sing Tao Daily, Correio Braziliense, National Public and KPCC) in four languages, discussing issues ranging from food, race and immigration in the U.S. to Sino-American relations.

He has done extensive research on the intersection of contemporary Sino-American economic and cultural interactions. He has given public lectures at business schools in the U.S. and China and worked with numerous transnational corporations, such as IFC of the World Bank and Haier. His long-standing research on food in American culture has received much attention and recognition across the nation. He has been invited to give lectures across the U.S. and China and in Germany, by professional organizations such as the International of Association of Culinary Professionals and universities such as Yale University. His food research has been featured in such periodicals as The Chronicle of Higher Education and the Orange County Register, U.S. News and World Report, Los Angeles Times, St. Louis Riverfront Times, Saveur, and New York Times. He is the co-curator of a museum exhibit on the history of Chinese restaurants in the U.S. in the Museum of Chinese in the Americas in New York City ((Sept 2004-June 2005) and Atwater Kent Museum, Philadelphia (April - September 2006), an exhibit that has received extensive coverage in the press, including the New York Times. One of the feature articles on him and his food research appeared in the Orange County Register.
Last updated
06/25/2020