Culture Shock and Food

Similarly to most life events, immigration involves many stages and their combination is referred to as culture shock. It includes the honeymoon stage, the frustration and crisis stage, the acceptance stage and the adjustment stage. Author Geeta Kothari and movie director Lee Isaac Chung both come from immigrant families and have done splendid works depicting the beautiful, yet difficult journey of these families. Kothari’s “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” and Chung’s Minari put an emphasis on the significant shift in food and nutrition families encounter when moving to a new country. To begin with, Kothari is an author, editor, and professor with most of her writings based on immigrant experiences. “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” presents the years of nutritional culture shock her family endured years after her parent’s migration to the United States from India in the 1950s. Kothari and her sister were born in the following decade and lived a very different childhood compared to their parents causing rifts in the familial relationships. Because she is writing for the general public, her stories are easy to read while still having substance and major themes to them. She hopes to help those who have immigrated to relate and not feel alone in their struggle and for those who have stayed in their native country to understand the complicated story of immigrants. This anecdotal short story is an emotional and meditative reflection of her childhood. It reveals her ambivalent sentiments towards food from the U.S., the country in which she was born and raised, in contrast to her parent’s native Indian food. Comparatively, Chung is an acclaimed American film director and screenwriter whose latest film, Minari, is semi-autobiographical and follows the Yi’s in the 1980s. First from South Korea to California and then finally to Arkansas, this immigrant family is in search of an independent and self-sufficient life. Similarly to Kothari, Chung writes and directs this movie for the general American public in hopes of showcasing culture shock through the experiences of the Korean family living in the U.S. Much of the American population is of immigrant origin, yet the rest who are “native” often do not comprehend the differences in lifestyle, culture, and experience between themselves and the immigrant community (I put “native” in quotes as I am not referring to Native Americans, but those who have no ties to other countries). Through intergenerational relationships, family and career goals, and the change in food, Chung makes it accessible for viewers to experience the highs and lows of immigrant life in a symbolically loaded and reflective manner. Kothari and Chung’s works express the importance of food and how it shapes one’s childhood. Due to this shaping, food can be a confusing, even distressing, factor of an immigrant’s childhood. Kothari and Chung both grew up around the same time and their autobiographical works accordingly take place in the 1970s-1980s which was an era of rising conservatism, traditional family roles and economic struggles. During the early 1970s, there was a significant dip in the number of immigrants coming into the U.S., however after the passing of the 1980 Refugee Act, the immigrant population started to soar. On one hand, there were those who were welcoming to immigrants including the president of the National Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Forum, Rick Swartz, who exclaimed “there’s no doubt that today’s immigration is good for the country” (Arocha). On the other hand, some were rather hostile like the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, David Simcox, who said “the immigrants ‘are leading us toward a less standardized society and making us make adjustments in our cultural and language practices” (Arocha). These discrepancies on immigration made it extremely difficult for newcomers to understand their place in American society and their need to assimilate was incompatible with their desire to upkeep their native traditions and customs. 

To begin with, an element often found at the heart of a film is conflict relating to the main character(s). Specifically in Kothari’s essay, “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?”, and in Chung’s film, Minari, we find a prominent external conflict between generations surrounding food. This conflict is essentially based on the fact that (grand)parents tend to cook their native food and the children tend to prefer the food they are accustomed to, which is that of the host country, the United States. This intergenerational conflict is rather common in immigrant families and can be interpreted as a differing reaction to culture shock dependent on age and/or generation. Most parents who immigrate have spent their entire childhood and part of their adulthood in their native countries and have strong attachment to the respective culture. They have the understandable desire to pass down that culture, which includes food, to their children. As Kothari says in her essay, “my parents were afraid my sister and I would learn to despise the foods they loved” (Kothari). On the other hand, most children of immigrant parents were either born in the U.S. or moved at a very young age. All they know is the host country and due to socialization they naturally go toward the host country’s culture with the want and need to assimilate. In Kothari’s case, her parents are somewhat open to having outside food in their house like when her “mother buys the tuna, hoping to satisfy [Kothari’s] longing for American food” (Kothari). In Minari, there is also this openness from Jacob and Monica Yi, the parents, who regularly buy Mountain Dew for their children. Despite the older generation incorporating American food, the children are seen to not be as receptive to their parents native dishes. Kothari’s younger “sister likes pasta and marinara sauce, bologna and Wonder bread,” yet she “refuses to eat: butter, veal, anything with jeera” (cumin) showing her indifference to Indian food (Kothari). Perhaps because she is the youngest she feels even more different from her parents and older sister and feels the need to turn down their food. She feels closest to her friends and classmates choosing to eat “fried egg sandwiches with turkey, cheese, and horseradish” (Kothari). Her behavior is similar to David Yi’s, the youngest of the Yi children, and whom Minari is mainly centered around. After his grandmother, Soonja, learns of his heart murmur she concocts a special soup to help cure him. David instantly refuses the bowl of soup, pushes it away and says it smells bad and doesn’t look good (Minari). His mother pressures him to drink it so as to be polite, but had he had the choice, he most likely would have kept avoiding it. At first, David holds many grudges against Soonja and the Korean soup he is forced to drink definitely does not help their relationship start off on a good foot. He doesn’t like the Koreanness Soonja imposes on him, occasionally saying she “smells like Korea” wrinkling his nose (Minari). Children expect their parents to familiarize themselves with society's culture in order to help them navigate the world and avoid being an outcast in their classes or group of friends. Kothari felt this strongly when she was younger saying her parents were “not like other parents, and they disappoint[ed] me and my sister… they [were] supposed to help us [to] the clues to proper behavior: what to eat and how to eat it” (Kothari). For immigrant parents, it can be difficult to help their children navigate this new country as they are themselves foreign to it, but of course, children do not realize this. The misunderstandings that come up between children and parents are essentially due to immigration and different reactions to culture shock. Parents are culturally not ready to shift their diet entirely whereas children are born ready for the integration and assimilation stage of culture shock. This is where conflicts may arise as can be seen in “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?”and Minari. 

In addition to conflict, symbolism is a vital element to films and writings because it allows the director or writer to attach further meaning to an object, saying, person, or action. A symbol used in Kothari’s essay and Chung’s film is the recurrence of spices from the parents’ native dishes. Spices have a crucial role in immigrant families as they are often the most important ingredient in a recipe because they create the taste. This is why Monica Yi cries as a relief when Soonja opens her luggage to reveal chili powder and anchovies. These traditional ingredients are regularly used in Korean cuisine and clearly remind Monica of her native home. She exclaims how these products were unavailable in Arkansas and how much she had missed them (Minari). The significance of spices and the comfort they bring can also be read in Kothari’s essay as she refers back to them repeatedly. She mentions them a first time when talking about her mother who occasionally followed one of her own mother’s recipes “that only highlights what she’s really missing: the smells and tastes of her mother’s house” (Kothari). At this point in the story Kothari herself realizes the importance of upkeeping her knowledge of Indian recipes and specifically, of Indian spices. Explaining how she doesn’t “want to be a person who can find Indian food only in restaurants,” she quickly scribbled down her mother’s recipes and had to learn the spices: “haldi = turmeric, methi = fenugreek” (Kothari). Spices are evidently meaningful to immigrant parents and with time, they become so for their children as well. Kothari ends her essay as an adult listing the foods in her cupboard. She saves the best ingredients for the end, “unlabeled bottles of spices: haldi, jeera, hing” (Kothari). In both her and Chung’s works, the audience gets a feel of the value of spices as they remind immigrants of their native home and their tastes bring back memories and comfort. 

Almost identically to Geeta Kothari and Lee Isaac Chung, I am also the child of immigrants and have experienced the struggles of culture shock especially in regards to food. Unlike Kothari and Chung, I was not born in the U.S., but I have lived here the majority of my life. I was somewhat lucky to grow up in Silicon Valley, an environment consisting mostly of immigrants or origin of. Nevertheless, culture shock was immediate when my family and I moved there from France. As much as living in an immigrant city was advantageous, we still had to find common ground between us which was, unsurprisingly, the American culture. Thus, even with few “native” American people, we still had to assimilate to the American lifestyle to interact with others. For my family, most of the differences between France and the United States were negligible or at least, reasonably easy to adapt to. This would include career, K-12 education, transportation, housing/garden size, and hobbies to name a few. Some of the more drastic changes we experienced were food, language, healthcare, and seeing extended family. I believe it’s fair to say there was not much we could have done to preserve our preferred French healthcare system or fly to France every few weekends to see the entire family we left behind. Even language was a huge change because as much as my parents favored speaking to my sister and I in French, it would have been irresponsible not to have us learn English. Lastly, food is the change we didn’t see coming or at least, not its magnitude. As they planned to move their family to America, never did my parents stop to think of how much our diet would shift and the distress it would cause for themselves and their children. My individual experience with food has definitely been a battle growing up and although it has gotten better with time, reading Kothari’s essay reminds me there will always be some sort of clashing between my two worlds. Quickly after our immigration, my mother, who is the main cook in our family, realized the produce, meats, cheeses, breakfast foods, and bread were quite different from what was found in France. Even the California wines took some getting used to for my parents. So many little things shocked us like when we learned Americans eat unsalted butter or that soda can be sold in 2 liter bottles! (Of course, this was back in 2005, so these items are now easily obtainable in France.) Nevertheless, we had to make due with what was available at Safeway, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods. My mother adjusted her personal recipes to the ingredients we had here and continued making her French food for our family. For that, I am forever grateful because I wouldn’t feel as close to my French heritage as I do now. However, looking back at elementary school, I wasn’t so eagerly grateful. I used to bring her food to school and often got teased for it being told it smelled and/or looked weird or that was gross for being too healthy. I distinctly remember those who called it disgusting even though they never even tried it. I think it is quite obvious to say these comments were hurtful and made me embarrassed to bring her food to school. I wanted nothing more than a Lunchable or a pizza slice from the cafeteria. In middle school, I started making my own lunches. These often consisted of a ham sandwich, sliced veggies, and a pack of Belvitas I had to convince my mom to buy. I kept this up when I got to high school until, for various reasons, I switched to pre-packed salads which my older sister had also done in high school. These middle and high school lunches were the closest I could get to American food and I truly thought that would make me happy. Finally, during my senior year a friend advised me to start meal prepping for the week. This allowed me to incorporate my mom’s recipes (which I still loved) with some American aspects I added in. This was just a brief history of my intricate school nutrition throughout the years to show how immigrating (and bullying) can cause stress and at points, high anxiety, surrounding food. I know as time went by it became easier, first because time tends to do that, but more specifically because my parents increasingly welcomed American food into our house. Potato chips, jerky, meatloaf, peanut butter, and popcorn are some of the foods my parents incorporated into our diet over the years. This took time, testing, and for the most part, we only have them occasionally. The last thing I’ll mention is the weight gain my family experienced shortly after moving to the U.S. My parents immediately attributed the gain to the less healthy products available here compared to France which they weren’t too wrong about. The amount of pesticides, GMOs, hormones, corn syrup, saturated fat, and processing that goes into food here is quite scary. But seeing how we kept our eating relatively organic, I now tend to think the gain we experienced can be attributed to the change in diet similarly to the well known “freshman fifteen.” Nevertheless, the instantaneous weight gain was frightening for my parents and only added to the nutritional culture shock. 

In essence, there is something very real about culture shock and it is not something immigrants overcome in a couple months time. It causes regular hurdles in everyday life and although these bumps do decrease over time, there is often no end to culture shock. My family and I have been living in the U.S. for over 15 years now and my parents still complain every so often about the little things they miss in France or the other little things that frustrate them here. Even our move from Silicon Valley to Santa Cruz led to some shocks including the decrease in diversity, the weather, the outdoor activities, and the attitudes of those who live here. Despite the fact there are fewer immigrants here, I would say my parents and I more quickly adapted to the Santa Cruz way of life. Of course, having already spent 10 years in California helped in ways we cannot describe, the lifestyle here is much more to our liking. The accessibility to nature was a wonderfully positive shock. Being able to go hiking or to the beach in a matter of minutes changed our lives. The mild temperatures rather than the scorching heat was favorable and closer to the climate we knew in France. For me, my favorite “shock” was the difference in my friends’ and classmates’ attitudes. I had been used to the blatant show of money, the fake compliments, the subtle bullying and other disrespectful conducts. As much as I am certain these behaviors exist in Santa Cruz, I was surprised to not run into them as much as over the hill. Though, perhaps I simply learned to distance myself from these people. In either case, culture shock is a life changing series of events that Kothari and Chung effectively represent in “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?”and Minari, respectively. Through intergenerational conflicts and the symbolism of spices, both of which I understand and have lived through, the audience is able to get a glimpse at the realities of culture shock.  

Works Cited:

Arocha, Zita. “1980S Expected to Set Mark as Top Immigration Decade.” The Washington Post, 23 July 1988, www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/07/23/1980s-expected-to-set-mark-as-top-immigration-decade/9ecd472f-e691-4d49-a0f4- 00a3200250f5/.

Kothari, Geeta. “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I? | Journal.” The Kenyon Review, www.kenyonreview.org/journal/winter-1999/selections/geeta- kothari-656342/.

Minari. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, A24, 2020.

Photo Credits:

1. Sakelliou, Demi. Drawings/Illustration. 2011. London, United Kingdom.