Chopsticks or Fork?
To be able to tell a handful of stories about people you don’t usually see on television has been a real honour
Words by Jennifer Wong
Lin Jie Kong and Jennifer Wong with their book Chopsticks or Fork?
Why does almost every Australian town have a Chinese restaurant?
It’s the question that drove us, Lin Jie Kong (director/producer) and Jennifer Wong (writer/comedian/presenter), to make Chopsticks or Fork?, a six-part ABC series about Chinese restaurants in regional Australia (which you can watch for free on ABC iview).
There are so many untold stories in Australia. To be able to tell a handful of stories about people you don’t usually see on television has been a real honour.
Between 2020 and 2022, Lin Jie Kong and I visited ten Chinese restaurants in regional Australia across every state and territory, and spent time with the families who run them. Some people, like Gavin Chan at Happy’s in Canberra, are the third generation of a restaurant with more than 60 years’ history. Others, like Tina Tan and Andy Liu arrived in Australia from Guangzhou as recently as 12 years ago and took over the Pagoda Chinese Restaurant in Atherton, QLD, not long after.
We also invited people from around the country to share their Chinese restaurant memories, either as diners or as people whose families ran Chinese restaurants. Hundreds of people wrote to us, and we included a selection in the book, with some memories dating as far back as the 1940S.
Our hope with Chopsticks or Fork? was to connect viewers and readers to the people who create the familiar comfort and cosy deliciousness of their road trip meals, Friday nights out, and family celebrations. Who are the people working in the restaurants, and what are their stories?
Along the way, we’ve met many people who grew up in Chinese restaurant families. Many who’ve since seen the series or read the stories — about the anxieties of restaurant life, about the challenges of often being one of the few ethnic families in town — have told us, “For so long, we thought we were the only ones.”
Jennifer and Lin Jie have kindly chosen the 3 recipes from their book for HOISZN — one for beginner cooks, one for entertaining friends, and one that tells a story…
Chopsticks or Fork? is published by Hardie Grant and available now.
