Curious about…The 幸福饼干 Controversy.
Fortune Cookies, from the Chinese 幸福饼干 meaning “happiness biscuit”, are actually not a Chinese but an American invention. Chef Makoto Hagiwara of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden is reported to have been the first person in the USA to have served the modern version of the cookie when he did so in the 1890s or early 1900s.
Today’s Fortune Cookies are usually made from flour, sugar, vanilla, and oil with a “fortune” wrapped inside, a piece of paper with words of faux-profound wisdom or a vague prophecy. The message inside may also include a Chinese phrase with translation or a list of lucky numbers used by some as lottery numbers, some of which have become actual winner numbers. Fortune cookies are often served as a dessert in Chinese restaurants in the United States and some other countries, but are completely absent in China.
On the origin of the cookie, David Jung, founder of the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles, made a competing claim that he invented them in 1918. San Francisco’s mock Court of Historical Review attempted to settle the dispute in 1983. During the proceedings, a fortune cookie was introduced as a key piece of evidence with a message reading, “S.F. Judge who rules for L.A. Not Very Smart Cookie.” A federal judge of the Court of Historical Review determined that the cookie originated with Hagiwara and the court ruled in favor of San Francisco. Subsequently, the city of Los Angeles condemned the decision.
Fortune cookies before the early 20th century were all made by hand. The fortune cookie industry changed dramatically after the fortune cookie machine was invented by Shuck Yee from Oakland, California. The machine allowed for mass production of fortune cookies which subsequently allowed the cookies to drop in price to become the novelty and courtesy dessert many Americans are familiar with after their meals at most Chinese restaurants today.
Fortune cookies have become an iconic symbol in American culture, inspiring many products. There are fortune cookie-shaped jewelry, a fortune cookie-shaped Magic 8 Ball, and silver-plated fortune cookies.
What Of It? San Francisco evokes unique Chinese memories for me, obviously due to the huge influence of the Asian population here; somewhere between the misty Americanized nostalgia of “The Joy Luck Club” and the tacky yet spectacular neon-lit dumpling restaurants you find here in Chinatown. I actually think of Fortune Cookies as one cross-cultural bridge that came from those early immigrants, an attempt to take the deep-rooted philosophy of their Chinese and Japanese heritage and help find a away to commercialize it (albeit it in a pretty shallow soundbite) for ordinary, everyday folks. I love the fact that a product such as this can exist and somehow be as American as apple pie and at the same time as Chinese as chopsticks.
I Am Curious about cross-cultural icons, about the origins of everyday things, about the overlaps between the philosophical and the commercial, about how a simple and humble products can have a complex and controversial beginning.
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