Chop suey fonts are a subcategory of so-called “ethnic” display fonts, and are a unique American invention with roots in the 170 year history of Chinese migrants in United States.

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0:00 This lettering will look familiar… unless you’re from China.
1:06 What is a Chop Suey font?
1:35 Typographic Stereotypes from repeat usage
2:02 Typographic Stereotypes with design intent
3:04 How Chinese writing works, compared with Chop Suey fonts
4:44 Where it started, how it began
5:22 Some historical context
6:41 Chinatown’s theatrical reinvention
7:21 How exclusion propelled Chinese restaurant expansion
9:16 Repetition trumps authenticity
10:05 Why Chinese restaurants perpetuated this trope
10:57 Can a font be racist?
11:17 The type equivalent of a fake foreign accent
12:16 Or… don’t be a hack?
13:14 Where are things headed?
13:50 Chinese food is more than takeout food
15:11 Corporate high-end dining
15:42 Embassy restaurants
16:06 New-school Chinese American restaurants
16:45 An expression of Chinese identities
17:54 TienMin Liao’s multi-script typography
19:02 How to support Chinatown’s survival

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Sources and further resources:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Maîtres_de_l’Affiche

Stereo Types

It’s Chinatown

Book


https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/chop-suey-fonts-hyphenated/index.html
http://fontdata.com/american-typeface-design-patents/?filter=d:Thorp%2C+Henry+H.
https://scholars.org/brief/untold-story-chinese-restaurants-america
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334429825_Cultural_Stereotypes_in_Letter_Forms_in_Public_Space
https://apebhconference.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/carter1.pdf
https://medium.com/aj-news/heres-what-chinese-takeout-menus-can-teach-us-about-immigration-4b41fcf5c0f7
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3576038/
https://medium.com/@Typeji/bilingual-lettering-2-observation-aa7921df018
https://typeji.com/MultiScript

Type 1 typographic sterotypes:
https://linedandunlined.com/archive/new-black-face/

Papyrus: The Power of a Bad Font

Plus:

https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/3/26/18282192/asian-accent-l-and-r
https://fortune.com/2020/06/21/chinese-restaurants-food-american-immigrants-businesses-coronavirus/

Home

Chop Suey Font

Introduction

Images:
http://menus.nypl.org/menus
https://www.foodanddrink.amdigital.co.uk/
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/soete-menu-collection?keywords=chinese
https://tessa.lapl.org/cdm/search/collection/menus/searchterm/chinese/order/nosort
https://www.loc.gov/collections/genthe/
https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/
https://californiarevealed.org/

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Music from Artlist and Epidemic Sound
https://www.epidemicsound.com/referral/x9c4wb

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