A review by hlau
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food by Jennifer 8. Lee

4.0

I first learned about Jennifer 8. Lee's now-famous book when her talk at a C3 conference came across my desk via a TED talk over two years ago. Simply stating that "...chop suey is perhaps the greatest prank played by one country on another..." endeared me to the twenty minutes that followed.

An unlikely book, TFC details the Chinese/Chinese-American restaurant business in a way that would shock many and nudge others in understanding the immigrant dilemma. Its legacy and pervasiveness throughout American culture is glimpsed here, with insight only someone whimsical enough to have '8' as a middle name could muster.

Lee approaches the phenomena of self-organizing networks in a way that is thought-provoking and sure to inform and entertain at the same time.