Chinese Grocery Roast Pork

The Mississippi delta has been described as a "haunted landscape," a beautiful backdrop of alluvial plains and coastal wetlands, marred by the brutal legacies of slavery and segregation. The history has been recorded in both the black and white of history books, but also in the colorful, yet melancholy, notes of delta blues musicians such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Son House. These musicians not only recorded the daily oppression, poverty and strugle of African Americans lives, but they also documented the resilience and strength of both the people and their communities. 

Yet, there are chapters of the delta's history that until, relatively recently, went largely untold. One such chapter revolves around the Chinese immigrants who settled in the Mississippi delta in the aftermath of the Civil War. These immigrants left their homes (primarily in the Guangdong and Canton provinces) in search of the Gam Sahn ("golden mountain"), akin to what we would call the "American dream." These Chinese immigrants ended up on the same cotton plantations previously worked by African-American slaves. They performed the same back-breaking work. The only difference was that the white owners had to pay the Chinese immigrants for their labor. But, the pay was not enough to justify the hard work, let alone support a family either in the United States or back home in China.  

Consequently, many Chinese laborers left the cotton fields, looking for work elsewhere. They made their way to nearby cities, where they established themselves in the community by opening grocery stores. The first such stores began to appear in the 1870s. The work continued to be hard, with early mornings and late nights, but these Chinese-Americans took control of their economic lives. They also relied upon hui, their relatives, to open additional grocery stores. Soon, Chinese-owned grocery stores proliferated across the Mississippi Delta. In the city of Greenville, Mississippi -- an important transit point for transportation between New Orleans, Louisiana and points north -- had 40,000 residents and 50 Chinese-owned grocery stores.  

One of the first Chinese-owned grocery stores in Greenville, MS, at the corner of Washington
Avenue and Walnut Street, photo taken  in 1939 by Farm Security Admin. photographer
Marion Post Wolcott, available at the Library of Congress (Source: KPBS)

The successful exertion by Chinese-Americans of their economic independence had its limits in the racially structured, white supremacist society. The Chinese were not "White" or "Colored," falling into a third category. The Chinese-Americans did not suffer the extreme violence suffered by African-Americans, but they nevertheless suffered from discrimination and segregation. It was in this space that the Delta Chinese soon found that they too had limited opportunities. the only employment available to them involved owning or working in these grocery stores. 

Chinese-Americans navigated within this space. And they did so in a very historically significant way. The Chinese-American owned grocery stores served as critical lifelines for the most oppressed people in the Mississippi delta: the African-American community. The same white supremacist racial and economic order that confined the Chinese to owning and/or working in grocery stores made it difficult, if not impossible for African-Americans to go to white-owned grocery stores.  

Chinese store owners purchased goods from white-owned wholesalers. They then stocked the shelves with foodstuffs (like flour, sugar, canned goods), clothing, farms tools, and much more. However, these grocery stores provided more than a place for African-Americans to purchase what they needed. The stores provided a social environment where African Americans were respected: they could walk through the front door of a store (rather than through the back door) and would be treated with civility. The Chinese-American grocery store owners would offer lower prices and were the only ones to extend credit to African-American sharecroppers, who were paid only once or twice per year.  The two communities -- Chinese and African-American -- worked together in solidarity as they struggled to survive the racist economy, government and society that operated violently along the Mississippi River and across the delta.

(As an aside, immigrant communities in other cities -- like the Italians in Birmingham, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana -- also operated grocery stores that served the African-American community.)

Picture exhibited in 2023 at the Mississippi Delta Chinese Heritage Museum,
located at the Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi

The grocery stores were not only the business of the Chinese-American communities, they were also the homes. Because of the racist Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese-Americans could not own land. They usually lived in the back of their stores or in adjacent structures. Many of the memories of Chinese-American children revolve around food, which also served as the focal point of gatherings among their community.

After learning about the Chinese-American community in the Mississippi delta, as well as their relationship with their African-American neighbors, I wanted to prepare a dish in recognitionof and to honor that history. I found a recipe for Chinese Grocery Roast Pork. This recipe was perfect: it took a traditional Chinese recipe -- Char Siu, which is usually prepared with pork belly -- but used a cut of pork that is synonymous with the iconic southern barbecue: the pork butt.

CHINESE GROCERY ROAST PORK (MISSISSIPPI STYLE CHAR SIU)

Recipe adapted from James Beard Organization 

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 4 green onions, white and green parts, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon grated peeled fresh ginger
• 1 cup dark soy sauce
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 1/2 cup rice vinegar (preferably red)
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 1 star anise
• 2-inch piece cinnamon stick
• 1/4 teaspoon five spice powder
• 1 3-pound shoulder of pork (Boston butt)

Directions:

1.  Prepare the sauce. Heat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large Dutch oven or roasting pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic and ginger and cook for 1 minute. Add the soy sauce, sherry, vinegar, honey, brown sugar, hoisin sauce, anise, cinnamon and five-spice powder. Simmer for 1 minute. Add 1 cup of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat under the pan so that the mixture simmers. 

2. Roast the pork. Loosen the skin from the meat in several places, but do not remove it. Place the meat in the liquid, turning several times to coat it with the sauce. Transfer the pot to the oven. Cook for 30 minutes undisturbed, then baste with the cooking liquid and continue to baste every 20 minutes until the internal temperature of the meat is between 170 and 180 degrees Fahrenheit, about 4 to 4 1/2 hours. 

3. Finish the dish.  Remove the pork to a cutting board or serving platter and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice thinly and pour the pan juices over the meat, removing the star anise and cinnamon. 

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Post Script: To learn more about the experience of Chinese-Americans in the Mississippi Delta, I recommend watching The Untold Story of America's Southern Chinese. Part 2 of the series focuses upon the Chinese in the Mississippi Delta and their history in the region. 

I also recommend the movie, Far East Deep South. Written and directed by Larissa, Lam, the movie follows the story of the Chiu family as they learn more about their family's history and roots in the Mississippi delta. It is availalbe on Tubi. I watrched the movie. Not only is it very informative, it was truly moving to watch and learn alongside the family. 

 PEACE.