In 1922, a white American University of Wisconsin graduate started the La Choy company with a Korean-American business partner to cash in on the demand for “Asian” ingredients. In 1925, Louis Armstrong released the song “Cornet Chop Suey.” Restaurants across the country started popping up to sell chop suey and advertised the dish with large, decorative signs with English lettering whose strokes mimicked those of Chinese characters (this font would even later become known as “chop suey”). It seemed like chop suey couldn’t fail. So what happened?
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