ABSTRACT
Restaurant architecture, with its malleable physicality, connotes different cultural meanings, demonstrating the plasticity of race. This chapter explores the racial representations of Chineseness by closely examining the built environment of three Chinese restaurants in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that were owned by the Toy family. Scholarship on Chinese immigrants in the United States tends to focus mostly on populations living on the east and west coasts. In 1913, a six-story building in downtown Milwaukee was constructed, which included a 300-capacity restaurant, a ballroom, and a 460-seat theater, as well as offices and living quarters. This building featured a Chinese architectural style and was reported as the largest and most luxurious Chinese restaurant in the world at the time. The restaurant was located on the second floor of the Toy Building. The interior finishing also featured exotic Chinese cultural images and materials.
