ABSTRACT
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the five-county Los Angeles area boasted more donut shops per capita than any other place in the United States. Cambodian refugees, survivors of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, owned and operated between 80 and 90 percent of these businesses. As many as two-thirds of these Cambodian donut shop owners hailed from Cambodia’s Chinese ethnic minority. This chapter explores the relationship between Chinese restaurants, Asian American ethnic identities, and the urban scene in twentieth- and twenty-first century Southern California, demonstrating that the physical and cultural landscapes of Southern California, together with the ideas and actions of Chinese Cambodian refugees, created a unique ethnic business niche in Los Angeles. I document these ideas and actions to show how Chinese Cambodians came to dominate the Southern California donut market, owning and operating an estimated 80 to 90 percent of the area’s donut shops. At the same time, I examine the close resemblance between Chinese Cambodian donut shops in Los Angeles and Chinese restaurants in the United States and United Kingdom, arguing that the business practices of Chinese Cambodian donut shop owners resemble strategies historically deployed by Chinese restaurant owners. I also examine the recent rise of Cambodian donut shops that sell Americanized Chinese food, and conclude by discussing whether the Chinese Cambodian donut shops of Los Angeles can expand accepted notions of what constitutes a Chinese restaurant.
