Alas, they do not. Ernie had written a post earlier in the year on where exactly the origins of the fortune cookie came from. So when I saw this video on Hyphen, I was actually not too surprised that the Chinese there didn’t know what they were eating.
What’s interesting about the video here is that culturally, there are many westerners that don’t realize that Chinese American cuisine includes a lot of things that are not in authentic Chinese dishes, one of which is the fortune cookie. I had a conversation about China with a friend once, and he asked if the food there came with the standard fortune cookie. “That’s not Chinese,” I said, and he acted surprised; I thought it was just a joke until I realized that he really didn’t know. It wasn’t until then did I realize that most Americans initial instinct of Chinese food was your standard take-out.
What seemed a normal thing to myself was not, in fact, the same experience for others. In recognizing the fortune cookie, recognizing cultural education becomes a requirement in understanding why people act as they do. In doing so, it allows you to understand yourself and the people around you.
