This week’s featured oral history introduces you to Chinese-American grocers in the Mississippi and Arkansas Delta.
The first wave of Chinese immigrants to the Mississippi Delta (mostly from the Guangdong or Canton province) labored as indentured servants on plantations during Reconstruction. But they quickly became disenchanted with working the fields. Some left to go back home to China, but others stayed and opened small neighborhood grocery stores. Serving as an alternative to plantation commissaries and catering to a predominately African American clientele, the Chinese-owned grocery was a mainstay in many Delta neighborhoods well into the 20th century.
Here are some of their stories. Meet Joe Dan Yee of Yee’s Food Land in Lake Village, AR, who bucked the trend of many second- and third-generation Delta Chinese by staying home, after his parents retired, to take over the family market. Listen to Tony and Monica Li, who arrived from Hong Kong in a later wave of immigration, talk about quitting comfortable office jobs in pursuit of the American Dream.
Though the numbers of Chinese grocers diminish year by year, family stories tell an important history of immigration. They also speak to the formation of a unique food culture in the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas.