We’re Still In The Process Of Creating Asian American Culture — And That’s A Beautiful Thing

Since it opened in 2016, the Chop Suey Club has become a cultural touchstone of the New York City’s Lower East Side — a community space/store/vibe-curator of contemporary Asian-Americana with the ultimate goal of helping Asians revel in their cool-culture. The brick-and-mortar store immaculately curates everything relevant to our lives, from home goods (think chic chopstick holders) to clothing from East Asian designers. Its website is a more vast space to explore art and style through the lens of an Asian blended identity.

The Chop Suey Club is named after the iconic Chinese dish believed to have been invented by immigrants in America. “I think it takes some personality to come in and come up to explore,” says Ruoyi Jiang, who launched the space. For a long time, the store didn’t have any signage, so you either had to know that the store existed or be brave enough to wander in.

When she arrived here from Beijing in 2009, Jiang realized there weren’t many places of commerce or community that celebrated contemporary Chinese designers. For the most part, Americans’ ideas of Chinese creativity and fashion were pretty archaic ― confined to relics found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or in qipao stores in Chinatown. What was sorely lacking, she believed, was a space that displayed and uplifted the art of the abundant young, creative forces coming out of Asia.

Once they’re in the store, Jiang says she wants people to feel like they’re in their cool aunt’s apartment. You instantly get the sense of a modern Asian American sensibility in the form of jade jewelry you’d wear at a rave, art inspired by the acclaimed director Wong Kar-wai, and a Mahjong Rubiks Cube. “I just want people to feel comfortable,” Jiang says. “I want a whole family to come and this be a place where each person could find something.”