> How do I, as someone who’s not Chinese—I’m half Japanese, I grew up in the U.S.—write all this stuff about Chinese recipes with any authority? Why should peop

> How do I, as someone who’s not Chinese—I’m half Japanese, I grew up in the U.S.—write all this stuff about Chinese recipes with any authority? Why should people trust me? And why is it O.K. for me to be doing this? Why do the Chinese get to wield supreme executive authority over throwing some random ingredients into a thin pan on high heat? What kind of Food Holocaust do people think is going to happen if some random food blogger who isn't Chinese writes about woks? Chinese food (as if you could say exactly what is and isn't Real Chinese Food without starting a Food Holy War) isn't going to be obliterated by it. The whole cultural appropriation thing is dead to me at this point. Yes, your book's sales might tank if some lunatic with millions of fans decides to excoriate you for being ignorant or disrespectful to some cultural trope like "the right way to stir-fry" or something. But they might also ignore you. I don't think it's worth giving yourself anxiety just to make sure you "have the right" to write about some subject. Just try to be a good person, do your work, and stay off of Twitter.