Angela Hui - Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter

I have been looking forward to reading Takeaway ever since I read an extract in the Guardian when it was first published. My attraction was several-fold. Firstly Angela Hui's takeaway where she spent her childhood and teens, and the subject of this book, is in the small Welsh village of Beddau. Some of my family live in a smaller villager very nearby which until recently also had a Chinese takeaway. Secondly I was intrigued by the combination of food and memoir, the idea of food being intrinsic to our lives, but conditioned by society and circumstance is not new. But it is an important one and this book covers that a great deal - not least with the author's inclusion of key recipes. Finally, but less importantly, I used to love Chinese takeaway food though I am unable to have it these days - it felt like an excuse to enjoy the dinner by proxy.

Takeaway is a great book. But it is not a homely food and family tale as the Guardian's extract will show. Angela Hui writes about being "robbed" of her childhood by the needs of the business. From a young age she and her brothers had to work, and work long and hard hours in the takeaway. They experienced racism and abuse - and the difficulties of that life. She also describes the family tensions - and domestic abuse - that accompanied the life, driven by stress and difficult economic circumstances.

The book also highlights the difficulties that children like Hui experience, trapped between two identities - that of their immigrant parents and their heritage and the culture that they grow up in. Hui writes about not being part of either, and being a conduit between the two. Translating for her parents, living in a immigrant household, and being part of the Welsh school and village. The situation is not helped by the economic circumstances of the village itself - a former mining town with few jobs and little money. She and her family are victims of abuse occasionally for that - scapegoated and blamed. In some regards her parents are insulated from this as they don't have the language. But they feel the pain of broken glass and smashed up gardens and the spitting hatred of the racists. I did cheer though, when her father finally snapped and chased a racist vandal with his cleaver. There was racism, but there was also kindness too. The regulars with their unchanging dishes, and the villagers who teach the family to sing the national anthem. But one always gets the impression of distance between Hui's family and those around them - only really broken down by Hui's generation as they make friends and then move on.

Food provides an anchor. Her father is not one for loving embraces and kind words. But he can cook a favourite dish, and food becomes in part the way that the family and the wider Chinese community are able to bond and link. But what comes through mostly is the way that life for this family, and likely for many, many other families working in this environment is that the work dominates life. There are few days out for Hui, no evenings at friends houses watching TV or doing homework, because she has to work in the shop. A visit to the Chinese supermarket in Birmingham is a big highlight. In essence, though Hui doesn't draw this out explicitly, there is a class basis to this situation - the position of Middle Class families - trapped by the economic logic of the need to run the business, shop or takeaway. Workers' can, at least occasionally, organise collectively and leave at the end of the day. People in Hui's family's position are trapped by the need to constantly labour to make money. 

From a young age Hui and her brothers want out. They recognise that they are trapped, that there are better alternatives out there. It is only later that she comes to realise the sacrifices her parents have made. For them the takeaway is not a family business - it is a way to get the economic security so that their children can escape. As such, the background stories of Hui's parents life in China during the famine, are even more poignant. There too food is a factor, and some of the dishes relate to this period, not just the takeaway menu.

Takeaway is illuminating. It deserves to be widely read for in its subtle way it tells us alot about society, racism, food and family. It's not easy in places, and sadly the recipes are not ones that I will ever be able to make for myself, but other readers will. Enjoy.

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