Controversial Chinese Takeout Shuts Down in Wake of Eng's Ire

Following criticism from local Assembly member Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park) and others, Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout—co-founded by UCLA students—has closed temporarily, UCLA’s student newspaper, The Daily Bruin, reported Monday.

The Ching Chong Ling Long business name was taken from a phrase used in a popular YouTube video by former UCLA student Alexandra Wallace that mocked Asians and incited anger and many online parodies.

“Numerous student groups and faculty members from UCLA have expressed to me their outrage over the name and have deemed it both racist and offensive,” wrote Eng in a letter to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block earlier this month. “Stereotypical phrases such as these perpetuate misunderstandings about Asian Americans and intensify hurtful sentiments toward this community.”

Eng urged Block to take action against the UCLA students involved with founding the delivery service, which partnered with The Palace Restaurant in Brentwood.

UCLA Student Co-Founders

The Palace Restaurant owner Rachel Lee contacted UCLA student co-founders Daniel Chen and Kedar Iyer in mid-July and asked them to take down the delivery service site following emails of complaint and media attention after Eng’s letter, according to the Daily Bruin.

“The context was very clear on the website,” co-founder Chen told the Bruin. “Our aim is to provide Asian food with a serving of humor. It’s no different than the parodies, remixes and songs made in reaction to the video.”

Eng--who earned a law degree at UCLA and started the first class on Asian Americans and civil rights law in the United States at UCLA--said on Tuesday that Block responded to his letter and understood the concerns, though he was unsure if the school had the authority to discipline the students for the business name.

A university spokesman told The Daily Bruin that the school cannot punish students for what they choose to name the business but they are looking into whether the business violated campus policies that forbid using residence halls to operate a business.

Chen, who is still interested in partnering with another Chinese restaurant by the fall, told the Bruin that potential business partners must be willing to keep the name as is.

“We just think that when you have higher education you have a higher standard of tolerance,” Eng told Patch Tuesday. “They go to school to be more educated, not to hearken back to a day when their parents and grandparents were marginalized by racism and stereotypes.”