In one of my recent posts about looking at my hometown, and America, from Fanfan's perspective, I surmised something about the origins of what we Americans call Chinese food:

Alas, Fanfan was about to experience her first (giant) servings of "Chinese" food. I put it in quotation marks only because calling it Chinese food is like calling grits "American food." Actually, it might be more like calling a hamburger "German cuisine" since it comes from Hamburg. If I understand correctly, most of the dishes that we call Chinese food are regional specialties that have been Americanized over the years. For example, my favorite, sesame chicken, supposedly has its origins in Hunan Cuisine, and eating it at my house was the first time Fanfan had ever tasted it, even though she comes from a country with such strong cultural ties to China (I'm not about to delve into the complexities of that statement).

It seems, though -- according to this article in the NY Times lamenting Americans' lack of understanding of exactly what "Chinese food" is -- that my hypothesis isn't entirely correct, or at least deserves more explanation [emphasis mine]:

Let’s start at the beginning. Virtually all of today’s so-called Chinese cooking in the United States can best be described as undistinguished, served in restaurants generally indistinguishable one from another.

The how of this is easy. The Chinese who sailed to the Golden Mountain of America to lay the ties and tracks of the transcontinental railroad* were all men. In this womanless society, these workers ate a food of survival; unfamiliar ingredients were cooked in rudimentary Chinese fashion. This coarsened cookery is what evolved into the Chinese-American genre. It is bastardized food, prepared first to feed a worker and then to please an American palate that dotes upon overcooked vegetables and sauces thickened with cornstarch and sugar.

However, one claim in the article does seem dubious:

It is reported that cutting up and sautéing a black-fleshed chicken is an authentic preparation. No, it is not. In China, black chickens are never eaten; rather they are steamed at length, with the resulting broth drunk as a health tonic and the meat discarded.

That's not true in Taiwan. (Again, I know it's not China, and I'm not delving into that) I've seen it eaten in Taipei, and just the other night on Bizarre Foods I saw them eating not only the meat but also the testicles of the black chickens.

*And, for the record, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.