I agree, there is nothing wrong with eating 'inauthentic' food, it is just the ignorance of believing its authentic that is a problem (and that isn't necessarily a problem if you just eat it, only if you spout of about it). Food adapts to the local ingredients, local tastes, local conditions (and notably local religious observance etc). And the people of the great Chinese Diaspora are particularly good at adapting to local conditions and tastes with enthusiasm.
And 'authenticity' means a lot less than we think unless you are going for it as a foody experience. To people used to Western diets, authentic Mexican food seems like you've taken Tex-Mex and taken out the salad and replaced it with extra pork fat -- why not eat healthier food that matches your tastes better? Authenticity is, IMO, mostly a myth -- you can't really have an authentic national or ethnic cuisine beyond a dish or two, you can have an authentic cuisine of specific people in a specific time and place (which will have some regional and temporal variation, and usually borrow freely from neighbouring cuisine). The reason to seek out more 'authentic' Chinese food is simply that you are likely to get better, and more interesting, food if you avoid the lowest common denominator, but there is no reason why eating Australian Chinese (or Australian Generic Asian eg Hans) is any better or worse than grabbing a burger or a steak and chips. But interesting and wildly inauthentic food is great too (hooray for fusion and innovation in cooking). But it almost always makes sense that, unless you are specifically aiming for an experience out of your normal eating habits, that you try to eat food that is based around ingredients available cheaply locally, which will mean adapting recipes away from their places of origin.
In the case of China, which is of course a huge place, there isn't really a single Chinese food anyway -- there are the various regional cuisines that I know discover are called the Eight Great Traditions (plus some more).
I like Australian Chinese food. It isn't authentic, but who cares? I also think I like various kinds of Chinese Chinese food, but I've only eaten them in restaurants Australia, so who knows? I've certainly eaten lots of really not Australian things (ducks feet and jellyfish and various fungi and so on), but as to how it resembles what I might eat in China, I have no idea. And Australian Chinese food has quite a history of its own -- apparently, its been evolving since the gold rush era in the 1800s.
And oh, the Americans in particular do this to everyone, not just non-white people -- I have a whole story about Australian Toaster Biscuits, that not only would an Australian not recognise as Australian, they would never refer to as a Biscuit. I feel vaguely relieved to confirm that English Muffins are actually known as muffins in England, though.
The whole idea of authentic food breaks down so quickly, especially if you look at the history. The commonest dish in England is Chicken Tikka Marsala, a dish that was invented in Glasgow. Almost any use of pineapple in Australian cooking, now considered quite traditional, is essentially due to a single successful marketing campaign, I think in the 1940s. Vietnamese food can include a lot of recipes that are attempts to replicate French cooking using Vietnamese ingredients. The Tomato wasn't part of Italian cooking before the early 18th century or so. Vindaloo was originally an Indian attempt to replicate a Portugese dish. Chilli was introduced in Szechuan cooking only after it was introduced outside South America by Columbus. And so on.
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And 'authenticity' means a lot less than we think unless you are going for it as a foody experience. To people used to Western diets, authentic Mexican food seems like you've taken Tex-Mex and taken out the salad and replaced it with extra pork fat -- why not eat healthier food that matches your tastes better? Authenticity is, IMO, mostly a myth -- you can't really have an authentic national or ethnic cuisine beyond a dish or two, you can have an authentic cuisine of specific people in a specific time and place (which will have some regional and temporal variation, and usually borrow freely from neighbouring cuisine). The reason to seek out more 'authentic' Chinese food is simply that you are likely to get better, and more interesting, food if you avoid the lowest common denominator, but there is no reason why eating Australian Chinese (or Australian Generic Asian eg Hans) is any better or worse than grabbing a burger or a steak and chips. But interesting and wildly inauthentic food is great too (hooray for fusion and innovation in cooking). But it almost always makes sense that, unless you are specifically aiming for an experience out of your normal eating habits, that you try to eat food that is based around ingredients available cheaply locally, which will mean adapting recipes away from their places of origin.
In the case of China, which is of course a huge place, there isn't really a single Chinese food anyway -- there are the various regional cuisines that I know discover are called the Eight Great Traditions (plus some more).
I like Australian Chinese food. It isn't authentic, but who cares? I also think I like various kinds of Chinese Chinese food, but I've only eaten them in restaurants Australia, so who knows? I've certainly eaten lots of really not Australian things (ducks feet and jellyfish and various fungi and so on), but as to how it resembles what I might eat in China, I have no idea. And Australian Chinese food has quite a history of its own -- apparently, its been evolving since the gold rush era in the 1800s.
And oh, the Americans in particular do this to everyone, not just non-white people -- I have a whole story about Australian Toaster Biscuits, that not only would an Australian not recognise as Australian, they would never refer to as a Biscuit. I feel vaguely relieved to confirm that English Muffins are actually known as muffins in England, though.
The whole idea of authentic food breaks down so quickly, especially if you look at the history. The commonest dish in England is Chicken Tikka Marsala, a dish that was invented in Glasgow. Almost any use of pineapple in Australian cooking, now considered quite traditional, is essentially due to a single successful marketing campaign, I think in the 1940s. Vietnamese food can include a lot of recipes that are attempts to replicate French cooking using Vietnamese ingredients. The Tomato wasn't part of Italian cooking before the early 18th century or so. Vindaloo was originally an Indian attempt to replicate a Portugese dish. Chilli was introduced in Szechuan cooking only after it was introduced outside South America by Columbus. And so on.