THE FUSE

When people left their homes in China for the gold rushes in California and Melbourne in the latter half of the 19th century, they took their cuisine with them. It was a time when the centuries-old Qing dynasty government pursued the growth of a Chinese diaspora, in the understanding that this was, as Wikipedia puts it, a bridge to foreign knowledge and overseas investment. It would bring a material return, but the people would remain in their new countries and cities and enrich their new local cultures.