The Chinese zodiac is only superficially similar to the Western version, although both divide time into cycles of twelve parts and ascribe certain traits to each. But as Chinese Americans made lives in the United States, their zodiac served as a bridge between cultures. A bridge made out of paper placemats.

Amid the fierce anti-immigration wave in the late 19th century—Irish, Italians, and Jews in the East; Chinese laborers in the West—the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act left few options for Chinese Americans to make a living. One avenue was restaurants, which survived by adopting a friendly, formalized Orientalism of dragons, bamboo, and Buddha statues tailored for American diners. By 1903, more than 100 Chinese restaurants operated in lower Manhattan.

Nobody knows who first designed the placemats—likely a restaurant supply printer—but they emerged in the 1950s alongside paper mats for other “ethnic” cuisines. Unlike the Italian or Mexican versions, however, the Chinese zodiac placemat has endured, probably because it offers participation: the game of finding one’s birth year, claiming one’s animal personality, remains evergreen.

We don’t attach deep cosmological meaning to being a Tiger, Ox, or Rabbit—the complex, ancient Chinese mythology has been simplified and repackaged for American sensibilities, just as Chinese American food been made boneless and sugary for the American sweet tooth. But the ubiquitous, disposable placemat has unobtrusively done cultural work, introducing millions of Americans to a fragment of Chinese cosmology at dinner, attempting some small degree of understanding. That’s no minor diplomacy.

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Links:

• Excellent essay: “Where Did the All-Too-Familiar Chinese Zodiac Placemat Come From?” by Jaya Saxena, Eater, June 18, 2019

  
  

• A Chinese restaurant's zodiac section of their website - Cheoy Lee's, Holden, MA

  
  

• “Lo Mein Loophole: How U.S. Immigration Law Fueled A Chinese Restaurant Boom,” by Maria Godoy, NPR, February 22, 2016

  
  

• “It's Chinatown,” 99% Invisible, August 14, 2018

  
  

• Chinese Zodiac - Wikipedia

  
  

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) - National Archives

This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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