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Cecilia Sun Yun Chiang (; born ca. 1920) is a Chinese-American restaurateur and chef, best known for founding and managing the Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco, California. ==Early life== Chiang was born near Shanghai and raised in a 52-room mansion in Beijing. Her Chinese name, Sun Yun, means "seventh daughter". As a child she enjoyed elaborate formal meals prepared by the family's two chefs, although the children were not allowed to cook or go into the kitchen. Her mother had bound feet, but her parents refused to follow the tradition with their children. She escaped with a sister from the Japanese occupation of China in 1942 by walking for nearly six months to Chongqing, where they settled with a relative. She soon met Chiang Liang (江梁), a successful local businessman whom she married, establishing a comfortable life in Shanghai. There they had two children, May and Philip (江一帆). During the war she operated as a spy for America's Office of Strategic Services.〔 She and her husband escaped from China on the last flight from Shanghai during the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949. With only three tickets for a family of four they had to leave Philip behind with her sister (the family was reunited more than a year later).〔 Her parents and siblings who remained were treated poorly by the communists. Her parents died poor. A brother died in a labor camp and one sister committed suicide. Others were killed by communist soldiers.〔 Chiang settled in Tokyo, Japan with her husband and children, May Ongbhaibulya and Philip Chiang. In 1960 she came to San Francisco to visit a sister, whose husband had died. Walking through the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown she met two friends from Tokyo who were planning to open a restaurant, and agreed to help negotiate their lease. She impulsively wrote a deposit check for $10,000 to secure their rent, which the landlord refused to return after her friends backed out of the venture. Unable to terminate the lease she decided to run the restaurant on her own,〔 although she had never before run a business.〔 At the time the city had very limited exposure to authentic Chinese cuisine, mostly an Americanized version of Cantonese cuisine.〔 Convinced that residents would enjoy fancier Northern Chinese dishes, but unsure what would appeal to them, she initially listed more than 200 dishes on the menu.〔 Avoiding the common elements of American Chinese restaurant decor, she designed the restaurant to evoke the opulence of the palace where she had grown up. The restaurant was at first unsuccessful and had few patrons. A Mandarin speaker, she had trouble communicating with suppliers from Chinatown, and also faced discrimination as a woman business owner. However, over time the restaurant began to attract loyal customers. Journalist C. Y. Lee, who had just written ''Flower Drum Song'', about San Francisco's Forbidden City Nightclub, became a regular and brought many friends. One day, Vic Bergeron (founder of Trader Vic's) came to the restaurant with Herb Caen, who immediately began to popularize the restaurant in his newspaper column.〔 The restaurant was called the Mandarin. With the restaurant's new success, Chiang decided to remain in San Francisco. She separated from her husband (they never divorced) and brought her two children May and Philip, to live with her in Saint Francis Wood. She was the first non-white resident of the neighborhood, and was admitted by the homeowner association only after they learned that she was from an upper-class background in China. In 1968 she relocated the restaurant to a 300-seat location in Ghirardelli Square, which required a multimillion-dollar investment. Chiang was known for entertaining VIP guests in the dining room, wearing fancy gowns and expensive jewelry.〔 Chiang sold the Mandarin in 1991, and it closed in 2006.〔 After living for many years in San Francisco, she moved to Belvedere in Marin County,〔 then back to San Francisco in 2011 where her daughter May and grandchild Alisa Ongbhaibulya live. Retired since 1991, Chiang remains active in promoting charitable causes,〔 in particular the Chinese American International School.〔 Her son Philip continued to run a sister restaurant, also called the Mandarin, in Beverly Hills,〔 sold to The Mandarin on Candem Inc in 2001, later the Mandarin on Camden Inc was sold sometime after 2007 to the owners of Camden House, which serves French Cuisine. In 2013, Chiang won a James Beard Foundation Award for lifetime achievement.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.jamesbeard.org/sites/default/files/static/pdf/2013-jbf-winners-site.pdf )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cecilia Chiang」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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