Chop Suey Club is an Asian lifestyle boutique focusing on products from contemporary Chinese designers, makers, and artists. It features a thoughtful curation of high-quality art and décor, jewelry, home goods, clothing, collectibles, gifts, and more. By showcasing products from Chinese brands and creatives around the world, Chop Suey Club aims to connect a larger audience to Chinese culture guided by the concept of Retrofuturism. The products and their curation rare a reconciliation of China’s storied past and optimistic future in the present. Chop Suey Club has become a creative collective within NYC having expanded to include collaborative events and parties. These have included Mahjong Nights at the Ace Hotel, an annual Lunar New Year party, and more.
ABOUT CHOP SUEY
The name Chop Suey Club stems from a few different inspirations but is most notably a reference to the American Chinese dish Chop Suey; a medley of meat and vegetables in a gravy-like sauce eaten over rice or noodles. The dish was popularized throughout the early and mid-twentieth century and is mainly what came to mind when people thought about Chinese food and takeout. In part, this was because the dish was replicated in Chinese restaurants all over the country to appeal to an American palate by using less complicated ingredients and flavors. The dish came to symbolize Chinese assimilation in America.
New York City, like the hodge podge dish itself, is an intermix of cultures, people, and ideas. With the largest population of ethnic Chinese outside of Asia, plus numerous other immigrant groups and communities, the city remains an ever-evolving hub of cultural mingling. As we’ve continued embracing technology and globalization, the last few decades have spawned many Chinese creatives in fashion, art, design, animation, film, and music. Situated at this international intersection, Chop Suey Club is in a unique position to highlight Chinese and other Asian creatives’ work and fulfill the need for anyone seeking expression as a global citizen.
HI! THIS IS RUOYI
I'M THE FOUNDER OF CHOP SUEY CLUB
北京人在纽约
I grew up in Beijing and moved to New York for college. After graduating, I worked in fashion, art, architecture, design and other creative fields where I started to see more work from Chinese creatives and Asia in general. As I was looking to buy Chinese design goods for myself, I had a hard time finding them, especially in the US. This prompted my initial idea for the store. In 2016, with excitement and anxiousness, I opened Chop Suey Club officially.
Now occupying both floors of the two-story space where the first pop-ups were hosted, Chop Suey Club is located at the crossroads of Chinatown and the Lower East Side.
