Chinese Food (song)

Patrice Wilson wrote the song on his birthday in 2012.[3] Wilson, explaining his inspiration for writing the song, stating: "There's a restaurant I go to, they have chicken wings, they have beef with broccoli, that's what I love. The song is based on my experience—what I know about Chinese food."[4]

The music video for "Chinese Food" was released on October 14, 2013. It was filmed partly in a Mongolian restaurant, because a Chinese restaurant could not be booked, while some other scenes were shot in Gold's bedroom.[5] It was viewed almost one million times within 24 hours of being uploaded to the video sharing site YouTube, attaining an estimated 4:1 ratio of dislikes to likes and drawing comparisons to another poorly received Patrice Wilson production, "Friday" (2011) by Rebecca Black.[6] Wilson himself appears in the "Chinese Food" video wearing a panda suit.[6] The video attracted controversy for its alleged overuse of Asian stereotypes, including scenes of Japanese geisha imagery in a Chinese-themed song.[4] Another scene singled out by media outlets depicts Gold and Wilson playing the board game Monopoly, after which the camera zooms in on Wilson placing the dog-figure on the square for Oriental Avenue.[7] Devon Maloney of Wired wrote that the video "is not racist because it depicts pan-Asian cuisine; it's racist because it lazily traffics in racial stereotypes and paints over the distinctions between vastly different Asian cultures with the same 'it's all Chinese to me!' brush."[7] Gold, in response to the accusations, stated: "I don't really understand what that's all about... I mean, I'm not trying to criticize anyone – I just really love Chinese food!"[8] Wilson also denied any intentions of racism, responding:

Yes, I know geishas are Japanese, but you can find Chinese restaurants in Japan! People say I'm squinting, well okay, I have small eyes. All this controversy, I didn't even think about it. The pissed off people saying I'm racist, the last person who wants to be racist is me.[4]