General Tso's Chicken Dish

General Tso’s chicken is a Chinese-American deep-fried, chicken dish served in a sweet and spicy sauce. This movie follows the titular dish, proposing hypotheses for the origin of the dish. Additionally, the movie follows the invasion of Chinese food in American culture and the acclimatization and modernization of the cuisine into American lifestyles. The General Tso’s dish is unrecognizable by native Chinese, but is somehow ubiquitous in Chinese restaurants in America, with pizza being the only dish more pervasive than it. In the 1850s, due to xenophobia and the Chinese Exclusion Acts, the Chinese had a tough time fitting in the American culture: white mobs destroyed Chinese lives and forced Chinese out of labor. Eventually, as a result of

Rather than General Tso, or General Zuo Zongtang, establishing this particular chicken dish as his favorite meal, people believe the dish was named General Tso’s to honor the legacy of the general. It is ironic that General Tso believed in preserving cultural Chinese identity when the dish’s biggest proponent was a Taiwanese chef and the dish is the farthest away from traditional Chinese food possible, in terms of flavor profile and Americanization. I also found the territorial nature of Chinese restaurants intriguing: in America, associations, such as the Regional Chinese Association and Wong Association, assign Chinese families different territories as to prevent competition for Chinese restaurants. One example of this territoriality is the Golden Dragon: the only Chinese restaurant in the city is run by the only Chinese family in the region. The Search for General Tso was a captivating movie not only due to its information and rich history, but also due to the direction by Jennifer Lee. The background music was dramatic and perfectly fit each scene of the movie. The movie’s originality was wonderful and I hope to find other food movies with such originality in the

It is interesting in seeing the rapid integration of Chinese food culture into American culture over just a few decades. For years Chinese people have lived in America, but only after a few events, mainly Nixon visiting China and WWII, did Chinese culture really impact America. This is a result of globalization in the twentieth century. As communities connect via trade and immigration, other aspects of culture are bound to also be shared: Chinese food is a perfect example of globalization. It would be interesting to study the correlations between immigration and major world events and the influx of Chinese food into American food