Search For General Tso

Year: 2014

Grade: B+

Country: USA, China

Director: Cheney

Review

documentary about the chinese dish “general tso’s chicken.” it looks at its origins as well as chinese food’s evolution in america in general, no pun intended. it also follows chinese immigration and migration in the country. one thing that’s obvious is that the chinese have done well for themselves here. they have adapted well and that’s reflected in the “inauthentic” cuisine. this inauthentic label is kind of annoying because it assumes there’s one authentic chinese cuisine. this is silly because china is huge and because i don’t know that you can ever have a consensus on cuisine in any country. what’s an authentic pizza or hamburger or sushi roll? the film points this out, to its credit.

the more interesting thing about this film is the way the chinese have adapted to the culture. they have always been discriminated against and yet they have thrived. this is admirable and it’s why asians generally are called “model minorities” and get left out of scholarships, etc. that seek out “underrepresented minorities.” anyway, it was an interesting way to look at chinese-american culture and migration. this sort of novel approach to a potentially dry topic is what i’d like to see more of.