The Search for General Tso

The Search for General Tso is an engaging chronicle of cultural assimilation told "with the verve of a good detective story" by writer-director Ian Cheney and producers Amanda Murray and Jennifer 8. Lee and based on a ubiquitous restaurant menu item adapted to Americans' palate. (A recipe is included on the film's website.) Shown during the recent Sedona International Film Festival, at other film festivals around the country, and available for viewing through the link above, this popular, humor-laced documentary also traces the history of the real General Tso, a fearsome warrior from the late 19th Century.

The dish was inspired by President Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972 and was introduced at the venerable Shun Lee Palace, near Lincoln Center in New York City. But the dish's history predates its American introduction. Its originator was a Hunan chef named Peng Chang-kuei, who fled Communist China and settled in Taipei, Taiwan. He created General Tso's chicken in 1955 for Chiang Kai-shek.

Now 90 years old, Chef Peng frowns when shown a picture of the dish, noting he would never use scallions or decorate the plate with broccoli! To achieve a sweet-and-sour taste, the American version adds sugar—another touch unheard of in traditional Chinese cooking.

I had the pleasure of reading Jennifer 8. Lee's "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles" (http://fortunecookiechronicles.com/) several years ago and have patiently waited for some form of this delightful book to appear in film. "The Search for General Tso" presents a delicate balance of documentary intrigue, awkward food-geek humor, and mystery.

When I showed the trailer to the Chinese-American owner of my favorite local Chinese restaurant, she looked puzzled and said "Is this supposed to be funny? My customers love General Tso's chicken." That's pretty much the message of the film -- despite the American fascination and love of Chinese cuisine, there is still a great gulf of misunderstanding. Americans still wonder what is "real" Chinese food, and Chinese cooks stick to the tried and true recipes that have been popular for years and seems to please the American palate.

Perhaps a sequel can help close the gap? "The Search for Authentic Chinese Food in America."

The film "The search of General Tso" is a documentary about the origins of General Tso Chicken. The reason for finding the origin General Tso Chicken is because most people in China do not know about the dish. The main target audience of the film would just be people who know someone that owns a Chinese restaurant or people who ate Chinese food before. It is also rarely on the menus of restaurants in China. To find how it started we have to go all the way back to the Californian gold rush when the Chinese first came to America in 1849. The film did a good job by gathering Chinese Historians from different universities around the U.S. They were able to add background information of when the Chinese came over and the discrimination they faced. It was helpful to give background so it can lead up to why the Chinese needed to adapt to the eventual creation of General Tso Chicken. They also visited General Tso's home to confirm that he has no relation to the dish. One of the most important things to note in a film is if you enjoyed it. If your engaged it must mean you enjoyed it to a certain extent. One of the good qualities of the documentary was their use of quick- cuts. The use of quick cuts increases the pace at which the film is going. If the pace is going faster, it is easier to stay engaged. If the pace is too slow it is very easy for the viewer to get bored and lost attention to the film. Fast-cuts can ease the boredom by having the scenes of silences. I make note of the fast-cuts and why I enjoyed it because there are some documentaries where the speaker speaks in a slow pace and the scenes have very slow transitions. The pace of the fast-cuts was not that fast but at a decent pace so it does not feel like they are just shoving information in your face. They were able to manipulate this skill very well to where it made me forget the time. It also keeps your attention by how they set up the question of the film and the viewer does not find out the answer until the very end. The film could have ended in 20 minutes but they made it longer but including more history of the other dishes before the creation of General Tso Chicken. It was important that they added other food because it influenced other chef to experiment. As it shows in the beginning of Chinese Cuisine adapting to American taste it slowly became more clear on why they made the dish and where it came from. The more information they revealed the more you would be drawn into it. The film was able to have a good end by tying everything together like a bow. You figured out why the Chinese came and why they had to adapt Chinese food to American taste. It kept you drawn in by not telling the viewer where it came from but instead it went through the history of other Chinese dishes that lead up to it. It had a great ethos by having Chinese restaurant owners, Chinese historians, and a relative of General Tso. Overall The film was a great watch and very informative of Chinese cuisine in America.

General Tso's Chicken is my favorite Chinese dish, and sadly, they don't have it here in the UK.

I watched this documentary out of curiosity to see where the dish came from. It turned out to be about a lot more than just the dish --- it's a history lesson about the origins of the Chinese community in America, wrapped in crispy fried goodness.

I knew there had been discrimination and racism against the Chinese in America in the early 1900s, but I didn't realize the extent of it.

It was interesting to learn how the Exclusion Act played a role in pushing Chinese immigrants into the restaurant business (and other traditionally Chinese-owned businesses). It was also interesting to see all the different variations of General Tso's Chicken, and I was surprised to find out that the original version didn't actually include broccoli.

The documentary really highlights the hard-working, entrepreneurial spirit of Chinese-Americans. It shows how food became a bridge between Chinese and American cultures, ultimately leading to Chinese food becoming part of the very fabric of American culture.

Who was General Tso, and why are we eating his chicken? This feature documentary explores the origins and ubiquity of Chinese-American food through the story of an iconic sweet and spicy chicken dish.

One of the first things viewers will notice are the pronunciation issues. Just as there are many spellings, there are also many pronunciations of Tso. The most common seems to be "so" or "sew", but "tau" and others come up, with no clear winner.

Although the core of this doc is tracking down who Tso was and what he has to do with chicken, there is a secondary message: one of Chinese assimilation to America, and how there have been hiccups over the years, particularly during the Korean War.