The Search for General Tso

The General Tso dish is one of the most popular Chinese dishes today. It is mouthwatering and the most demanded in the Chinese Food Industry. This dish is blended to the American tastes, and will make you want to eat some General Tso chicken after you watch the movie. Just like it did to me. Before General Tso everybody loved Cashew Chicken. In the documentary it talks about who made that dish and the back story behind that. It was very lucky to how Cashew Chicken became popular and without his luck he might have never been famous for his widely known dish. Who is General Tso? General Tso was a man of Great Power long ago.

The interviews with the Chinese people was very hysterical. I didn't know we would do something like that but it never fails me. Us Americans always try to make everything our own. This documentary is a good detective story and they keep hunting till they find the truth. They went all the way from New York to China to find answers. The truth is buried in layers of Chinese history. General Tso was a general in the 1800's for the Hunan province during the late Qing dynasty. It is unknown why the dish was named after him because he did not name the meal himself and it isn't known that he liked chicken as well. During the Gold Rush in the 1800's the Chinese poured into America and into different big cities. In despite of all the immigrants the Americans created the Chinese Exclusion Act after the rise of Immigrants due to the Gold Rush. Basically attempted to get rid of all the Chinese out of the country. They lost their jobs and had no way of making money due to the discrimination and hatred from Americans. So they turned to owning their own business, and they discovered that if they tend to American taste with Chinese food then they can make money. In China they interviewed a few people about who General Tso is and what they think of the dish. When asked it was comical what their reaction was to the dish and what it was named. General Tso chicken never was heard of, until it became available in Chinese restaurants in the 1970's. One person they interviewed was a collector of Chinese restaurant menus. He had them dated back to the 40's. He held the Guinness World Record for the most number of Chinese menus. He also had a very interesting item which you don't see very often. So old that he had to make a copy of it to preserve it. General Tso has a Museum in China that most people don't know about. They took a tour of it, and they have a portrait of the famous General that everybody has been wanting to see. Nobody knows what he looks like and everyone just knows the name. This documentary definitely explained the whole back story behind the famous dish. It was very interesting and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in documentaries.

As someone who loves authentic mainland Chinese cuisine and is consistently perplexed by the Chinese dishes here in USA I was delighted to see this film on the big screen at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) and was not in the least disappointed. The film delves into the history of how and why Americanized Chinese dishes and restaurants spread from San Francisco to the East Coast and also briefly delves into China's banquet culture and the history of the General himself. The only thing missing from this film for me was some kind of explanation of the extreme use of MSG in dishes such as General Tso's Chicken but hopefully the directors will take that subject and make a sequel! The style, pace and commentary were all great.

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.

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.

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."