Light, tasty and simple to make, egg fried rice has long been a beloved dish in China and one of most recognizable icons of Chinese cuisine around the world.
But in recent years, the popular stir-fry has become a highly sensitive subject for China’s online nationalists, especially around the months of October and November.
Emotions are running so high this week that one of the country’s most famous chefs has been forced to apologize – for making a video on how to cook the dish.
“As a chef, I will never make egg fried rice again,” Wang Gang, a celebrity chef with more than 10 million online fans, pledged in a video message on Monday.
Wang’s “solemn apology” attempted to tame a frothing torrent of criticism about the video, which was posted on Chinese social media site Weibo on November 27.
Angry nationalists accused Wang of using the video to mock the death of Mao Zedong’s eldest son, Mao Anying, who was killed in an American air strike during the Korean War on November 25, 1950.
There is a rumor that Mao Anying was cooking fried rice when he was killed in an airstrike and that the smoke from his cook fire betrayed his position. This is why it’s a sensitive subject.
The really funny part of this whole thing is that I never knew about the rumor you mentioned until this whole thing happened. Streisand effect much?
“Streisand effect” implies they don’t want people to know about it?
Well, they probably didn’t want me to have egg fried rice every 25. of November from now on!
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Is this for real? Why is this dude’s death so important to people?
This whole article left me like “wat?”
Its a weird thing to publish to non-Chinese audiences in general.
To a Chinese audience, there’s cultural understanding for why this would be taboo. Someone else made the analogy of uploading a video of, say, destroying two towers around the 11th of September. It’s a culturally sensitive thing.
Why non-Chinese audiences should care what Chef Wang Gang cooks is beyond me. I’m not sure why multiple outlets are running this story.
Anyway, Wang Gang’s videos are great, check em out.
The story got traction with non-Chinese audiences precisely because it sounds silly to an outsider.
I would argue it is silly, regardless of the explanation. Every culture has silly things, but that doesn’t make them somehow not silly.
So is egg fried rice (great). Staple food at my house. Thanks for the run down.
I find this much more interesting than the big story in USA right now where a con artist is in legal trouble for being a con artist.
You just like saying Wang Gang, don’t you?
No Wong gong
Do you really not know who Mao Zedong is?
The issue is about his son. Why does anyone care about his son?
Because it is/was a cult of personality. He was essentially as close to “god” as you can get in a society that’s officially atheist. You don’t make fun of god’s kid I guess.
It’s fucking dumb. People do crazy shit for crazy reasons.
Fyi, if not, it’s pronounced similar to “Mousy Dong,” which was also his wife’s nickname for him.
I suspect that it is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
I also suspect that they’d rather have people getting upset over fried rice than the current disease outbreak they’re having.
Which is a bitch move by Winnie the pooh.
I heard he choked on the fried rice before the air strike even hit.