After the deaths of Zuo Zongtang and Bruce Lee, the two "met" in the United States.
The poet said that mud and sand could not hide gold. Some historical figures are difficult to be widely recognized in the short term. It is like wiping away the dirt on the mirror surface to make the mirror sparkle. It takes time for us to really get to know a historical figure, and that time is likely to be 100 years. Zuo Zongtang was like this.
Recover Zuo Zongtang in Xinjiang
Zuo Zongtang (1812-1885), zi Jigao, a native of Xiangyin, Hunan, whose life's work was to recover Xinjiang. When Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang, he faced an extremely difficult environment, which could be described as a lot of internal and external resistance. At that time, the General Agubai of Andijan invaded Xinjiang and established the "Hongfu Khanate" in southern Xinjiang. Above the court, Li Hongzhang advocated coastal defense, and the group of ministers responded, collectively expressing that they wanted to abandon Xinjiang, but Zuo Zongtang just did not agree. In 1876, the 65-year-old Zuo Zongtang carried a coffin to the west and spent 1 and a half years recovering the lost land area of 4 France or 8 Hunan provinces.
Film and television actor and martial artist Bruce Lee
In 2000, the American "Time Magazine" selected 100 intelligent celebrities in the history of the world. Among them, the famous general Zuo Zongtang of the late Qing Dynasty was prominently listed. Since then, Zuo Zongtang's reputation has grown in the United States. American film directors and documentary filmmakers even made a special trip to Hunan to search for Zuo Zongtang's hometown and descendants. These Americans were full of excitement, carrying cameras, and made a large-scale documentary "In Search of Zuo Zongtang".
More than 100 years after Zuo Zongtang's death, he became a big celebrity in the United States. How big is Zuo Zongtang's reputation in the United States, thousands of miles away? According to the American "Chinese Weekly", the most well-known Chinese in the United States is no longer the Hollywood film actor and martial artist Bruce Lee, let alone Ma Yun and Li Changyu, but Zuo Zongtang.
Zuo Zongtang's close friend Tan Chonglin
Why is that?
——In 1930, a 12-year-old Hunan teenager came to Tan Yanmin's house to help cook. Tan Yanmin's father, named Tan Chonglin, was a famous general in the Xiang Army, who accompanied Zuo Zongtang to recover Xinjiang and pass through Xinjiang, and after Zuo Zongtang stepped down as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, Tan Zhonglin took over this position. This little helper, through the convenience of his work, heard a lot of anecdotes about Zuo Zongtang, and thus sincerely admired Zuo Zongtang. Many years later, this small chef grew into a generation of Hunan cuisine celebrities, and many people also remembered his name Peng Changgui. In 1952, on a fortuitous occasion, Peng Changgui made a plate of newly developed Hunan dishes for Redford, a key member of the US Navy. After eating, Redford was very happy, specially asked the name of the dish, Peng Changgui casually replied: Zuo Zongtang chicken!
American favorite Zuo Zongtang chicken
After this fight, Zuo Zongtang chicken quietly entered the United States. By the 1980s, every Chinese restaurant in the United States had a dish called Zuo Zongtang Chicken. According to the CCTV news channel, Chinese restaurants in the United States have been on fire for many years, and the most popular Chinese dish among Americans is Zuo Zongtang chicken.
Celebrity Chef Peng Changgui (Middle)
Today, there is a Chinese restaurant in Rockefeller Center, New York, which has been in business for almost 20 years, and the business is extremely hot. Chef Chen Chao, the head chef of this Chinese restaurant, who previously lived in Chengdu, is a professional chef. In 1995, he came to the United States and found that the Zuo Zongtang chicken, which americans liked the most, had never heard of it.
Zuo Zongtang chicken, there is nothing special. The chef of the American Chinese restaurant coats the chicken breast cut into pieces with a thin layer of batter, frys it again, and then stir-frys the sour and spicy seasonings. This dish has gradually become a must-have dish in American chinese restaurants for decades.
Zuo Zongtang chicken
In 2018, one of the largest catering delivery companies in the United States, according to statistics in more than 800 cities in the United States, shows that most of today's American people like American Chinese food, especially every Christmas, many people will order some Chinese food, and Zuo Zongtang chicken is a must-order or preferred delicacy.
……
Zuo Zongtang was so fierce! Many years after his death, the United States gave birth to a Chinese dish named after him, and swept the United States, conquering the taste buds of Lao Mei. Not only is this dish loved by Americans, But Zuo Zongtang's name and deeds are also widely known to Americans. In the eyes of many Americans, Zuo Zongtang is an old man full of oriental wisdom and a great geopolitician, based on which he was able to recover more than 1.6 million square kilometers of lost land in his old age.
In recent years, Zuo Zongtang chicken has returned to China with great momentum. Zuo Zongtang's hometown people labeled it as a Hunan dish with a reputation at home and abroad. Many Americans who love to eat Zuo Zongtang chicken have come to Hunan from thousands of miles away to feel the warmth of Zuo Zongtang's hometown of Sanxiang and Sishui. We suddenly understood that Americans not only ate Chinese delicacies from Zuo Zongtang chicken, but also ate a culture, a height, and a dignity. (Text/Fan Forward)