My project is on "General Tso and why we are eating his chicken". General Tso was a 19th century military leader in China during the latter part of the Qing Dynasty. He served during the Taiping rebellion and was responsible for many deaths of the Taiping rebels. For the most part, I have narrowed my project to describing the fascinating life of the General while attempting to explain some theories behind him having a "Chinese"(American actually) dish named after him. His story is quite interesting and it will be a exciting to find out the real truth, or maybe truths. There are many different explanations behind his chicken.
"While Sichuan food is hot right up front, in the mouth, in your face; Hunanese cuisine tends to build up inside you, like a slow charcoal fire, until you feel as though your belly is filled with burning coals."
-Washington Post Article
I have discovered that Tso is from the Hunan province and this explains his incorporation into Chinese food in America because most immigrants who own Chinese restaurants are from this particular province. For example, I doubt if people from the Taiping area would give his name to one of their dishes.
Tso was also classifed as a western leaning thinker during his day. "It became increasingly clear to a small group of Chinese civilian and military officials that China would have to adopt some of the attributes of the West, especially the military techniques." Tso's western leaning thinking may also have inspired immigrants from the Hunan province to name a dish after him.
-Bookrags.com
I think I need to do more resaerch on Hunan province immigrants into America. Although I do not want to focus too much on the general Tso's cuisine itself, I think its important to get a feel for the way they regard general Tso. This will help me in my quest to find out who exactly General Tso was and why we are eating his chicken.
Ted
I don't think it's true that "most immigrants who own Chinese restaurants" are Hunanese. Until pretty recently they were surely Cantonese, and MY information is that the biggest migration stream in recent years has been from Fujian province. But see what you can find...
I know there's a biography of Tso, cited on that bookrags page:
"The standard work in English on Tso is W. L. Bales, Tso Tsung-t'ang: Soldier and Statesman of Old China (1937). Gideon Ch'en, Tso Tsung-t'ang: Pioneer Promoter of the Modern Dockyard and the Woollen Mill in China (1938), discusses Tso's "Self-strengthening" interests; and Immanual C. Y. Hsu, The Ili Crisis: A Study of Sino-Russian Relations, 1871-1881 (1965), deals with this aspect of Tso's career. For a short biography of Tso see Arthur W. Hummel, ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (2 vols., 1943). Fields, Lanny B., Tso Tsung-t'ang and the Muslims: statecraft in northwest China, 1868-1880, Kingston, Ont.: Limestone Press, 1978." ...so you'll need to order by ILL whatever we don't have if you're really going to explore his background and ideas and so on.
Two other quickie sites:
The Definitive General Tso's Chicken Page (it says...) and Biography (which may all be from Washington Post).
If you're going to do this RIGHT you'll also need to develop a sense for what the Taiping Rebellion was all about. See my Taiping pages for some introductory stuff.
You really need to do the JSTOR search for 'Tso Tsung' and follow up by reading what's there...
Ted--
I think you're project will be very interesting because of its great grabber (y eat his chicken?) and the historical depth behind your subject, General Tso. Some things I'd love to see in the final project would be 1)an apology to me for the ninja comment, 2)some information behind your terms (Taiping rebellion, Hunan, Szechuan, etc.), 3)maybe notes from an interview of a real chinese restaurant owner or chef...who speaks english of course, 4)a profile of General Tso himself, like his background (where did his western thinking come from? why was he so vicious?) and what made him an interesting figure...like a "Behind the Music" type thing---(which is what i think all of these projects that focus on historical figures or groups should try to get at), and 5)an apology for that ninja comment and an admission that Bruce Lee would not stand a chance. I think your direction is pretty straight-forward and the information you need is out there. I guess it will come down to how deep you actually go with your connection between him and the chicken, unless the chicken thing is strictly a grabber. Good luck on ur project!
~Alex, TNG