The Search for General Tso screenings and discussions

Monday, October 29, 2018

Screenings and discussion: Monday, October 29 at 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Andrew Foster Auditorium and at 7:30 p.m. in Chapel Hall.

As much an immigration history as a culinary detective story, this ebullient documentary uses the ubiquitous Americanized dish, General Tso’s chicken, as a lens onto a larger story of immigration, adaptation and innovation to American popular culture.

Early on, the film poses the question, “If Chinese Americans comprise only one percent of the U.S. population, why are there Chinese restaurants in almost every city across America?”

The filmmakers seek the answer in a journey through the Chinese American experience from the Gold Rush and the railroad system, to the age of Panda Express.

On-air historians, chefs, writers and enthusiasts provide accounts of the history of Chinese migration to America; the discriminatory 1880’s Chinese Exclusion Act that forced emigrants out of the labor market and into small business ownership; the modification of ‘exotic’ Chinese cuisine for American tastes; and the role of Chinese American community organizations in the dissemination of restaurants to the far corners of the nation to avoid competition and discrimination on the West Coast.