Who in the world was General Tso?

    Who was General Tso of General Tso’sChicken?  His name appears on every Chinese restaurant menu across America.Yet no one has ever been able to explain who General Tso was.  When I asked the waitress at Szechuan Delight, a Chinese restaurant in Park Slope, Brooklyn, who General Tso was, she looked at me like I had two heads. My Aunt, a medieval historian, speculated that he did not exist.  Using my Chinese food detective skills, I headed out on the trail of the elusive General Tso. 

    General TsoTsung-t’ang (often translated as Zuo Zongtang) was a celebrated Chinese military leader of the nineteenth century, according to “Compton’s Encyclopedia Online.”  After a series of attempted revolutions, the Qing Chinese government created new regional armies to squash potential rebellions. If various rebel factions, including theTaiping, the Nien, and the Muslim rebels had unified, they might have successfully overthrown the Chinese imperial government.  

    The forces were made up of only Chinese soldiers and were led by members of the Chinese Gentry Class.  Generals Tso Tsung-t’ang, Li Hongzhang, and Zeng Guofan successfully led the army to victory against the rebellions.  Tso became Governor of the Hunan province and Governor General of Fujian (Fukien) and Zhejiang (Chekiang) provinces, according to “Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia.”  

    A leader of the self-strengthening movement, Tso believed that the Chinese army needed to modernize.  He influenced the Chinese government to purchase and manufacture modern weapons.  One of his greatest achievements was founding a navy yard, arsenal, and technical school in Fuxhou.

    General Tso’s Chicken was created by Peng Chang-kuei in Taiwan, according to the “Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook” by Fuchsia Dunlop. When the Nationalist government fled to Taiwan after the Revolution of 1949, they brought some of China’s best chiefs with them.  Peng Chang-kuei, the caterer of the Chinese Nationalist government’s banquets, created the dish in the early 1950s.  

    General Tso’s Chicken is not a traditional dish. Yet its sour taste is distinctly Hunanese, reflecting General Tso’s birthplace.  In 1973, Peng brought the dish with him to New York City, where he started a restaurant near the United Nations Headquarters.  U.N officials and the U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger frequented his restaurant. When Peng returned to Taiping, the dish remained in the United States.  

    General Tso’s Chicken is unpopular in China and can not be called a traditional Chinese dish.  Yet its fascinating name and history remind us of the Age of Imperialism and the 1949 Communist Revolution, recalling some of China’s most troubled and transformative times.