Jennifer 8. Lee, a reporter from The New York Times, reveals to the American population the fact that the most famous Chinese dishes they have been eating for decades are actually nothing like Chinese food. They are basically American departures from original Chinese recipes, strongly diluted by extensive and unrestricted copying.
In her TED talk "Jennifer 8. Lee hunts for General Tso" (July 2008, www.ted.com), Lee argues that, although deeply-rooted in American culture, "chicken-and-broccoli", "General Tso's chicken" and "chop suey" are a complete enigma to Chinese people. Even the revered fortune cookie is not even Chinese, but Japanese. Lee explains this phenomenon and radical change of traditional recipes by comparing Chinese food with Linux, an open source from which anyone can build on and create their own thing. Mc Donald's, in contrast, would be more like Microsoft... Just try to go out and sell "chicken nuggets" on your own little shop.
Sushi is also a great example of the Americanization of a traditional dish. Chopsticks, soy sauce on everything, mayo, avocado, kani kama, you name it... all ingredients to make food more accessible and understandable to occidental palates. I can't help but see the analogy in the movie industry. This is a country that barely watches films created outside the borders of Hollywood; when a foreign film does get screened, it is served as a California Roll: not the original language but the comfortably familiar sound of Hollywood English.
Link to article: http://www.ted.com/talks/jennifer_8_lee_looks_for_general_tso.html
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