Editor's note: Sign up for CNN's “while in china” newsletter, which explores what you need to know about the rise of China and its impact on the world.
Hong Kong
CNN
—
Light, delicious, and easy to make, egg fried rice has long been a beloved dish in China and is one of the best-known symbols of Chinese cuisine around the world.
But in recent years, the popular stir-fry has become an extremely sensitive topic for Chinese online nationalists, especially from October to November.
Emotions ran high this week, with one of the country's most famous chefs forced to apologize for making a video of how to make the dish.
“As a chef, I will never make egg fried rice again,'' Wang Gang, a celebrity chef with more than 10 million online fans, vowed in a video message on Monday.
Wang's “solemn apology” for the video, posted on Chinese social media site Weibo on Nov. 27, sought to quell a bubbling storm of criticism.
Angry nationalists accused Wang of using the video to mock the death of Mao Zedong's eldest son, Mao Anying, who was killed in an American airstrike during the Korean War on November 25, 1950. .
Although Wang's video was exclusively about making egg fried rice, for some Chinese nationalists, the mention of egg fried rice around Mao Aiying's death anniversary or birthday on October 24th was intentional. It amounts to an act of contempt and ridicule.
But by attacking references to egg fried rice by famous chefs and other online influencers, nationalist users have inadvertently promoted the very rumors the government is trying to quash. .
A controversial account is that Mao Anying, a PLA officer, disobeyed evacuation orders during the air raid. Instead, the hungry young man lights the stove and tries to make egg fried rice, which causes smoke to spread into the air, allowing enemy jets to take over his position.
This version of events is mentioned in the memoirs of Yang Di, a military man who worked with the young Mao Zedong at the commander's headquarters. However, Chinese authorities have repeatedly refuted this as a rumor.
Chef Wang/YouTube
Celebrity chef Wang Gan says he will no longer make egg fried rice.
Under leader Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has cracked down on voices criticizing national heroes or questioning official narratives about them. In 2018, the country passed a law banning defamation of national “heroes and martyrs.” This crime is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Last May, former investigative journalist Roh Chang-pyeong was sentenced to seven months in prison for “insulting the martyrs” who froze to death in combat during the Korean War. He used puns on social media to suggest that Chinese soldiers portrayed in blockbuster war movies are stupid.
On the 70th anniversary of Mao's death in 2020, the Chinese Academy of History, the official think tank set up by President Xi to counter the Communist Party's “wrong” view of history, called the egg fried rice story “the most malicious hoax.” called.
“These rumormongers are linking Mao Yan with egg-fried rice and maximally trivializing the heroic image of Mao Yan's brave sacrifice,” the society said in a post on social media site Weibo. Ta. “In a word, their hearts are wicked.”
Yang's memoir was discredited, saying it was “full of flaws and completely untestable.” The post, citing other eyewitness accounts and declassified cables, said Mao Yingying was killed in the days leading up to the air raid, when the enemy's radio waves from the crowded telegraph lines going in and out of the headquarters were blocked. It was concluded that this was because the military had detected it.
Despite official denials, the story of the controversial egg fried rice continues. Some parts of the Chinese internet celebrate November 25th as the “Egg Fried Rice Festival” or “Chinese Thanksgiving”. This is a nod to the belief that young Mao might have inherited power from his father had he survived the war. It turned China into a hereditary dictatorship like North Korea.
In 2021, a Weibo user in the southern city of Nanchang was detained by police for 10 days for commenting on a post saying, “The greatest achievement of the Korean War is egg fried rice.''
“Thank you egg fried rice. Without it we would be the same as (North Korea) now,” the post said.
00:53 – Source: CNN
Find out the ingredients that make this the world's 'most difficult' dish
Mr. Wang's fried egg video, posted two days after the anniversary of Mr. Mao's death, is particularly egregious because it was far from Mr. Mao's first “transgression,” at least in the eyes of Chinese nationalists. It was considered a thing.
In 2018, Mr. Wang posted a video on October 22 introducing a recipe for homemade egg fried rice. Two days later, on Mao Aiying's birthday, the Communist Party's mouthpiece People's Daily shared a video of Wang. The move raised eyebrows and led to accusations that even the party's flagship newspaper was corrupt.
In 2020, Wang posted a video on October 24 of making Yangzhou fried rice (a deluxe version that includes ham, shrimp, peas and carrots in addition to eggs), sparking a nationalist backlash. Mr. Wang responded by immediately apologizing.
“I only learned about this situation after posting the video today and reading everyone's comments,” he wrote in a comment below the video. “I'm just sharing good food and have no other motive.”
Following the latest backlash on Monday, Wang explained in his apology that the team posted the video without his knowledge.
“This video caused a lot of trouble and gave everyone a very bad experience. We apologize again,” he said after deleting the cooking video. “Recently I was busy with personal matters and did not participate in the video release. This was my biggest mistake.”
Wang, 34, from a rural village in Sichuan province, said his grandfather was a Korean War veteran who spent six years in North Korea.
He respected his grandfather and dreamed of becoming a soldier since childhood, but he failed the physical exam to join the military at the age of 17. “Soilder is very sacred in my heart,” he said.
However, Mr. Wang's critics are not willing to forgive him that easily.
“If it's the first time, it might be a coincidence. But can it be a coincidence every time?” One commenter said about Wang's egg fried rice video.
Some have called for Wang to be banned from Chinese social media, while others have called on authorities to punish him for insulting the nation's “heroes and martyrs”, citing a 2018 law. .
But others defended Wang, pointing out that the chef has posted egg fried rice in other months throughout the year.
“There's no need to apologize. It's society that should apologize to you,” a Weibo user said in support of Wang.
Another supporter quipped: “How about we clearly stipulate that the consumption and production of egg fried rice will be completely banned in November. Or how about we abolish egg fried rice from Chinese cuisine all together.”
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Global Times and a prominent nationalist voice, warned that many people are still unaware of the rumors about Mao Anying. He called on public opinion to be more tolerant of unintentional references to “relevant factors” around the birthday or death anniversary of the young Mao Zedong.
“Being more tolerant of each other and not making this a hot topic will generally console and protect the heroic spirit of the martyr Mao Anying. It will gradually calm down the problem and weaken the damage of rumors. “It will be useful for the future,” Hu wrote.
“Otherwise, you could end up with one controversy after another and the rumors will only become more influential.”
On Tuesday, Wang deleted the apology video and closed the comment section on his Weibo page.
