Light, tasty and simple to make, egg fried rice has long been a beloved dish in China and one of most recognizable icons of Chinese cuisine around the world. <\/p>\n
But in recent years, the popular stir-fry has become a highly sensitive subject for China\u2019s online nationalists, especially around the months of October and November. <\/p>\n
Emotions are running so high this week that one of the country\u2019s most famous chefs has been forced to apologize \u2013 for making a video on how to cook the dish. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a chef, I will never make egg fried rice again,\u201d Wang Gang, a celebrity chef with more than 10 million online fans, pledged in a video message on Monday. <\/p>\n
Wang\u2019s \u201csolemn apology\u201d attempted to tame a frothing torrent of criticism about the video, which was posted on Chinese social media site Weibo on November 27. <\/p>\n
Angry nationalists accused Wang of using the video to mock the death of Mao Zedong\u2019s eldest son, Mao Anying, who was killed in an American air strike during the Korean War on November 25, 1950. <\/p>\n
Wang\u2019s video was solely about making egg fried rice, but for some Chinese nationalists, any mention of the dish around the anniversary of Mao Anying\u2019s death or birthday on October 24 amounts to a deliberate act of insult and mockery. <\/p>\n
However, by attacking mentions of egg fried rice by famous chefs and other online influencers, the nationalist users have inadvertently promoted the very rumor their government is trying to quash. <\/p>\n
The controversial account has it that Mao Anying, an officer in the People\u2019s Liberation Army, disobeyed orders to take shelter during the air raid. Instead, the hungry young man fired up a stove to make egg fried rice, which sent smoke into the air and gave away his position to enemy jets. <\/p>\n
That version of events was mentioned in the memoir of Yang Di, a military officer who worked alongside the younger Mao at the commander\u2019s headquarters. But Chinese authorities have repeatedly refuted it as rumor. <\/p>\n
Under leader Xi Jinping, the Chinese government has cracked down on voices that criticize national heroes or question the official narrative about them. In 2018, the country passed a law to ban the slander of national \u201cheroes and martyrs,\u201d a crime punishable by up to three years in prison. <\/p>\n
Last May, former investigative journalist Luo Changping was sentenced to seven months in prison for \u201cinsulting martyrs\u201d who froze to death during a Korean War battle. He had used a pun on social media to suggest that Chinese soldiers portrayed in a blockbuster movie about the war were stupid. <\/p>\n
On the 70th anniversary of Mao Anying\u2019s death in 2020, the Chinese Academy of History \u2013 an official think tank launched by Xi to counter \u201cincorrect\u201d views of Communist Party history \u2013 called the egg fried rice story \u201cthe most vicious rumor.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThese rumormongers have tied up Mao Anying with egg fried rice, dwarfing the heroic image of Mao Anying\u2019s brave sacrifice to the greatest extent,\u201d the academy said in a post on social media site Weibo. \u201cTo put it in one sentence \u2013 their hearts are evil.\u201d <\/p>\n
It discredited Yang\u2019s memoir as \u201cfull of flaws and cannot withstand verification at all.\u201d Citing other eyewitness accounts and declassified telegrams, the post concluded that Mao Anying was killed because enemy forces detected radio waves from the busy telegraphs coming in and out of the headquarters in the days leading up to the air raid. <\/p>\n
Despite official denials, the disputed egg fried rice story has persisted. In some corners of the Chinese internet, November 25 is celebrated as the \u201cEgg Fried Rice Festival\u201d or \u201cChinese Thanksgiving\u201d \u2013 a nod to the belief that if the younger Mao had survived the war, he might have inherited power from his father and turned China into a hereditary dictatorship like North Korea. <\/p>\n
In 2021, a Weibo user in the southern city of Nanchang was detained by police for 10 days for commenting in a post that \u201cthe greatest achievement of the Korean War is egg fried rice.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThank you egg fried rice. Without it, we would be the same as (North Korea) now,\u201d the post said. <\/p>\n
Wang\u2019s egg-fired rice video, posted two days after the anniversary of the younger Mao\u2019s death, was seen as particularly egregious as it was far from his first \u201ctransgression\u201d \u2013 at least in the eyes of Chinese nationalists. <\/p>\n
In 2018, Wang posted a video introducing his homemade egg fried rice recipe on October 22. Two days later, on Mao Anying\u2019s birthday, Communist Party mouthpiece the People\u2019s Daily shared Wang\u2019s video. The move raised eyebrows and drew accusations that even the party\u2019s flagship newspaper had been corrupted. <\/p>\n
In 2020, Wang posted a video of himself making Yangzhou fried rice \u2013 a deluxe version featuring ham, shrimp, peas and carrots in addition to eggs \u2013 on October 24, which sparked a nationalist outcry. Wang responded by issuing a swift apology. <\/p>\n
\u201cI only found out about this situation after I posted the video today and saw everyone\u2019s comments,\u201d he wrote in comments underneath the video. \u201cI\u2019m only sharing the delicious food and have no other motives.\u201d <\/p>\n
After the latest backlash on Monday, Wang explained in his apology that his team had posted the video without his knowledge. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis video has caused a lot of trouble and a very bad experience for everyone. I apologize again,\u201d he said after taking down the cooking video. \u201cI was busy with personal matters recently and did not participate in the release of the video. This was my biggest mistake.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wang, 34, who hails from a rural village in Sichuan province, said his grandfather had been a veteran of the Korean War and spent six years in North Korea. <\/p>\n
He said he looked up to his grandfather and dreamed of becoming a soldier since childhood, but failed the physical examination to join the army at 17. \u201cIn my mind, soilders are very sacred,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
But Wang\u2019s critics are not letting it go easily. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be a coincidence the first time. But can it be a coincidence every single time?\u201d a comment said of Wang\u2019s egg fried rice videos. <\/p>\n
Some called for Wang to be banned on Chinese social media, while others urged authorities to punish him for insulting national \u201cheroes and martyrs,\u201d citing the 2018 law. <\/p>\n
But some have also come to Wang\u2019s defense, noting that the chef has posted egg fried rice in other months throughout the year. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to apologize. It is society that should apologize to you,\u201d a Weibo user said in support of Wang. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t we clearly stipulate a complete ban on eating and making egg fried rice in November, or simply retire egg fried rice from Chinese cruisine all togther,\u201d another supporter quipped. <\/p>\n
Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief for Global Times and a prominent nationlist voice, cautioned that many people are still unaware of the rumors about Mao Anying. He called for public opinion to be more tolerant of unintentional mentions of \u201crelevant elements\u201d around the younger Mao\u2019s birthday and death anniversary. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeing more tolerant of each other and not making this into a hot topic is by and large a comfort and protection to martyr Mao Anying\u2019s heroic spirit. It will help the issue gradually quiet down and weaken the rumor\u2019s damage,\u201d Hu wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise, it is possible that a controversy after another will only strengthen the rumor\u2019s impact.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Wang removed the video of his apology and closed the comment sections on his Weibo page. <\/p>\n\n
Light, tasty and simple to make, egg fried rice has long been a beloved dish in China and one of most recognizable icons of Chinese cuisine around the world. But in recent years, the popular stir-fry has become a highly sensitive subject for China\u2019s online nationalists, especially around the months of October and November. Emotions <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}