At the Oscars ceremony that just ended last month, the film “Green Book” won the best supporting actor, the best original script and the best film three awards. However, on Chinese social platforms, fried chicken and Green Book are closely linked. Because “fried chicken” really deserves more attention.
Outside the film, the “fried chicken” meme was noticed by the real family of Donald Shirley’s archetypal characters. They publicly accused “this movie is full of lies, and Don must have eaten fried chicken before this, and definitely will not need a white man to marry him.”
In the movie, “Fried Chicken” is the first step for the black pianist Don and the white driver Tony to open the heart. The black pianist Don went south to tour KFC. Tony bought a barrel of KFC fried chicken and invited Don to enjoy it, but was rejected by Don. The proud Don said: “I have never eaten fried chicken in my life.”
Let’s put aside the controversy outside the movie, let’s talk about the history of fried chicken throughout the food history. In the movie, in addition to the two people eating fried chicken in the car, fried chicken also appeared in a quiet formal dinner. The host of the banquet invited Don to perform for them and was very proud to say that he respected Don very much. In order to let Don feel this indescribable “love”, the banquet master ordered a large dish of fried chicken for everyone to enjoy. It can be seen that Don’s expression is very unnatural, but he accepted it very politely. Eating fried chicken is a kind of quiet discrimination for black people.
The history of fried chicken and blacks began in the 17th century. The economic growth of the southern plantation in the United States has led to the development of the black slave trade. As a cheap labor force in the southern plantations of the United States, the life of black slaves was not treated as human. In order to demonstrate their class advantage of respecting “human rights,” white owners will be very “generous” to allow black slaves to grow fruits and vegetables from their own country (Africa), such as kale, watermelon, etc. Vegetables, as well as the only source of meat for African American people, was chickens.
This cheap meat has become an important source of income for black ransom. They can use chicken to exchange other supplies or make it into the fried chicken to sell money for redemption. Only at very special moments are they willing to eat a fried chicken. With the rise of the black slave liberation movement, fried chicken began to go to the table of black people’s daily life. For this reason, “black people eat fried chicken” became the stalk of white blacks. Even more amazing is that whites also love fried chicken, but when they eat fried chicken with hands, no one will say that they are brutal and rude.
In the movie, the contradiction between Don and Tony began to disintegrate from the fried chicken. The two people understood and supported each other. Although the race was different and the work was different, in front of the bucket of fried chicken, the two were the same; in the TV series, Fried chicken and beer on the first snowy night. In the worldwide, the fried chicken represents the different social classes or different meanings. Such as in Japan, it reprints the Christmas. In Korean, fried chicken represents the tradition and winters. In China, especially Beijing, it is the homesick of the Hutong culture. Therefore, In the face of this bucket of fried chicken, we are all the same.
