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Xinmei Shen

This article originally appeared on ABACUS
It caused a craze in the United States. But in China, it’s just leaving people confused.
McDonald’s faced huge lines and angry fans when it brought back a limited supply of Szechuan dipping sauce for McNuggets in the US last year, underestimating the demand from fans of sci-fi series Rick & Morty.
The sauce was originally released in 1998 as part of a tie-in for the Disney film Mulan. But it came back into the cultural spotlight in early 2017, when an episode of the hit TV show detailed Rick’s quest to taste the sauce again.

via GIPHY
McDonald’s brought the sauce to China on Wednesday for a limited run, and netizens don’t understand why. One Weibo user said: “It doesn’t have any special taste….is the American version better?”
Part of the problem is that Szechuan sauce doesn’t resemble the cuisine of the region it is named for. Sichuan (the accepted spelling of the province) is known for extremely spicy food -- and this sauce isn’t.
Another Weibo user said, “Do Americans have some misunderstandings about chili sauce? The Szechuan sauce tastes like soy sauce.”
The sauce’s original name does suggest some cultural confusion. In 1998, packets bore the name “Mulan SzeChuan teriyaki dipping sauce” -- a strange name given that Sichuan is in China, and teriyaki is part of Japanese cuisine.

While Rick & Morty isn’t as well-known in China as in the US, it does have fans in the country. On Douban, China’s most popular site for movie and TV show reviews, the first season scores 9.6 with 48,426 votes. (In comparison, season 1 of Game of Thrones scores 9.3 with 186,348 votes.)
But that may not be enough to save this Chinese-named sauce made by an American company (based on a film about a Chinese character made by an American company) from being criticized by Chinese consumers.
“I tasted McDonald’s Szechuan Sauce today,” said one post on Weibo. “It’s sweet, it’s sour, it’s spicy, it’s not Szechuan. I suggest China and the US make this a key point when they talk about intellectual property.”

For more insights into China tech, sign up for our tech newsletters, subscribe to our Inside China Tech podcast, and download the comprehensive 2019 China Internet Report. Also roam China Tech City, an award-winning interactive digital map at our sister site Abacus.



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Rick & Morty’s Szechuan sauce comes to China and netizens are confused

The US version of McDonald's Szechuan Sauce. (Picture: McDonald's)

McDonald's Szechuan Sauce (Picture: Abacus)

Abacus

Culture

Tech

McDonald's limited edition McNuggets dipping sauce caused a craze in the US but is greeted with a lukewarm reaction in China


This simple McNuggets dipping sauce caused a craze in the US. But in China, netizens don't understand why the sauce made famous by sci-fi series Rick & Morty is special -- or why it's even called "Szechuan" sauce at all.


Abacus - China Tech News

Rick & Morty’s Szechuan sauce comes to China and netizens are confused

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}McDonald's limited edition McNuggets dipping sauce caused a craze in the US but is greeted with a lukewarm reaction in China

McDonald's limited edition McNuggets dipping sauce caused a craze in the US but is greeted with a lukewarm reaction in China