TIL: Lao Gan Ma is Not Someone's Name
My family and I were having dinner, Mihun, to be exact, earlier today. We were passing around the Lao Gan Ma bottle, a very popular chilli oil brand from China. It even has an appreciation Facebook group. It was my first time trying it after all the years I’d seen it being used in my family. It was a lot saltier than I had expected, but with the correct portioning, it made the Mihun really flavourful.
I had a question, and I directed it to my mom and sister because they tend to be more familiar with food brands.
"Is the man on the bottle still alive?"
Source: Simon Stahli, Lao Gan Ma Facebook Appreciation Group.
I meant it sincerely. The person on the bottle looked like they were from the '70s or '80s, and they had a really nostalgic-looking outfit. I was curious if they were still around, somewhere, with the knowledge that their face was plastered on a chilli oil bottle that was exported everywhere around the world. And, in this particular moment, a random Malaysian household.
My mom had no idea, my dad was probably too distracted with the ongoing Mandarin news, and my sister did not answer the question. Instead, she suggested that they looked like some sort of 90s Hong Kong actor with the shirt they were wearing. The Wong Kar Wai type of baddies, perhaps.
So, I took the liberty to do the Googling. And we were all pretty surprised by what we learnt.
The brand, Lao Gan Ma, is actually not someone's name. I think we all presumed that it belonged to the guy on the bottle, and it was actually the nickname of the owner, Tao Huabi. It means Old Godmother, translated from Mandarin. She's the person on the bottle (that haircut tricked us all!), and she is, indeed, alive.
Her Wikipedia page is actually a pretty interesting read. She came from a background of poverty and essentially built her empire from scratch. She owned a noodle store and was kind to students, offering discounts and extra food to them, which led to people calling her Lao Gan Ma! She then transitioned that store into one that only sold sauces, and the rest is history.
Tao's venture was and is incredibly successful, with a valuation of $1.05 billion dollars, just back in 2015. She retired for a while a decade or so ago but went back to work due to the declining profits of the company. That is one hardworking woman right there.
Thank you for reading, and if you would like to share any thoughts or if you have any questions at all, feel free to leave a comment :)
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