My understanding (I think I first read it in The Last Whole Earth Catalog) is that stir-frying itself first came into popularity in China due to overpopulation and a scarcity of wood. By chopping the wood into small sized pieces and cooking rapidly in a wok over a small stove, one could achieve a very high temperature while consuming little fuel.
I don’t want to stick my neck out too much by venturing into cultural issues outside my purview, but I do wonder if using gas under the wok is as essential an element of Chinese culture as is the ability to adapt to circumstances. After all, few Chinese restaurants (or home cooks), in this country at least, still use wood fires for cooking anymore. When gas cookers became ubiquitous , was there an outcry about the loss of traditional culture? I honestly don’t know, but it seems the question is worth asking.
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