Westerners are ignorant. What a shocker.
Chinese food is so good and diverse. I had this spicy white fish dish once in Guangdong that was just incredible, I think about it often lol, can’t remember what it was called
That being said there is something about american chinese food that makes me crave it from time to time (probably all the salt and sugar)
You can follow Food Ranger on youtube if you want to see a Westerner try all kinds of Chinese food, in China, without political bullshit attached (he goes to Xinjiang as well)
It’s also generally healthier than american food I would assume
I think this mostly has to do with the extensive use of vegetables cooked in various tasty ways. Western dishes (specifically West European) seem to have very few good techniques to cook vegetables, leading white children to hate veggies. I think this is exacerbated in Britain and their Anglo-Saxon colonies (cue the meme about British food having no seasoning).
Also, proper Asian dishes tend not to actually use much oil. Stir frying only lightly coats the outside of food with oil, very different from western deep frying.
David Chang has a fantastic episode on Chinese food. I think it’s Ugly Delicious?