In the mid 1600s, Fu Qingzhu paused from his campaign against the mindless slaughter being committed by those Manchurian Bastards to preach the perfection of the KFC Chicken Burger to his seven sword apprentices. Or so claims a KFC commercial currently airing in China and playing off of the 2005 success of Tsui Hark's Seven Swords. Unfortunately, the Chinese don't quite dig Fu Qingzhu's recast as a sort of Asiatic Colonel Sanders.

You see, Fu Qingzhu was a Taoist. Taoists do not devour the flesh of fowl. This has caused a backlash against KFC, who are seen by some huffy modern day Taoists as dissing and then dismissing their religious principles... not to mention Chinese history.

"This event tells us to better protect our traditions and to keep them pure against tacky reconstructions," says Han Yunbo, a professor at the Southwest University Literature Department. Gee, if you were concerned about that, you wouldn't have let Tsui Hark direct a version of the tale in the first place, would you?

KFC under fire for Taoist ad [Asian News Network]