Wu geng chang wang () is a Taiwanese dish that is commonly found in Rechao or Sichuan style restaurants in Taiwan.
WàgÃÂng cháng wàng is often found in Sichuan style restaurants in Taiwan or Chinese restaurants overseas. It is often mistaken as Sichuan cuisine, but it is unknown in Sichuan. It was actually a Sichuan style dish created in Taiwan, likely when a chef wanted to impress former president Chiang Ching-kuo by simmering pig intestines and duck blood, cooking it until five "gÃÂng" (3:00 A.M. to 5:00 A.M), so the dish became known as "five gÃÂng intestines and blood". Famed painter Chang Dai-chien disliked the name and renamed it "wàgÃÂng cháng wàng".
It might have also been created by a housewife living in a military dependents' village who combined common ingredients in a hot pot.
There are various origins for the words "wàgÃÂng" (äºÂæ´). It might be that the dish needs to be cooked until five gÃÂng. It might also be that the dish requires the gÃÂng, or "stem", of five plant ingredients, garlic shoots/green onion, suan cai, chili pepper, garlic, and ginger. It is also likely that people used to use a small stove called wàgÃÂng stove at night, and the dish might have been created in the same kind of stove.
"Cháng" (蠸) means large intestines of pigs.
"Wàng" (æº) means duck blood, pig blood, or chicken blood, which are also called wàng zà(æºåÂÂ) or xiàwàng (è¡Âæº) in Guizhou. WàgÃÂng cháng wàng was originally named wàgÃÂng cháng xiÃÂ, or "five gÃÂng intestines and blood", but painter Chang Dai-chien thought the name was unappetizing. Since blood is red and the color represents wàng, or "prosperity", in traditional Chinese culture, the name was changed to wàgÃÂng cháng wàng.
Cháng wàng (è ¸æº) sounds similar to chÃÂng wàng (æÂÂæº), or "prosperous and flourishing", and cháng wàng (常æº), or "often prosperous". WàgÃÂng represents the approach of dawn, symbolizing a new day, so wàgÃÂng cháng wàng represents prosperity everyday until dawn.