Chilli peppers are now ubiquitous in Chinese cuisine, contributing to social bonding. However, this popular ingredient only arrived in China relatively recently, entering the country about 400 years ago.

It is not an exaggeration to say that chilli peppers and spicy food are available on pretty much every street in China. The pungent, heat-infused foodstuff is so ubiquitous people joke that if a person does not indulge, they will starve, or at best lose friends, because eating spicy things fosters social bonding. However, the popular ingredient has only been around in China for a relatively short time. It first entered the country 400 years ago and people have been eating it for about three...