Kaoliang

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Kaoliang
Simplified:	高梁酒
Traditional:	高梁酒
Hanyu Pinyin:	gāoliángjǐu
Wade-Giles:	kao-liang-chiu
Taiwanese/POJ:	kau-liâng-chiú

Kaoliang jiu (literally "sorghum liquor"; often called simply kaoliang) is a strong distilled liquor, made from fermented sorghum (which is called gaoliang in Chinese). It is made and sold in both China and Taiwan, and also popular in Korea. Kaoliang is an important product of the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen and Matsu. Kaoliang ranges between 40 and 63 percent alcohol by volume.

[edit] Kaoliang in popular culture

The 1987 Zhang Yimou film Red Sorghum (紅高梁; Pinyin: Hóng Gāoliáng) is set in a rural kaoliang distillery.
The fictional character Li Kao, from Barry Hughart's award-winning novels Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen, is named after kaoliang; his mother died in childbirth while requesting a last drink, and the abbot attending the birth mistook the syllables "Kao...li...kao..." as her intended name for the child. In Bridge of Birds, while telling the story of his birth, Li Kao describes kaoliang as "the finest paint thinner and worst wine ever invented."