Sweet and sour pork, also known as ancient meat, began in the Qing Dynasty and is one of the traditional famous dishes in Guangdong. It is said that whenever it is served on the table, the diners around it will gulp down saliva, hence the name.

The predecessor of sweet and sour tenderloin was originally a common dish in summer in Guangdong, called "Sweet and sour tenderloin".

In the early years, Cantonese people went to the United States to work hard and brought home-cooked "sweet and sour pork" from Guangdong. Later, Cantonese people gathered in San Francisco and formed Chinatown. Cantonese restaurants in Chinatown naturally take their favorite dishes as their signature dishes, and the "sweet and sour tenderloin" has also taken root in Chinatown. By the beginning of the 20th century, "Sweet and Sour Pork" had become one of the most popular China dishes in China restaurants, and was deeply loved by foreigners. They will call it "sweet and sour pork" when ordering food. Seeing that foreign friends are so appreciative, Cantonese people call "sweet and sour pork" ghost meat. Later, they felt disrespectful to foreign friends, so they took a homonym and changed "ghost meat" to "sweet and sour pork".