Guangzhou TV loves Beans and Rice

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Guangzhou TV loves Beans and Rice

Had a story done on me last week by Guangzhou TV. Click here to watch the video

It started when Guangzhou News Express did a story about my work at the Folk Arts Museum and my teaching and blogging. I was happy to do a segment for them, but once sitting down for an interview I wasn't much help. The reporter found out that I wasn't at all very foreign. As in, I don't do foreign things. Most foreigners on Chinese TV are goofy, jovial, and live a seemingly carefree life. I didn't exactly fit the profile.

I teach history and culture at South China Normal University, and volunteer at The Folk Arts Museum other than that I am finishing a Masters in Historic Preservation. Not the life of the party by a long shot.

The reporter's name was Echo, she was very friendly, but she mentioned that she needed to find a story. I showed her my photography of demolitions of small neighborhoods in China over the past three years. All of which I posted on my blog www.rubbletourist.wordpress.com, this wasn't too exciting. When she asked me what I do for fun I didn't know what to say.

"I don't do much at all, only sometimes have friends over for the occasional dinner party."

"You cook?" She asked.

That was her story.

The next day I prepared a meal for her and her camera crew in my apartment. In my tiny kitchen we rehearsed over and over me beating an egg, frying mushrooms, and a few other dishes. They got a nice view of the spice rack.

My kitchen is tiny, and hot in the summer. The camea man stood directly behind me, he wanted to film my sweating. "Lawei chu han," (foreigners sweat) he proclaimed. He stood incredibly close, sticking the camera at random parts of my body. (I felt like one of the guys working on a James Dean movie sets asked to do bizzarre kinky things.) "He sweats!" The camera man proclaimed again.

When all the food was we spent about half an hour filming the placement of the food on my coffee table. When it was time to eat they stared at me, with begrudging looks on their faces.

"This is not Guangdong food." They all agreed.

I cooked eggs with jieu cai (long spring onions), fried black mushrooms with dried tofu and chilli peppers, and also sliced some cucumbers with a splash of soy sauce, and fish flavored egg plant. A mix of both North-East and Western Chinese cooking. They continued to stared at it as though something were terribly wrong.

"This is not Guangdong food." They agreed again.

I explained in the interview that Guangdong food was very bland, and I enjoyed more pungent styles of cooking like Sichuan, Xinjiang, or Hunan style. This wasn't working for them at all.

When I opened the rice cooker they truly taken back.

"Americans eat rice?" Echo asked.

"Yes." I said.

"What kind of rice?"

"Rice." I didn't know how else to answer the question.

"Where did you get it?"

"At the market." I pointed in the direction of the market where I live.

I explained the dish.

"This is very American, beans and rice. Soak the beans in water overnight with a bit of salt. cook it with a little oil, sliced pork. Where I come from in New York it's called 'arroz frijoles con pernil.' Very basic American food."

"So special." She remarked with fascination.

They all gathered around my rice cooker and blocked the scene of me opening the rice cooker and saying, "This is beans and rice." Again and again. In Chinese: Zhi shi dojiao he mifan. I rehearsed this scene at least a dozen times.

They all tried the beans and rice but ate nothing else, and proclaimed how special it was.

Over the next two days they fallowed me to work. They interviewed some of my students and colleagues at the musseum. I enjoyed talking to Echo, she told me a lot about the challenges of being a reporter in China. None of the most interesting conversations were used in the report, it was just me, my kitchen, and my job.

After the final day of shooting Echo called me to double check the name of the exotic dish.

"What was the name of the dish with beans and the rice together?"

"Beans and rice." I confirmed.

"Got it, thanks"

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