Food documentary stirs culinary craze
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E-mail China Daily, May 30, 2012
A seven-episode documentary series on the country's favorite subject has stirred up a crest of culinary interest including millions of blog entries and an increase in sales of regional snacks and traditional foods.
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Food documentary stirs culinary craze |
In the week that it aired on national television from May 14 to 22, A Bite of China caused the ratings to spike like never before.
This seven-episode documentary was originally commissioned by China Central Television (CCTV) for its dedicated documentary channel, CCTV 9, and was mooted and produced by the Channel 9's program director, Chen Xiaoqing.
When the series debuted on CCTV 1, the station's main channel, there was an increase of 30 percent in viewer ratings, knocking off the drama serials that were normally aired in that prime-time slot.
According to Liu Wen, general supervisor of CCTV 9, A Bite of China was an instant hit, chalking up 2 million tweets on Sina Weibo. The ripple effect continued to spread as Web users went online to ferret out the various traditional foods and delicacies mentioned in each episode. China's biggest online shopping portal Taobao.com said the number of searches for food at the site doubled when the program was shown at 10:30 pm. Furry bean curd, black truffles, matsutake mushrooms, organic ham from Yunnan's Nuodeng village and Dali cheese "fans" all became hot items.
Viewers marveled anew at traditional kitchen skills such as the slicing of soft bean curd into hair-like slivers and the making of pulled sugar candy. They were also given a glimpse into the lives of farmers harvesting winter bamboo shoots, digging up lotus roots, rearing mitten crabs and diving for sea cucumbers and abalones.
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