【时事新闻】CCTV's “A Bite of China” Takes Off, and Steam Pots, Pigs' Feet Benefit Too

2013-10-26作者：出处：

CCTV, China’s state television broadcaster, is known for dutiful programming such as the Communist Party documentary “The Flag,” but it has struck a chord with viewers by focusing on a topic near and dear to Chinese hearts: food.

In “A Bite of China,” which premiered last month, filmmakers equipped with high-definition cameras scoured the country chronicling a culinary heritage that can be hard to find in the urban jungles of Beijing and Shanghai. Over seven segments, it highlights such producers as ham curers in Yunnan, ice fishermen in Jilin, kimchi preservers in Heilongjiang and the makers of fermented prawn sauce in Hong Kong, among others. Sweeping musical scores and the narrator’s baritone voiceover add to the cinematic feel.

CCTV created a ratings slam dunk: According to it, “A Bite of China” attracted 30% more viewers than programs that typically run in its time slot, and the show has been viewed more than 20 million times online.

The entire series has aired twice – once on the main CCTV-1 network and a second time this month on its documentary channel CCTV-9. CCTV said it’s considering playing it a third time later this month. Meanwhile, CCTV-9 is keeping up the food theme, launching a series called “Tasting Treasures of China” that explores traditional, regional cooking.

CCTV is now eyeing the global market. According to China Daily, producers were shopping “A Bite of China” at the Cannes film festival, hoping to find distributors who would translate it into English, Russian and Arabic.

But the biggest beneficiaries of the series so far are food vendors. Chinese e-commerce hub Taobao said the first five episodes of the show spurred more than 5.3 million people to search for food-related products on the site. It reported a 71% increase in sales of steam pots and a 80% jump for ham.  Food stalls are also seeing a spike in business. According to a CCTV news report, a pig’s feet stall in Fujian province saw sales double after the regional specialty was featured on the show.

Meanwhile on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the series remains a hot topic. Many were praising the series, saying how the show made them salivate or had them longing for the foods of their childhood. One Weibo user wrote, “The tastes of home, memories of childhood, joys of work and vision of life, I was moved by each simple story.”

Others criticized the show as far from reality as the country continues to be mired in food-safety scandals. “[The government] uses ‘A Bite of China’ to divert our attention, to lower our nerves and to tell us that we’re living in a rich, exquisite, beautiful and delicious country. That’s so sad! Children, how could I tell you what country we are living in?” wrote another Weibo user.

Series director Chen Xiaoqing refused to wade into any controversy. The series “is just a food documentary,” he said. “I don’t over-think it. I didn’t intend for this simple documentary to inspire profound thoughts.”

- Olivia Geng contributed to this article.