Comments

1. M. Zhang Said,

   As Beijing Olympic Games approaches, people in China has been extremely busy and so have been those who are against China for one reason or another. Recently, we’ve witnessed the Lhasa riot, the overwhelmingly biased coverage by the Western media using fabricated footages, the often violent disruptions of the Olympic touch relay across major Western cities, and now, there is this “cook book”.

   First of all, the timing of this book is interesting. According to the authors, it was their long time editor who had commanded them to do this book. Equally revealing of a shared deep-rooted hatred and colonial bias against China is how the editor, and the authors call Tibet among themselves, instead of Tibet region of China, they refer it as par of the Central Asia, it shows that deep down, they really hate to see Tibet is part of China now, instead of part of India or the British Empire. And has anybody else noticed their collective eagerness to rush this “cook book” out before the Games? Coincidence or part of a pathetic, ill-intentioned collective effort orchestrated by some mysterious institution?

   Once understand where those people came from, it’s not hard to learn the hidden meaning behind the buzzword used in the sub title and throughout the book: the other China. China is consisted of 56 major ethic groups, while Han is the largest. The author claims that non-Han Chinese citizens “are not considered by the government to be Chinese” is totally false and seriously misleading! I wonder would the authors dare to highlight this false statement to the Chinese authority next time they apply for a visa to go to China (to make more money off her)?

   The authors are heart-broken by the “many social changes” happened in China in the past 20 years. What’s so terrible? Twenty years ago, the whole country was poor and so was the Tibet area. When a country is booming, people from relatively developed areas will migrate to less developed areas to make personal wealth, just like what Americans did in the migration west. If the authors really want to blame somebody, blame capitalism, not Chinese government, or maybe they secretly want the whole country still frozen in poverty so various cultural thieves, some are more ungrateful than others, can continue to get rich from there.

   In conclusion, as a “cookbook”, this is valueless! Just like no matter how many times you video tape Mike Tyson’s game, you are still not qualified to publish a boxing textbook. Rather, this is a propaganda piece commanded by outside power to “tie-in” with the Olympic Games, so they can bark at the country and people whom so generously allowed them to poke around while getting handsome rewards from the Western capitalism system.

   The question for the rest of us is: Should we pay to reward them as well?

   Rating: 1 / 5

2. One reader Said,

   Given the authors’ backgrounds of “flower generation” and drug uses it is no suriprising to see a book that reflexibly and mindlessly bashes China for everything and anything (the same way they treat Judeo-Christian heritage); the surprising part of the book is that it is disguised as a cookbook plus travel book. It is odd that they view Chinese ethnic minorities as non-Chinese (if the same principle applies to the US; it would put we non-Whites as aliens – hello!) – lending to the suspicion that they may be closet White Supremacists with a Marxism twist. The people who cheer for this book are either naive or evil – there is no nice way of saying about racism.
   Rating: 1 / 5

3. Bart Weisser Said,

   Aside from some pretty pictures, painstakingly taken by the authors, this so-called cookbook is just a pile of hypocritical ignorance.

   Since this is supposed to be a cookbook, I shall begin with the recipes. The authors was under the assumption that these recipes are very special and exotic, and Chinese censorship was the only reason they did not reach international prominence. This view is simply quite ignorant. As I flipped through the book I kept nodding my head and said to myself, “yup, I have seen this before.” So somehow these foods (or people) must have managed to escape the thumb of Chinese oppression.

   But, in the mean time, there is something fishy about these recipes presented within. I was not aware that the Chinese and the Mexicans have been exchanging knowledge in salsa making, nor was I aware of any fish recipes in the mountainous regions of Tibet, or in the deserts of Xianxiang. Reading through their experience with “the other Chinese food”, I couldn’t help but to think that they just made up a lot of these supposedly exotic recipes, using whatever was available in their fridge at the moment.

   Now I shall move on to the other part. It is now very fashionable, in the current political climate, for us to perceive China as the big evil Socialist machine, in the same way we saw the USSR in the Cold War. True, many of these ethnic minorities in China featured in this book do not share the economic prosperity that the rest of the country has enjoyed over the last two decades. True, clashes take place (a la Rodney King) between the Han majority and the minorities. The authors, in their moral high-horse, often referred these problems as “ethnic representation” or “oppression”, without having much understanding of the issues. To add insult to injury, they seem oblivious to their own ethnic problems (e.g., the Indians and the immigrants) back in Canada.

   To be quite honest, my problem with this book is not so much their “anti-mainstream-Chinese” sentiment; it is their opinion, and I cannot change it. I simply think they are shameless and opportunistic, in that they used their mere capacity as travelers and self-proclaimed food writers to assert their naive political views against China in a book that is meant to be a cookbook of “fringe” Chinese cuisine, while comfortably profiting off both sides. Lest we forget, this book was released only a few months before the Beijing Olympics, at a whooping cost of $70 apiece. If hypocrisy does not describe the spirit of this book, I don’t know what will.
   Rating: 1 / 5

4. Suzanne Farrelly Said,

   A taste of the Real China, from one who has travelled there on numerous occasions, a true Shangri La experience
   Rating: 4 / 5

5. K. L. Gallaher Said,

   I have the book it is gorgeous and recipes are very interesting – different that anything else I have in my 300+ cookbook collection

   I have been having a debate with a Chinese American friend – which is relevant here:

   Tibetan and other minorities are resentful of Han Chinese success. The Chinese are good business people and have been doing business all over Asia for centuries. I attribute this to cultural traits shared with other North Asians – Koreans and Japanese, and not by South Asians for the most part. As a result there has been resentment. The Filipinos did not like the Chinese because they dominated business. They also kept (or were kept) to themselves. In other areas like Indonesia and Vietnam there are many more Chinese – and that led to massacres in Indonesia and boat people – mostly ethnic Chinese – in Vietnam.

   There is more:

   “China consistently has pursued a policy of “taming” its far-flung western regions through economic and ethnic assimilation.”
   
   When the Communists came to power China was the “weak man of Asia” Not without reason China was paranoid about revisiting the foreign domination of the last century. When they looked around they found that most of their borders were inhabited by non-Han – and that concerned them. So they tried to assimilate them – probably in a pretty ham-handed, insensitive way. Even in the US cultural diversity is not always well respected although it has improved in our lifetimes. China has had a lot of trouble with its borders – there has been shooting with Russia, Vietnam, India.

   “It may be the Tibetans’ final chance to hold onto an ethnically, religiously and economically unique homeland before it is lost forever”
   
   I do believe the Tibetan culture is unique and worth preserving – and it is not a given that it will be. That is not to say that to be a true Tibetan you cannot be educated and be financially successful. We saw a few years ago in New Mexico where Indians kept feet in both worlds at places like Acoma and Taos pueblos. American Indian culture and language in the US is in many cases gone forever and was not given any legal respect until quite recently. We heard this story again in Alaska last summer. And we see it in Oklahoma all the time which has a large Indian population – but a fragmented one because most were displaced from elsewhere. The Chinese government could use a good dose of cultural sensitivity – but I am not counting on it – the best comparison with China right now would be with the “Wild West” a hundred years ago – before environmental laws, unions, rule-of-law, an cultural tolerance.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5