A Bite of China, the seven-part documentary (纪录片) introduces Chinese food through the geography, history and culture.

A Bite of China is fill of &eat pictures of food, from expensive food to local food. The documentary shows Chinese food culture and how to make the delicious food.

    How to make dishes is only one part of food culture. The program tries to bring something new by showing more cultural elements (元素) about dishes, such as eating habits, and people's life. For example, one part tells China's history of rice growing. It explains why rice is the main food of the southern Chinese, while the northern ones mainly eat wheat flour (面粉).

    And a part about pickles(腌制食品) tells about a woman in Beijing. She returns to her hometown in Jilin and makes pickles for the first time for her lonely mother.

Another part shows happy moments of sons and daughters making New Year cakes after they return home from different cities to celebrate with their lonely parents in Zhejiang.

A Bite of China also shows social changes when showing food culture. For example, some members of a family work outside but leave the old in their hometowns - in this case, food can make people remember the happy time.

    In summer, it's common on the street to see many Chinese women holding parasols¹ to protect themselves from the sun.  But when Amy, an exchange student in Beijing from the US, first saw this, she found it strange, even impossible to understand.  She wrote on her blog, "Unlike Chinese women, American women like to put on their tank tops and sunglasses during summer. If you walk around an American college campus², you will probably see girls out on the grassy fields reading, but they really hope to get a head start on their summer tan³."

    This may be caused by the different standards of beauty between the US and China. Many Americans don't want white skin. They would rather be tanned³. Amy also wrote, "Having darker skin is so popular that many women and men will pay for fake⁴ tans so that they can keep their sun-kissed appearance during the winter months, too."

    Why do they like tanned skin? Michelle Louis reported in her research, "The process of tanning can help make people's skin smooth and hide marks." She further explained, "Tans make people's skin appear healthier and make them appear thinner than when they have pale skin."

    Perhaps there is no real ideal standard of beauty. In different cultures and at different times of history, the standards change. On Amy's blog, she also gave two examples: Some women carried parasols around trying to keep their white skin in the US 150 years ago; During the Tang Dynasty in China, heavy women were thought attractive. But now, Chinese women prefer to be slim.

    In a word, different standards of beauty should be respected. People may grow up with only one idea of what beauty is, but it doesn't mean that it's necessarily the correct or the best idea.

New words:

①parasol n. umbrella used to protect people from the sun 阳伞

②campus n. grounds of school, college or university校园

③tan n. the brown colour of sun-kissed skin 晒成的棕褐

④become brown by the sun 晒成棕褐色，晒黑

⑤fake adj. not real 假的

    The first Chinese actor captured the hearts of many Chinese in the USA. He read a letter by Zhuge Liang (181-234) to the emperor of Shuhan during three Kingdoms(220-280)period in the new season of Growling Remand Roaring Dragon（《虎啸龙吟》）

    The letter has been read by so many students. We would never have thought that the text written in old Chinese could be so beautifully read in another language. As a result, foreigners begin to show interest in Rommance of the Kindoms translated by C. H. Brewitt-tailor and Robert E. Hegel

    Earlier in November, 1 979, pupils in England were able to watch a new TV programme called Monkey. Most of them were hearing the story for the first time. However, the story of the Mokey King isn't new to Chinese Children in the traditional Chinese book Journey to the West

    As soon as the TV programme came out more than 30 years ago, western children became interested in reading this story because the clever Monkey King keeps fighting to help the weak and never gives up

    Chinese scholars should do a better job of introducing Chinese literature to the rest of the world. At the same time, we could encourage western schools to try something different.

    Reading international literature is an effective way of understanding other people in the world. And the more we understand each other, the more beautiful the world will be.