STORY: Traditional delicacy on Hanlu solar term: water bamboo
DATELINE: Oct. 8, 2023
LENGTH: 00:02:02
LOCATION: SHANGHAI, China
CATEGORY: CULTURE/SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
2. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): WAN JUN, Farmer
3. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
4. SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): WAN JUN, Farmer
5. SOUNDBITE 5 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
6. SOUNDBITE 6 (Chinese): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
7. SOUNDBITE 7 (Chinese): WAN JUN, Farmer
8. SOUNDBITE 8 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University

STORYLINE:

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
"It is now time of Hanlu (or Cold Dew), which is traditionally the time to eat the delicious 'eight waterborne vegetables' of south China. Right now, we are in a field of jiaobai, also known as water bamboo, located in Qingpu, Shanghai."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): WAN JUN, Farmer
"Try it yourself. Let's see how our 'new farmer' picks water bamboos. It's a bit hard to break it off, right? Look, give it a little twist. This is our authentic Liantang water bamboo."

SOUNDBITE 3 (Chinese): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
"Do you peel them when picking?"

SOUNDBITE 4 (Chinese): WAN JUN, Farmer
"No, we don't."

SOUNDBITE 5 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
"As you can see, it isn't very necessarily easy to move through. This is quite a kind of like a quicksand texture down here. So if you just stand there and don't move, you slowly sink in, so I think it's a very technical thing to keep balance in the mud, and to identify which water bamboos are ready to pick.

SOUNDBITE 6 (Chinese): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
"Is this ready to eat?"

SOUNDBITE 7 (Chinese): WAN JUN, Farmer
"Yes, it is."

SOUNDBITE 8 (English): LILE SONG MAHONEY, Student, East China Normal University
"This is very good. I could definitely taste the similarities with the bamboo shoot, and I personally love to eat bamboo shoots, but I think that this one wins in my heart, because it's chewy but soft. There's a nice crunch, and it's very mildly sweet. It's amazing.
The water bamboo, also known as jiaobai in Mandarin, is very hard to find in the West. At least I've never had it in America. As you can see, it has many similarities with bamboo. For example, it grows in sections, and the tastiest part, the edible part is the sprout in the middle."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Shanghai, China.
(XHTV)