Chinatowns
The Food Programme
BBC
4.4 • 976 Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2015
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nearly every major city in the world has one- a district where Chinese immigrants have settled to live, work and eat. This week Dan Saladino takes you on a tour of Chinatowns around the world.
From one of the oldest, in Manila, to one of the newest, in Johannesburg, Chinatowns create a global trail of economic and culinary influence. And the food that they serve reflects not only the tastes of home, but of the adopted countries.
In this programme, made in collaboration with BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain, we ask how these urban communities reflect not only the history of Chinese immigration, but the changing role of China as a global power.
Including visits to Havana, to look at the legacy of communism in a Chinatown that rarely serves Chinese food, and Shanghai, where the fortune cookie - a westernized version of Chinese cuisine is finding a new market at home.
Producers: Kent DePinto & Sarah Stolarz.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week we're heading to what I truly believe is one of the most colourful exciting and |
| 0:06.4 | delicious parts of any city, Chinatown. |
| 0:09.7 | Here we have something really extraordinary. |
| 0:12.1 | Looking at this box, I would not be able to guess what these are. |
| 0:16.0 | I think they look like vampire bats are these little strange horned fruits. |
| 0:20.0 | They're water caltrops. |
| 0:22.0 | Which I'm told are like fleshy vegetables, cooked, they're eaten with rice. |
| 0:27.0 | And it's one of the most eye-catching foods I've ever seen. |
| 0:30.0 | It also helps to sum up what Chinatowns can represent to the outside eye and palette, a place that holds the promise of a real food adventure, where fantastic sights and flavours await you behind rows of restaurant windows. |
| 0:46.2 | In this special edition of the food program, we've teamed up with the BBC World Service |
| 0:51.2 | and its Food Chain program to go on a tour of Chinatowns around the world. |
| 0:56.4 | We'll be asking what can they tell us about a changing China and changing Chinese |
| 1:02.0 | cuisine. |
| 1:03.0 | Nearly every major city in the world has a Chinatown, |
| 1:10.0 | a district where Chinese immigrants have settled to live, work, socialise and eat. |
| 1:15.3 | They owe their origins to migrants who set out in search of a better life and are still |
| 1:20.2 | offering the first port of call for people leaving China today. But as China changes |
| 1:25.8 | as a global power, so are Chinatowns. According to the OECD, it's now the country from which most new immigrants originate and importantly |
| 1:35.2 | they're coming from right across the mainland China is also the source of more |
| 1:40.5 | foreign students living overseas than any other country. |
| 1:44.0 | As we'll be hearing, these trends are giving the world new food experiences. |
| 1:49.0 | And so on our global tour, we'll be visiting new and booming Chinatowns. |
... |
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