Season 02 Compilation 04
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Compilation 04
Mosaic of China Season 02 - China Facts
Original Date of Release: 09 Nov 2021.
Do you know why Chinese politicians have lustrous black hair? Do you know why you wouldn’t write '1,000,000' in China? And do you know why pandas do handstands?
If the answer to any of those question is ‘no’, then you should definitely listen to this week’s compilation episode, where we listen to the favourite China-related facts from all 30 guests of the last season.
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[Trailer]
Noxolo BHENGU: Ice cream was discovered in China…
OF: That's for real?
NB: That's for real, for real. Look it up guys.
[Intro]
OF: Welcome to Mosaic of China, a podcast about people who are making their mark in China. I’m your host, Oscar Fuchs.
OK, this is the fourth special compilation episode from Season 02, and this time we're listening to how all 30 of the guests from the season answered the question: "What is your favourite China-related fact?” So if you want to impress your friends with deep, deep knowledge about vibrating peppercorns, black hair dye, and urinating pandas, you’re in the right place.
[Main]
[Voiceover]
OF: Sean Harmon, the beer company CEO from Episode 09.
[Clip]
SH: My favourite China related fact… There are so many. The easiest thing is to do with the scale of the country. This is maybe less true today after COVID. But a few years ago, China's economy was growing at the pace of one Australian economy every year.
OF: Oh wow, yeah. It's always interesting when you make that like-for-like comparison, you know.
SH: Yeah.
OF: Because your mind can't really understand the scale.
SH: Yeah. “What does GDP growth mean?”
OF: No, exactly.
SH: “It means one new Australia!”
OF: Yeah, it's a bit like when they say “Oh this is, like, five football fields’ worth.”
SH: Yeah, you can conceptualise it a little bit. Yeah, exactly.
OF: Australia-size….
[Voiceover]
OF: Vittorio Franzese, the lawyer from Episode 27.
[Clip]
VF: So I was in a compound in Beijing. And I realised that in that compound, there must have been more people than in my hometown, related to the amount of people that can be in a compound or a district of a big city like Beijing or Shanghai. My hometown is called Trani, it’s on the east coast of Puglia. So it's very nice old town with a cathedral on the sea, but no more than 50,000 people. So it was kind of hard for me to imagine the amount of people that I would have faced here.
[Voiceover]
OF: Katherine Wong, the Peruvian healer from Episode 04.
[Clip]
KW: There is a temple of my ancestors somewhere in 广东 [Guǎngdōng]. So for me, that was very interesting.
OF: And it's specifically your clan?
KW: I believe so, I believe Wongs, they all come only from one line.
[Voiceover]
OF: Michelle Qu, the improvisational comedian from Episode 20.
[Clip]
MQ: I think the most impressive fact about China is that China is extremely colourful. And extremely big. For example, 广东 [Guǎngdōng] Province, and Mongolia Province…
OF: Inner Mongolia, right?
MQ: Yeah. Inner Mongolia. So one is very cold, like outside The Great Wall. But in 广东 [Guǎngdōng] Province, life there is quite different.
[Voiceover]
OF: Chang Chihyun, the humanities professor from Episode 03.
[Clip]
CC: The variety in China is little. Because I know it is diverse, but compared to the size of continental Europe, it should be as diverse. But the truth is it’s not. Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Björn Dahlman, the Swedish clown from Episode 17.
[Clip]
BD: The fact that you can walk in a park, and you can meet old men and women who actually have amazing Kung Fu skills. I have this 70-something-year-old teacher in Shanghai, he was teaching me spear fighting, this long three-metre spear. And he showed me and a bunch of other 30-something guys, “OK, so this is how you hold the spear in one hand”. And four of us, we couldn't lift the spear, it was too heavy. And this teacher, without an effort, just takes it up with one hand, holds the very edge of it, and balances it perfectly. And you see these things happening all the time. And it's like “Yes, ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’ fairytale China is still alive.”
[Voiceover]
OF: Jamie Barys, the street food expert from Episode 02.
[Clip]
JB: So this one's about Sichuan peppercorn, Sichuan peppercorn actually gives you paresthesia in your mouth. So it feels like your tongue and your lips are vibrating, which is cool in and of itself. But they've actually done studies to see at what frequency it's vibrating. And it turns out, it's 50Hz, which is the same frequency as the Shanghai power grid.
[Voiceover]
OF: Noxolo Bhengu, the African community organiser from Episode 14.
[Clip]
NB: Ice cream was discovered in China…
OF: What?
NB… But perfected by the Italians.
OF: Wow, that's for real?
NB: That's for real, for real. Look it up guys.
[Voiceover]
OF: Seth Harvey, the education coach from Episode 19.
[Clip]
SH: The sport of football - soccer - was actually invented in China. England takes credit for it, but it actually predates England, and football is a Chinese sport.
OF: That's a good one. I think the English, we are the ones who invented the rules. So we like to invent rules, and plant flags, and stuff like that. Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Ajay Jain, the car designer from Episode 21.
[Clip]
AJ: This one's interesting, because it's kind of related to India. By India banging into China, it means all the water flows south and all the rivers flow south. So India has got plenty of land, and arable land, and rivers, and fertile plains of the Ganges, and what have you. And they've got the luxury of being vegetarians, and then living off the land. Whereas China's got to find arable land. And only 2% of the world's arable land is consumed by 20% of the world's population. So that means the Chinese people are super resourceful, whether they cut steps into mountains, they eat different things. And I think that is also what makes them intrinsically programmed for innovation. Survival is their innovation.
[Voiceover]
OF: Murray King, the public affairs leader from Episode 29.
[Clip]
MK: The word ‘Shanghai’ means ‘up from the ocean’. 上 [Shàng] means ‘up’, and 海 [hǎi] means ‘ocean’.
OF: Yeah.
MK: And I think many people use that name without ever stopping and thinking "Why is it called Shanghai?” So this is one big river delta. It's just silt deposit over hundreds and thousands of years. And we're about maybe a metre or less above sea level. So literally, this is a city which hasn't just risen vertically in the last 20 years - as we see the beautiful skyline of 陆家嘴 [Lùjiāzuǐ] - it's a physical creation that has risen up from the ocean. It's still being created. If you've ever seen those… Maybe when you land at 浦东 [Pǔdōng] airport and looked out at that coastline, there are mud flats that just stretch out into infinity. And the water is a very brown colour, it's silt coming down the Yangtse river and being deposited in the East China Sea. So Shanghai is continuing to be created.
[Voiceover]
OF: DJ BO, the DJ from Episode 23.
[Clip]
BO: In the 1930s, Shanghai was the fifth biggest city in the world. And if you were a foreign person in the concessions, the rules of China did not apply to you. Shanghai has a great history of jazz, opium and whores. And I hope to be keeping up that tradition, if not specifically, at least in spirit. You know, in America you have what's called ‘the old weird America’, but Shanghai has an ‘old weird’ past as well. And I hope to manifest that in what I do.
[Voiceover]
OF: Jovana Zhang, the handicrafts designer from Episode 08.
[Clip]
JZ: The fascinating thing about China for me is the length of the history. The guys didn't change even the the writing since ancient times. It's the persistence of the Chinese way, it’s fascinating for me.
[Voiceover]
OF: Cassandra Chen, the heavy metal bar owner from Episode 16.
[Clip]
CC: I really admire the first Empress in the 唐 [Táng] Dynasty, who was the only Empress in Chinese history.
OF: Ah, 武則天 [Wǔ Zétiān], right?
CC: Yes.
OF: Tell me why.
CC: She was fighting from the bottom to the top of her life. And running the country, and making it strong. So as a woman at that time, it's very impressive.
[Voiceover]
OF: Vladimir Djurovic, the brand naming expert from Episode 13.
[Clip]
VD: I was reopening 孫子 [Sūnzǐ]’s Art of War. It's a teaching material for kings and lords. And when I was reading it, I was still getting a lot of ideas that are so contemporary. And one of the principles was the 道 [dào] for example: the ethics, the road, the purpose. I was quite happy to see the 孫子 [Sūnzǐ] precepts of the best way to win a war and to build your team is to work on your 道 [dào], which is I think, part of what a brand does. So I was like “Hmm”. This fact of how much it applies to today's world. And it relates, in a way, to what I do. So I felt like this fact is something that's very memorable for me.
OF: Nice. And I like it how you can distil 3,000 years of Daoism into branding.
VD: Of course.
[Voiceover]
OF: Jiyoung, the transgender teacher from Episode 30.
[Clip]
J: It will be something that I've recently discovered, which is that in 福建 [Fújiàn] Province there is a rabbit deity that's dedicated to homosexuals. And I think that's amazing, that in Chinese mythology there is a deity that's actually dedicated to gay relations.
OF: Why a rabbit?
J: I am not sure.
[Voiceover]
OF: Casey Hall, the fashion journalist from Episode 22.
[Clip]
CH: Big numbers in China. I think as a Chinese language learner - I don't know whether you've had the same thing, but - big numbers are the hardest thing for me.
OF: Yeah.
CH: The way that Chinese people organise big numbers is by tens of thousands, and then by hundreds of millions, which is not a natural thing for an English speaker to be able to translate directly. So I will write down a number - and have to put all the zeros, and then count back, and do a comma after every three zeros - in order to be able to do it. And my Chinese friends do the same thing when they hear English big numbers.
OF: Yes.
CH: But they have to do a comma after every four zeros…
OF: Yes
CH: …So that they can understand it.
[Voiceover]
OF: Louise Roy, the childbirth and lactation specialist from Episode 06.
[Clip]
LR: Male pandas can do a handstand and then pee. So that they can mark trees higher. Can you imagine a panda doing a handstand at all, and then peeing, just so they can mark a tree higher? That's not in the guidebooks, is it?
OF: No.
[Voiceover]
OF: Danma Jyid, the Tibetan social enterprise leader from Episode 10.
[Clip]
DJ: I would say my hometown. That whole area, the region is very famous for white yaks. So our yaks are all white, and no other Tibetan areas have that. So sometimes they just try to take some white yaks to their areas.
OF: I’ve seen them! I saw a white yak in northern Y云南 [Yúnnán] Province.
DJ: Yeah.
OF: But that was probably from your area.
DJ: Probably. Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Alex Shoer, the clean energy entrepreneur from Episode 11.
[Clip]
AS: So my favourite China-related fact is actually something I learned when I went to 大理 [Dàlǐ] in 云南 [Yúnnán] Province, one of the most beautiful cities I've been to. I went there, and I took this overnight train from 昆明 [Kūnmíng] to 大理 [Dàlǐ], it was a 12 hour journey. I mean, it was… we were going up mountains, and down mountains, and stopping, and changing tracks. It felt like the most intense train ride I've ever been on. And then I get there, and they're like “Oh, you took the train?” I'm like “Yeah”. “Like, why didn't you just take the bus?” I’m like “Oh OK, isn’t the train faster?” They’re like “No, the bus takes three hours, and you can be here in no time”. And so anyway, one of the most fascinating things is how the train can take twelve hours, but the bus can take three.
[Voiceover]
OF: Michael Kinsey, the fire engineer from Episode 25.
[Clip]
MK: So my favourite China-related fact is to do with the Three Gorges Dam.
OF: Oh, yeah.
MK: In 湖北 [Húběi] Province. It's a massive hydroelectric dam. It's the biggest in the world. And it displaces large amounts of water. And NASA have done a study and demonstrated it displaces so much water that it actually slows the rotation of the Earth by a few decimals of a microsecond. So it actually slows down time.
OF: What?
MK: I didn't believe this, I had to go and look it up on the NASA website. It's true. It's amazing.
OF: Gosh, OK. Do you remember that Superman movie where he…
MK: …Goes around so fast. Yeah, yeah, he goes around so fast, yeah.
OF: And then he reverses time. I think it must be to do with that.
MK: He should have gone to 湖北 [Húběi], you know.
[Voiceover]
OF: Douglon Tse, the island businessman from Episode 15.
[Clip]
DT: Coming from 嵊泗 [Shèngsì] island, one of my favourite facts is that 嵊泗 [Shèngsì] used to be part of Shanghai, and I think it's been seven or eight times now that 嵊泗 [Shèngsì] has applied to be part of Shanghai again, to return to the fold.
OF: Oh wait, so they are being quite open about wanting to leave 浙江 [Zhèjiāng] province?
DT: They applied to Beijing. All the time.
OF: Oh. Right.
DT: Yeah.
OF: This is the kind of cross-provincial competition that the everyday person wouldn't really be aware of, right?
DT: Yeah. 浙江 [Zhèjiāng], which is a very strong and wealthy province, they get 50% of what Shanghai makes from the cargoes, for all the shipments.
OF: Because there are no deep ports in Shanghai, it's all the ones around, like on 嵊泗 [Shèngsì] island…
DT: Well they get transferred to smaller boats, which is what you guys see on the 黄埔 [Huángpù] river.
OF: Right. So the big ones come to your island, and then it gets… it's a transshipment port.
DT: I'm just one of many islands.
[Voiceover]
OF: Salome Chen, the investor and developer from Episode 24.
[Clip]
SC: 江南 [Jiāngnán], which we use to refer to the 长江 [‘Yangtze’] Delta region. It arouses this nostalgic feeling. Yeah.
OF: So 江南 [Jiāngnán], what is that area?
SC: Shanghai and maybe part of 浙江 [Zhèjiāng] Province and the south part of 江苏 [Jiāngsū] Province. Yeah.
OF: They are culturally, they're historically, connected, aren’t they.
SC: Yeah.
OF: Because we don't use really ‘江南 [Jiāngnán]’ very often, do we? Or do you hear that a lot?
SC: When we talk, when you speak, you don't use it that much. But when you write, it's still very poetic. People use it a lot, a lot.
[Voiceover]
OF: Zhang Yuan, the performance art exhibitor from Episode 07.
[Clip]
ZY: In a way, our society is more like a performative society. If you really calm yourself down, as an observer or as someone outside, then you observe what is going on these days in China. It’s theatre. Particularly when you go outside of China, how they see you as a Chinese and how they see what is happening in China, then you would feel much more about this.
[Voiceover]
OF: Wendy Saunders, the architect from Episode 12.
[Clip]
WS: I was convinced that Chinese people, their hair never goes grey. After a while, I realised that actually everybody dyes their hair. And even the men. And all the politicians and everybody, they all dye their hair black.
OF: Especially the men.
WS: And the men! I mean, the women, OK, they dye their hair already for ages, everybody does it. But the men. And this kind of fear of looking old, it was something that really surprised me so much. Because on the other hand, in China they respect the old so much more than we do in the West. So I really can't understand that duality of it, I still don't understand it.
[Voiceover]
OF: Zhao Huiling, the Africa travel vlogger from Episode 28.
[Clip]
ZH: So my favourite thing about China is safety. Before moving back to Shanghai, I was living in New York. So coming back to Shanghai, going back home at any hour of the day I want, it was such a luxury to me.
OF: That's right.
ZH: Yeah.
OF: And it's funny because New York has improved. It used to be much more dangerous, right?
ZH: Yes, yes.
OF: But it’s definitely still edgy.
ZH: It definitely got its edge.
OF: Right.
[Voiceover]
OF: Stéphane Wilmet, the head of consumer insights at L'Oreal from Episode 01.
[Clip]
SW: I think my all-time favourite China-related piece of trivia is this foreign policy anecdote that everybody knows. It’s the story of the Chinese Premier, 周恩来 [Zhōu Ēnlái], the Premier of Chairman Mao, this is the early 1970s when Nixon and Kissinger are engaging in direct talks with the PRC. And 周恩来 [Zhōu Ēnlái] is asked by Kissinger to assess the impact of the French Revolution. And as the story goes, Premiere 周恩来 [Zhōu Ēnlái] responds, “it's too early to tell”. But what is interesting is what lies behind the story. Because in China, there's always layers to decode. Actually one of the translators for Kissinger, a few years ago, maybe 3-4 years ago, came out to say that this was a miss-told story. What really took place, according to him, is that Prime Minister 周 [Zhōu] misunderstood the question, and rather than being asked to give his point of view on the impact of the French Revolution of those events of 1789, he thought he was being asked about the student protests that hit Paris in 1968. So you see, in this context 周恩来 [Zhōu Ēnlái]’s answer was very sensible. Taken out of its context, with the years having polished the story into almost a myth, it's totally different. It became an example of the patient and farsighted nature of Chinese leaders who think in increments of centuries. But in recalling the exchange, this one translator said “there was a misunderstanding that was too delicious to invite correction”. And as it happens, this example, to me, reveals the difference between a story that is true, and one that contains a good deal of truth.
[Voiceover]
OF: Crystyl Mo, the fine dining expert from Episode 26.
[Clip]
CM: My favourite China-related fact is, the longer you stay in China, the more you realise how little you know about China.
OF: Because you have been in China now how many years?
CM: 23 or 24.
OF: Ach, is that all?
CM: Yes.
OF: And were you the kind of person who at the beginning were the super expert, and you thought that you knew everything? Or did you always have that humility from the start?
CM: I never thought about how much I know or don't know. But when I first came to China, I thought that the U.S. was perfect. And so coming to China and hearing another perspective on the U.S. - seeing global geopolitics from outside the U.S. - was a very big ‘aha moment’.
OF: Yes, this is when American exceptionalism clashes with China exceptionalism.
[Voiceover]
OF: Cocosanti, the drag performer from Episode 05.
[Clip]
C: Um, I don't have a China-related fact. Only because, here's the thing, the facts that I knew about China keep changing. So like, sometimes I'll come here and I'll be like “Oh, that's an interesting fact". And then I find out a new piece of information, and I’m like “What the hell?”
OF: Yes.
C: “I learned it a different way. That's not… That doesn't work out at all for me,” So I don't have one.
OF: Oh that's a good one.
C: Yeah.
[Voiceover]
OF: Jo McFarland, the product sourcing leader from Episode 18.
[Clip]
JM: 风水 [Fēngshuǐ]. So we have to make sure that we get that right in the office. So everything's got to be facing south, for the best position. And it will keep evil away.
OF: In general, southern Chinaseems to be more into 风水 [fēngshuǐ] than Shanghai and northern China, wouldn’t you say? Or you would say differently?
JM: No, I know a fair few local friends who've moved apartments and they get the 风水 [fēngshuǐ] guy around to check it out before they move in.
OF: There you go.
JM: Oscar, have you not had your apartment ‘风水 [fēngshuǐ]’ed?
OF: I have not. And that would explain why I've lost so much money… doing this bloody thing.
[Outro]
OF: And there you have it. I hope that some of those facts resonated with you. For me, I couldn’t help but think about what Murray King said about Shanghai being a low-lying metropolis, only slightly above sea level. That reminded me of the importance of the discussions that have been taking place over the last week about climate change and the rising sea levels. Since it’s a fact that Shanghai means ‘above the sea’, it would be nice if we could keep it that way in the future, wouldn’t it?
Mosaic of China is me, Oscar Fuchs, with artwork by Denny Newell. Speaking of Shanghai, the temperature here has just dropped 10 degrees Celsius, and 'Mr. Fragile' here has immediately caught a cold. So I’ll keep this short and get back to my regime of herbals teas, so that I can be back again in a couple of weeks for the next compilation episode.
[Clips]
SW: Thank you very much.
JB: Thank you, it’s been a pleasure.
CC: My pleasure.
KW: Thank you so much.
C: Oh hey, thanks.
LR: Thank you very much.
ZY: Thank you.
JZ: Thank you.
SH: It’s been a pleasure.
DJ: Thank you.
AS: Thank you.
WS: Thank you.
VD: Thanks.
NB: Thank you.
DT: Thank you.
CC: Thank you.
BD: Hehe, thank you.
JM: Thank you very much.
SH: My pleasure, thanks.
MQ: Thank you.
AJ: Thanks a lot.
CH: Thank you.
BO: Thank you very much.
SC: Thank you.
MK: Thank you.
CM: Thank you.
VF: Thank you so much.
ZH: Thank you for having me.
MK: It was my pleasure.
J: Thank you so much.