On the Road to Zhongshan

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Right after breakfast, we meet at 11AM to meet the bus to take us to lunch.  Yes, food right after food.  The one funny thing that happened this morning was the fact that we now simply had too much luggage to fit under the bus.  The entire back row of seating had to be used as luggage storage, and we managed to fill it nearly up to the ceiling.  We end up at the same restaurant that we went to for lunch yesterday.  I wasn’t hungry in the least, so I eat some green veggies and go across the street to pick up iced coffees and custard tarts at Kentucky Fried Chicken for people.  The KFCs have far fuller menus than the ones back in the States.  You have rice bowls, bentos boxes, milk tea, and even iced lattes that some with soft serve ice cream, not whipped cream.  Everyone was elated to have some food that wasn’t exactly the same as the day before.  Banquets seem luxurious for the first few meals, but after a while, you want something different, yet simple.

Vegetarians are few and far between in China.  All of the banquet meals we have been extremely heavy on meat and seafood with no rice and few purely vegetable-based dishes.  I already had a preconception that vegetarians would find it extremely hard to stay properly nourished in the Mainland, and each banquet has proven the case to be true just a little bit more.  Perhaps there are actually more choices than meets the eye, but since we don’t get to wander on our own with the packed schedule of appearances most days, I will have to stick to my preconception until proven otherwise.  Vegetarianism is far more prevalent in Taiwan because freedom of religion is allowed, and Buddhism mixed with Taoism and Confucianism is the most popular religion deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture.  Many Buddhists practice vegetarianism based on the principle of not harming other living creatures and less so for the health benefits; though, in recent years, there has been a rise of vegetarianism based on its health benefits.  It has become so popular that New York’s Chinatown sports an all Taiwanese vegetarian market at Hester and Centre called May Hwa.  You can check out my interview with one of the managers in Spring/Summer 2011 edition of Asian Fusion Magazine.

As we board the plane to Guanzhou, there are free newspapers at the cabin door, but I don’t really pay attention to them.  As I am ambling towards my seat, one of the staffers is holding up one of the covers of the periodicals featuring Angela Gao (Contestant #8).  There isn’t an article in between the covers, but it’s still really great to see.  Another cover that William Yip is holding up features the whole group with a little paragraph, but again, nothing between the pages resembling an article.  The final article I see is a full one-page spread with Jasmine Hayter’s (#14) full length photo and a headshot of Angela’s (#8).  The other passengers start piecing the puzzle together and start trying to match the girls to their photos in the periodicals.  This is just the beginning of their flirtation at being celebrities.

The bus ride from the Guanzhou airport is about an hour and a half.  The thunderstorms in the area that had delayed our flight cooled the temps to 79ºF, but the evaporation has contributed greatly to the humidity.  Zhongshan, renamed in honor of the father of modern republican China Sun Yat Sen (hanyu pinyin: Sun Zhong Shan), is in the southeastern part of China in the Guangdong province where Cantonese is the prevalent dialect aside – more so than Mandarin.  We are getting that much closer to Macau and Hong Kong!  As we roll into town, the city is lit up like a Christmas tree. 

One of the girls mentioned that Zhongshan is known for its LED (light emitting diode) industry, and as we pull into town, she was completely right.  The Zhongshan International Hotel was built in 1988 – as I found out from the commemorative sculpture fountain in the lobby, so some of the “amenities” are outdated, but the internet seems well faster than any of the other hotels we’ve been staying in so far.  Oh, and there is a 7Eleven just across the street.  We’re actually in a city center!  Tomorrow, corporate appearances and a fancy welcome dinner!

Wipeout!

Friday, July 8, 2011

First thing this morning, I had to find out about how the two game shows went yesterday.  Exciting news, the girls dominate both shows.  You know what that means – Mr. Yip is matching the winnings yuan for yuan.  The promise has been extended to anymore winnings they may receive as a result of any other game shows on the trip.  In addition to doubling their earnings, Mr. Yip has requested that a fabulous room at the best KTV (karaoke) in Macau be reserved for the girls after their packed schedule.  You can tell that the board members sincerely care about the girls, and it’s not just all for show.

The morning has a delayed start of 10AM, which was a nice change of pace.  The reason for the delay wasn’t as nice.  Several of the girls’ have fallen ill, and the delayed start was due to trips to see doctors and hospitals.  The rest of us climb aboard the bus on our way to the first stop of the day which is Hefei’s version of “It’s a Small World”.  Each building houses a multitude of information about different East Asian nations with scaled down replicas of historical landmarks.  There are also interesting sculptures peppered throughout the park.  The crew from the television station is there to capture every second of the girls walking through the park.  Once they get to the amphitheater for the water show, the girls are split up to do different little ads for the station and probably the park.

We file back on the bus, and it’s time for lunch already.  After lunch, we head to the water park next to the Hefei Aquarium.  Five of the girls have volunteered to compete on “Boys vs. Girls”, an obstacle course game much like “Wipeout” in the States which we got from Japan, if I’m not mistaken.  Two groups of youth martials arts groups perform for the intro.  The first group is mostly older elementary school kids with nunchuks.  The second group are little kindergarteners showing off their kick and punches.  Too cute . . . and deadly!  Yi Yao (Contestant #1), Isabella Chan (Contestant #11), and Danni Wang (Contestant #7) all get a chance to perform before the competition begins.  Yi sings a classic Mandarin song.  Isabella raps which throws the hosts of the program completely for a loop.  Danni performs a sultry dance involving a chair, a hat, and some hip shakes in a bright red, fringe-filled outfit.  The five volunteers, however, are not the performers, but the brave Ivy Hu (#4), Yufei Liu (#5), Miriam Lau (#6), Allison Ye (#10), and Mei Shao (#11).  With all of the obstacles moving and sprayed with water, it’s not an easy course to navigate.  Unlike a typical ropes course, there isn’t hardly anything to grab a hold of when your foot gives way, so the girls have to get creative.  The hosts give the team members a lot of pointers like the faster you can make it through each obstacle, the safer you will be, and the longer you take the more fear will build up.

Allison volunteers herself to go first.  She makes it to the spinning bit before she hits the water which is about 1/3 of the way through the course.  The makeup was most definitely waterproof because she still looked great being hoisted out of the water.  Yufei is 100% sure that she will make it through the entire course when the hosts interview her.  She gets to the top of the moving staircase before she’s thrown into the water which is about ½ through the course and the farthest any of the five girls get.  When the hosts ask for the next volunteer, the three girls point to Pan Pan, who stands in for Contestant #8.  He tries his best, but the fourth “toadstool” gives him trouble. Miriam is next, and she takes the hosts advice about going through the obstacles at quickly as possible . . . perhaps a little too quickly because she overshoots the trampoline and takes a header into the water getting passed just the first obstacle.  Ivy is our last hope, but the fourth “toadstool” also proves to be her foe.  The game ends pretty early, so Pan Pan gives it another go and wrestles again with the final “toadstool”.  Though the game was short, I am thankful to get out of the sun and heat and head back to the hotel.  

A quick shower and costume change, and the whole gang is back in the lobby.  I am greeted with a big hug by Miriam, the W&M alumna, and then, we’re on the bus for our farewell dinner.  We pull up to this secluded spot in the hills.  The parking lot is packed, and people crowd the entire area.  The  entrance is like entering a grand Chinese home with a large door where you must take a big step to cross over the threshold.  You pass through a hallway where there are sample dishes on display as well as aquariums holding future meals.  Once you get passed the line of woks and cooks, the space opens into a great hall decked out much like the inns you see in Chinese period movies with a lofted second floor where you can see those down below.  The woodwork is intricate and reminiscent of times gone by, as if you were gazing into the inner chambers of a wealthy family.

Little did we know what we were in for, but all of a sudden a disembodied, male voice in the operatic style starts speak-singing to the customers.  The lights on stage are lit, and an actor in operatic costumer walks out and begins to sing followed by an actress also in period costume.  I wasn’t expecting dinner AND a show.  A few more actors come out and sing very classical songs; then, it’s time to dig in.  One of the most well-known, well-attended establishments in Hefei, dish after dish of local eats come out from the kitchen.  The waitresses end up stacking dishes on the lazy susan because of the large amounts of food going uneaten.  For this foodie, I was not impressed with the amount of oil and salt in the food, but thus is the style here in Hefei, Anhui.  The typical cuisine is also heavy on root vegetables and legumes like sweet potatoes, purple yams, peanuts, soy beans, and taro.

Tomorrow we leave for Zhongshan, Guangzhou.  I will need to brush up on my Cantonese if were going to be in the province where the language started.

Thank You, Mr. Yip, for the Day Off!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

These last few days have been non-stop. The four hours or less a night of sleep, the heat and humidity, and the hurried pace have been catching up to me lately on this trip. Thanks to Mr. Yip who ordered all of the photographers and reporters to take a day off, I am catching up on my articles and getting to enjoy my lux hotel room. I had breakfast with a few of the contestants this morning and asked them to tell me whether they win the two tapings from today. Otherwise, I have hardly left my room, catching up on some world news and enjoying music videos. Yes! Music video channels such as Channel [V] in Asia still show music videos.

The day off is welcome and necessary to recharge my reserves for the hectic shooting and appearance schedule for the next few days. Hanging out in my pajamas, I enjoy the view overlooking the lake as I work on picking and editing photos and catching up on a couple of entries. An afternoon nap seems good about now, and later, I think I might enjoy a little room service for dinner which is reasonably priced, surprisingly.

Miss NY Chinese vs. the Anhui Belles

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

What a luxurious morning!  We don’t have to meet until 9AM in the lobby, so I slowly enjoy my breakfast.  Today, the only thing on the agenda today is taping a couple of episodes of a game show against the local beauty contestants.  Back on the bus and on our way to the current site of the TV studio.    As you enter the building, it is dark and rundown.  The lobby and hallways wreak of cigarettes.  The   girls are led into their dressing room, and the contestants who aren’t getting styled practice their walking, stop, turn, walk entrance.  The Anhui Belles arrive quite a bit later and with food, soda, and cigarettes.  By the way, there are no smoking signs plastered all over the dressing room.  Can you imagine the fireball that would be produced should an open flame meet the amount of hairspray used in that dressing room?  If not, let’s just say it would be very large.

It’s lunchtime by the time rehearsals are over.  We eat at the cafeteria, but we have to circumnavigate the entire campus in order to get to lunch.  It seems like there should be a shorter route to lunch, but we haven’t time to find a shortcut.  A quick lunch brings us back to the studio in time for the girls to change and get backstage.  First up to compete are Isabella Chen (Contestant #9), Angela Gao (Contestant #8), and Mei Shao (Contestant #11).  Isabella raps for the talent portion of the competition.  There are three more parts to the show, making a sentence from a random name, verb, and adjective, then there is a game of telephone charades where you pass along a question through only acting out the motions, and finally a swimsuit competition.  Three judges make the decision to give the teams points based on their thoughts and feelings, purely subjectively.  Even though I think we had a stronger team and far more intelligent contestants, the Anhui Belles won this first round.

I observed that a lot of the Anhui belles probably had work done, and later, it was confirmed by the belles themselves that they had breast augmentation and other work done.  It seems a common practice for Chinese pageant contestants to have work done, so naturally, the Chinese beauty contestants would be spokespeople for the Hefei Gorgeous Reshaping Cosmetology Hospital whereas American beauty contestants  would catch a lot of flack.  Hopefully, the last few appearances won’t reflect poorly on the girls when they get back to the States because even though none of them have had any work done, just being photographed walking in or out of those hospitals can be taken completely out of context by the media.

Dinner was barely an instant before the next set of girls were up.  This time, we have Ivy Hu (Contestant #4), Yufei Liu (Contestant #5), Jike Sun (Contestant #13), and Jasmine Hayter (Contestant #14).  The talent portion was a stylized cha-cha for one by Jasmine who has been studying dance since the age of five.  She was a crowd favorite.  The Miss NY Chinese owned the second round against the Anhui Belles.  It was such a great relief to know that the judges were finally realizing that the NYC gals weren’t just pretty faces.  On the bus back to the hotel, Mr. Yip challenged the girls.  Should the girls win again, he would match the prize money one for one.

I am looking forward to spending my day off in my room editing and posting.  The other staffers are off to Jiu Hua Mountain for a hike and a little sightseeing.  Let’s hope the ladies win both of tomorrow’s tapings!

Bring It On, Hefei!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

The stylist for the girls are ready well before everyone else is.  The girls act like sisters, asking the stylists to paint mustaches on their respective roommates.  I am glad for the camaraderie since the media normally depicts beauty pageant contestants as cut throat women who will do anything to win the title.

The heat and humidity in Hefei pulls a misty veil over the morning as head out of the hotel to our first shooting location.  Breakfast is hurried, and we all gather in the lobby.  First stop of the morning is Swan Lake.  It’s not terribly far from the hotel, and I notice it is in front of the Anhui Radio and Television Commission, one of the later stops today.  At the lake, there is a patch of sand and plenty of people looking for a way to cool off in this heat and humidity.  We shoot for what seems like hours upon hours at the lake.  We start out with t he group shots on the patio overlooking the lake, and we move onto half of the girls with their shoes off in the sand and the rest with shoes on.  It’s a mix of photo and video shooting for the ads for the television shows that will be taped over the next few days while we’re in Hefei.  Every able bodied person with a fanning instrument of some sort end up trying to help keep the girls cool between shots.

We finally get to leave the lake.  As the bus slowly lurches along in the morning rush hour traffic, I notice that most of the city is still under construction.  Cranes and scaffolding form the skyline of Hefei.  Barely 10% of the city looks finished at all.  If you pay close enough attention, you can spot the patches of one room mud and brick homes wedged between the high rise apartments and multi-level malls.  You get the feeling like you’re on a half-built movie set where the fake buildings are being constructed on top of the old buildings in an effort to hide the old set.

We arrive at the 1958 International Museum of Art, a old bus station type of space converted into a art loft.  There is a bar/cafe where the rest of us sit and rest while the contestants are split up for photos.  Some girls are scattered on staircases, and others have to brave the heat and humidity once again.  We are all served hot tea, and I wander around the space.  There are photos on display that grab your attention because of the bold colors.  There are badminton courts and an empty pool on the grounds.  It’s a pretty expansive space for an urban museum.

Once the shoot is over, lunchtime has rolled around, and we make our way to the restaurant.  There is an Apple convenience store on the corner next to the restaurant, so Stacy and I pop in to get supplies.  Lunch is good but fast because the staffers want to go to the convenience store, too.  The shop owner must have been over the moon because the girls all pop into the store, too, to stock up.  Beautiful girls spending money are always a good advertisement for an establishment.

The afternoon brings us by the Anhui Cosmetology Hospital, to which I do not look forward, and to the Anhui Radio and Television Commission’s new studios still under construction locate just across the intersection from Swan Lake.  The land was once farmland, and now, it seems that the station is employing those who lost their land to the new construction as gardeners to manicure the lawns by hand, at least that’s the impression I get.  The air conditioning hasn’t been turned on in the space as construction has not been completed on the studios.  The 3,600 square meters of space is covered in sawdust and silence.  The girls pose for the obligatory photos and are guided through one of the new sound stages still under construction.  Circular saws and hammers are going full force, so it’s really dangerous.  While the workers are wearing hard hats, we aren’t given any protection.  The waste products from the construction as well as the heat and humidity make the air quality so poor that a few of the girls have to be escorted back to the bus.  Again, anyone with a fan-like object tried to keep the air circulating around the girls as much as possible.

After the guided tour, we have an early dinner on the grand scale in the most lux restaurant in all of the city and maybe even the province.  Dish after dish come out that represent exclusively Anhui regional cuisine.  One dish I particularly liked was the stinky fish, much like stinky tofu, where the fish is left to go bad, but then, after smoking it, the fish is simmered in a sweet and salty sauce.  After dinner, everyone is exhausted and fall asleep on the bus on the way back to the hotel.  It truly was a mentally and physically exhausting day.

To Hefei from Nanjing, Thanks for Everything! Love, Miss NY Chinese XOXO

Monday, July 4, 2011

Waking up at 7AM this morning was such a luxury.  The girls had a few appearances to make around Nanjing before we headed the three hours to Hefei.  After breakfast at the hotel, we made our way to Softech, one of the pageant’s major supporters.  We took a few quick pictures and were then treated to an elaborate breakfast on the 47^th floor of the Intercontinental Hotel.  I overheard the chefs chatting while I was in line for breakfast.  One chef commented that the girls ate so little.  His colleague pointed out that they were in a beauty pageant which is akin to being a model and asked him if he had heard of any models who ate large amounts of food.  The light bulb went off in the chef’s head.  Little did he know is that most of the girls had actually just had breakfast at the hotel.  The food was amazing . . . a lot of dim sum inspired breakfast items.  I also learned in line that all of the chefs were from Guangzhou and Hong Kong, so dim sum seems to be a natural product of their backgrounds. Speeches of gratitude and the presentation of gifts representative of Nanjing and New York are exchanged.  Everywhere along the way, the red and gold banners welcoming the pageant contestants had been well-organized and hung before our arrival, so we always had a prepared photo opportunity no matter where we popped into along the road.

Next stop was the Nanjing Hospital where television crews were at the ready for this affair.  It was graduation day for a lot of the interns, which meant we had just that many more onlookers.  The flurry of media caught me by surprise because it had just been the four of us on the trip and maybe one or two additional reporters or cameramen.   The banner advertisement welcoming them was signed by each of the girls. Some of the questions the Chinese media asked were expected such as “do you like China” or “what do you think you will take away from this experience”.  Other questions were quite a bit more intrusive, but the girls bared the burden of these questions like true women.  The  mistress of ceremonies from the hospital did make a good point that being a beautiful woman and being intelligent in China is an extremely hard combination to maintain, so the school is proud of its female students and the contestants for staying true to developing both mind and body.  For all of the questions the contestants answered for the media, one theme was apparent, natural beauty comes from intelligence and those are the most important things in life.  A gift is presented to New York contingent, and we head off in the direction of Hefei.

We stop at a rest area and hurry as quickly as possible.  The expectation of the quality and state of a government maintained rest area differs greatly between the US and China.  In the States, we expect toilets that are maintained on an hourly basis with toilet paper, sometimes toilet seat covers, hand soap, sinks with working faucets, and some way to dry our clean hands, or perhaps a combination thereof.  In China, the most anyone expects is a door on your stall and a trashcan for the toilet paper that you can’t flush.  Today, that was all we got more or less.  We did get a side of flies with the facilities.  So, remember, when you travel outside of the US, keep a pack of tissues and some paper or liquid hand soap on you for those long roadtrips.

We checked into the hotel with a grand reception banner and lantern style balloons.  The hotel is called the Lakeside Hotel Hefei,  and its claim to fame is that Chinese President Hu Jintao stays at this very building in the hotel whenever he is in the Anhui Province.  We all got ready for the big reception dinner thrown by the Anhui Radio and Television studio in the main building of this expansive complex.  The welcome was more than I was expecting.  It was fully outfitted with mixed media elements on a very large LED screen.  Dish after dish came out in quick succession and were whisked away just as quickly.  Every few moments, there was a photo opportunity, but eventually, this writer gave up trying to capture all of the great moments on “film”.  There was just such a crush of people at any given time around the contestants that the large amounts of flash affected my shots, so I decided to just continue capturing the moments with the written word.

Our MCs for the evening were Pan Pan and our very own Stacy Wang, 2007 winner of the Miss NY Chinese title.  Each of the contestants introduced themselves and spoke a little about their interests and what this trip to China has meant to them.  Some of the contestants speak Cantonese, so Stacy did a wonderful job of interpreting for our only Mandarin speaking guests.  This is the first ever trip to China that the Miss NY Chinese Pageant has taken, and all of the guests were excited to have China’s prodigal daughters returned.  There are VIPs from Anhui Radio and Television, the Anhui Plastic Surgery Hospital, and even a government official or two at the head table with the co-founders of the pageant, William Yip and Eric Yuen.  The dinner follows tradition with the VIPs toasting with every table to welcome us to Hefei, and the banquet ends with announcements and the schedule for the next day.

Tomorrow, we have a tour and press event at the plastic surgery hospital as well as a visit to the TV studio where the girls will be every afternoon while we are in Hefei.  I have to say, it’s really nice to be able to stay in one place for a few days.