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The Girl Who Ate China | Clarissa Wei | TEDxTempleCityHS


hopefully you’re not sure I’ve ever made

college I laid there on my bed moves up

in the ceiling I kind of had a lot of

the windows do he’s yet for the last

five years writing about Chinese food

Phyllis

I’ve done a very poor of intial

administrative units college irina 20 of

those are represented in restaurants in

Los Angeles I didn’t see just to NASA

taking General Mills on food to our has

been on television and building I lost

everything

then in there I decided I was going to

eat China because I wanted to do

something epic with my life and I got a

backpack and I ended up going to 12

provinces and less than a year by myself

I forage for wild hurts in the mountains

of China I and multi-beam noodle soup

spoils in the same day I got kicked out

of Tibet and what I found out is that

reality in front of rosy it seems you

see I wanted to go to transistors of

regionalism what is regionalism mean

here in Los Angeles we think native food

is in and out and the French Dip hello

venerable in China for a lot more

connected to our land whereas zero

nation of immigrants

kind of longer than two units of

libations and so I went there and found

out that China’s lakes are largely

polluted Taiwan another fish what

started out as a culinary journey ended

up being environmentally safe I started

off in Shanghai now I had wasted about

jangles the whole time

before it’s the land of dumpling so big

you have to use a strong effect the

super um they love crab so much they

have an entire festival dedicated to it

they love pravesh so much that their

entire streets that they get to it

fish is a continuous from Te Ching hai

I’m still I went down into the Queen hot

this was around the type of Chinese New

Year’s and I asked the teacher so you’re

gonna have fish this year right

because dream of Chinese New Year’s is

the same communion you which means every

year let’s have more fish but every year

there will be more prosperity and she

will have some use let’s pitch this year

dirty why would I eat the fish and I

thought something we kind of beard but I

just kind of brushed it off then I

decided to go out to suits all 45

minutes been shanghaied on that bullet

train go steadily located in the

jumpsuit Papa’s in China there’s no

that’s the land of fishing rights I had

written about it at the land efficient

pace when they got their offices that

way got in and tax because and I asked

the guy so civil datatype suitable

driver what are the specialty features

of this region and he just he dishes

thrills on development and just

prosperity must’ve wiped them all away

course I ignore him and the next day I

went to Kaliningrad I’m going to Lake

tied tied up now they tie a third like

this freshwater body in all of China

it’s responsible for some of the

greatest culinary delicacies in the

entire country for example in three

whites you go to the doubles and pockets

with China here and the surrounding

areas around

and you will see them advertised for

those those are oriental whitebait and

I’ve been show up in a river fish and I

wanted to go to this lake by minutes

health and find Sherman have changed

these three delicacies the uber driver

insists there’s nothing there why do you

want to go our way I don’t want to go

and like I’m gonna pay you that money

take me to the lake he takes me there it

drops me off at a garden the only person

there the beautiful garden and souping

pagoda that there’s a appear that

stretches out to alone could go to the

end I block out the lake is silvery

still there’s not a sign of life there

after that it is that you go to a

restaurant and I ordered the three wigs

and of course the people will tell me

you where the fish comes from I go home

and I research they time was the victim

of a huge event it is the poster child a

chinese-american cholo my industrial

runoff from agriculture killed so much

fish left the water so polluted that

left 2 million people without drinking

water and then it was in the problem

that’s unique to Lake time according to

the 2014 report 28 percent Chinese

lanterns are so polluted not even

suitable for agricultural use actually

according to a survey 38 out of 71

burgers are so polluted funnyman

students with human touch

I was

water actually we all are what do you

think we get our fish from the United in

control of the most Ocean Territory on

any country in the entire world if 90%

of our fish is important a lot of that

comes from dirty aquaculture farms in

China Pokemon America a lot of our fish

is caught by a fisherman who have no

idea who are projected to new regulation

illegally cut now this is the thing that

repeated to the environment they tasked

me with writing a guidebook I was in

charge of eating at 300 restaurants in

less than three months I did it and I

found out that actually coffee is

greater than thi wand and that French

pastries are in both Korean barbecue

people on it there can when tightening

is actually more similar to the states

of the things of course Taiwan in the

seafood country the most expensive

restaurants sell seafood but it’s a

secret country while the seafood country

it is not an ocean country now what do I

need I was invited by the ocean trying

to I’m angel for their ocean God

ceremony now this only happens once a

year so we came in the morning and woke

up

we killed a pig cut off its head we ate

the body the liver and the kidneys and a

heart for the ocean the men went out and

they threw the kidney the liver and the

heart co-chair the idea that you give

the best ability

to the ocean the pink head was put in

the center of a powwow and the men dated

surrounded sacrifice rice wine we danced

in a multi-generational ring of people

the women chords receive me the three

different types and at the end though

organizing our came up to me and I was

doing a story on this for Vice I should

be sure that this is the part where the

mental boil up to do is attached pitch

and I’m like we why aren’t you guys

doing that now she looks happy chooses

don’t you know there’s no more fish

since the 1930s and one has been

virtually out that fish we’ve over

fished our fisheries completely this is

the problem that’s here in the United

States too so we have a lot of circle to

California for any lobster but Ernie

cares how to diagnose the Asia and they

found that was only the indigenous tribe

the people close the land that actually

know what’s going on that are actually

connected with the environment I have a

friend in Tibet was famous for true

he’s a Tibetan check tonight live their

entire life and when I mend them that is

building a couple of incinerators

because the trash problem there I’ve

gotten so bad that it needs to process

the traction tourists go there they just

litter because when to that

possibly facilities there’s no one to

pick up your trash the yaks are choking

on trash people depend on it – they’re

nomadic tribe the river is fair at the

glacier is considered the third pole of

the entire world yet we are polluting

the waters and so where is terrain I’m

gonna get the drinking water from they

continue to pollute it this lack of

awareness of course is not just limited

to China Los Angeles great city that we

are at now was built upon stolen water

that we stole from the horns Valley with

Native Americans I went there a lot of

there last year in November and to this

day they still be right there we doesn’t

need an amount of irrigation water to

water their fields and so how what is

the solution to all of this I’ve got a

solution of the most remote tribe to

Taiwan price help the making is located

forever a lot of the mounts of the

central mountains of Taiwan for hours

have when you wrote you wrote it is kind

of hard to get up there population of

178 people a little girl taught me how

to hack a lot bamboo with the machete to

eight years old the men work below and

chill while war for us my entire time in

China and it remain that way to remain

in Japan because the

businessmen wanting to purchase a piece

during your time here I at the most

remote village of an eyelid that my

country doesn’t recognize by the country

who say that climate change the huge

Paulo where’s the disconnect so I asked

them give me examples

he’s an active leader during the mall

when typhoon season before there used to

be a flower that bloomed like clockwork

and every time the flower blooming you

for thousands of years and he says

within the last 15 years that clockwork

has been completely off he says when I

was never able to work until the

building till 3 but now it’s so hot by

11:00 I can’t even do it anymore

and then I asked him so what do we do

what can we do feeling helpless and he

says prioritize the landing all else

prioritize bullion and all unless we

understand the land around us we’ll get

odds and everything else you know

there’s a Chinese proverb that I really

like and in English it’s that you know

so long as the mountains are green you

will have enough firewood but how do we

know that the mountains are green or

where the mountains are when we live in

concrete jungle like this start with

what’s in front of you to start with

your canoes understand what you’re

eating care about it and even since

always on knowing where your food comes from

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