01.26 | being a good tourist
Looking back over the shots I took of Shaxi, I was reminded of how beautiful that part of the country was, and also about how much we need to do to protect that beauty.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
– George Bernard Shaw
✉️ letter #25
Hello! As of this week, I'm officially in New York City. But as I'm still digesting the general vibe of this home-to-be, I'll save my thoughts about it for some other week. Instead, let's take a look back at some footage I filmed while still in China about a topic very dear to my heart: sustainable tourism.
I've been meaning to make this video for over six months now, and I'm glad that in my final weeks in Shanghai, I really combed through my footage of Yunnan, China to find the story I wanted to tell.
Looking back over the shots I took of Shaxi, I was reminded of how beautiful that part of the country was, and also about how much we need to do to protect that beauty. Anyway, I go into what "sustainable tourism" means, how China is thinking about it, and how the whole world needs to as well.
Also, as a bit of a companion piece, here's a short on Firewood Chicken, a popular Southwest China rural dish plus experience that was oodles of fun. This is my second Foodtok/reel/short and I'm glad people are enjoying them as much as I enjoy making them.
🌱 the ethical ideas newsreel
- On the list of greeneries that will absolutely be affected by climate change: coffee, cashews, avocados. Oh no, these are a few of my favorite things!
- You know who's got the climate justice movement on the brain? Queen Riri herself. Rihanna's Clara Lionel Foundation has pledged $15 million to 18 climate change organizations working in the Carribbean and the United States.
- Huffington Posts' Highline has a very excellent profile of José Andrés, the chef who started World Central Kitchen, a disaster relief organization "that has upended the way the global community thinks about emergency feeding" after stepping up during the pandemic.
- If anyone is in New York City this weekend, I'll be trying to make this rally for Asian-American justice on Sunday at Foley Square! It's been a full year since Thai grandpa Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked and killed in front of his own home.
🎵 song of my week
Did you know that Idris Elba had a DJ career?
Did you know that, in fact, that was his FIRST career? He even got a scholarship to go into a music conservatory. That's a random fact you can take with you into the rest of the week, alongside this banger of a track.
✨enjoying: one final piece of pop culture fun
This bilingual Beijinger-in-America girl's tiktoks have been giving me life. Gegethejing does Mandarin v English comedy skits and raps and is just generally hilarious and something you should watch right now.
I looked on Youtube to see if she was posting them there too (so that I could embed something here on this newsletter... and dang! She has an entire vlog channel! Being a GenZer, she's way more popular on TikTok (1.2 million fans), but well, me The Millennial is very happy I can now check out longer form content from her.
Anyway, I'll post one of the first toks I found of her that made me then go down a rabbit hole of videos from her. I wish I could rap Eminem... in English or Chinese.
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