01.26 | being a good tourist
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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