Chapter 614: Cultural Export

The tasting event for the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall had concluded, but the legends surrounding it were only just beginning.

From the photos sent back by reporters on the scene, one could clearly see that everyone who had tasted the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall displayed expressions of either astonishment or intoxication.

And that wasn't even the main point; the appearance of the men in black later on only added to the legendary aura of this dish.

No one knew the identities of these aggressive, swift-acting tough guys, but the moment they appeared on camera, they made people feel a sense of pressure.

And the reason this group appeared on camera—merely for a single dish—made people feel it was truly miraculous.

Moreover, people dressed similarly appeared a total of five times, meaning five different factions had simultaneously shown interest in this Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, each using such a grand manner to bring a portion back for their respective bosses.

Although these people didn't say a word from start to finish, it was impossible to tell who they were backed by.

However, among the netizens, there were those who were well-informed, and they managed to spot some clues from the vehicles of one of the groups.

This was a very plain-looking black Cadillac sedan, a model not rare in the American luxury car market.

However, based on the deformation of the tires, this netizen analyzed that this sedan was a monster weighing at least 6.5 tons!

What kind of concept is that? Even a two-meter-two Hummer off-road vehicle weighs less than three tons; this Cadillac was more than twice that of the former.

This indicated that the vehicle had undergone considerable internal modifications and used extraordinary materials, worthy of being called a tank among cars.

And such a vehicle could only be owned by one person in the United States: the President.

Of course, the President himself certainly wasn't in the car, but the fact that he sent so many people and his own vehicle to pick up a dish—this display was truly quite grand.

However, if one carefully scrolled through his Twitter, it wasn't hard to understand; after all, since returning from China last time, he had praised this dish highly and even said that whenever he had the chance, he must taste it again.

Very fortunately, the person who made the dish had come directly to his turf.

But this time, it wasn't made specifically for him, so it was only a portion in an insulated lunch box, which wasn't nearly enough to eat.

As for which factions the other four groups of men in black belonged to, that remained unknown; it was impossible to analyze.

However, these high-end worlds were inaccessible to ordinary people, so after seeing them, they might feel it was very impressive at first, but they would soon cast it to the back of their minds.

What truly left a deep impression on netizens were the videos and photos uploaded by reporters at the end of the tasting event.

By this time, the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall in the jar was nearly bottoming out.

And the last ones to taste it were the homeless people from the next street over; they received the largest portions of anyone.

Everyone was in tears after eating, claiming this was the most delicious dish they had ever eaten in their lives; their lives, which had already become dim, had regained a glimmer of light for a moment just now.

One of the photos showed a homeless man making the sign of the cross in prayer on his chest.

That saint-like, pious expression gave all netizens a tremendous sense of impact.

If this could be painted as an oil painting, it would absolutely be a masterpiece for the ages.

One dish, zero negative reviews.

This was simply unimaginable in the culinary world.

Judging from the expressions of all the diners who had tasted this dish, one could already see its extraordinary nature.

Soon, many netizens began to regret—regret not going to the scene to eat such a bowl.

Some lived right in New York, but because the weather was cold, they didn't come; now, seeing the online public opinion, they were regretting it so much their guts were turning green.

Soon, people online began asking when Miss Luo Quan would cook another jar of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall; five million USD per time wasn't particularly expensive, and if everyone crowdfunded, they could still scrape it together.

However, this time, crowdfunding was no longer effective.

Miss Luo Quan clearly stated that this wasn't a matter of money.

To cook the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, she had been exhausted for three full days plus a morning; even if you gave her ten million, she wouldn't dare.

Of course, there was certainly a price that could move her, but no one could likely afford that price.

Therefore, everyone should just consider her Buddha Jumps Over the Wall as lost; list it in the "once in a lifetime" series, and don't expect too much.

Besides, she had already published the recipe for this dish; she believed it wouldn't be long before imitations appeared in major restaurants. Even if the taste couldn't compare to hers, it was better than nothing, and satisfying the palates of ordinary people wouldn't be a big problem.

But as for wanting to eat what she made with her own hands, just keep dreaming.

Of course, it wasn't entirely without a way.

Some diners with better business sense had also used insulated boxes when serving the soup in the morning, resisting their appetite and not tasting it, directly taking it home to seal and refrigerate.

Cooked food certainly couldn't be kept for too long, and the taste after thawing and reheating would be much worse than when it was fresh out of the pot.

However, at least it was made by Miss Luo Quan's own hands; no matter how bad it got, it wouldn't be that bad.

For a short time, the price of this box of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall would still be quite high.

Now, the price on second-hand websites had already been hyped up to over ten thousand USD, yet it was still in short supply.

Regarding this, Miss Luo Quan could only pray that these people wouldn't get a stomachache when they ate it later.

The next day, Netflix announced that the new variety show "A Bite of Chinese Cuisine" was about to be released, totaling three episodes, with international superstar Miss Luo Quan telling the story of China—this ancient and mysterious country—starting from its diet.

Generally speaking, this type of variety show wasn't considered a hot topic.

But as long as it was associated with the two characters "Miss Luo Quan," even if it were ice cream, it would be hard to keep it cool.

Not to mention that the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall had been very hot these past few days, and foreign netizens were quite interested in this famous Chinese dish. Under the double effect of "love me, love my dog," naturally, everyone was full of anticipation for this variety show.

Because it was mainly aimed at foreign audiences, most of the audio was in English. Additionally, Netflix didn't do business in the mainland, so there were no Chinese subtitles; people in the country would have to wait for the subtitle groups to translate it first.

Soon, the first episode of the variety show arrived as promised, covering Wensi Tofu and the True Sea Bream Jiangshan Painting.

At the beginning of the variety show, it first showed the busy and lively scene of waiters moving back and forth in the restaurant, reflecting the restaurant's booming business.

Subsequently, the camera moved to the back kitchen; in such a noisy environment, Miss Luo Quan was calmly cutting tofu on the chopping board.

Americans familiar with Japanese cuisine and American-style Chinese fast food were no strangers to this food; it was a soft, fragmented soy product with an extremely smooth texture.

Saying it melts in the mouth might be a bit of an exaggeration, but with a push of the tongue, it could easily be mashed in the mouth.

And yet, such a fragile ingredient remained intact under Miss Luo Quan's knife skills.

One could see her cutting it slice by slice, the interval of the knife being extremely fine, as if she were cutting in the same spot the whole time.

But when Miss Luo Quan put it into the water and stirred it gently with chopsticks, the tofu threads, each about the thickness of a hair, immediately spread out, dyeing the basin of clear water white.

At this moment, the camera gave a close-up of the tofu threads; the shape of each one was very complete, without the slightest appearance of being broken.

But this was tofu; to cut it like this without it breaking at all—what kind of terrifying knife skill was this?

At this time, Miss Luo Quan's voice sounded:

"As the pinnacle of Huaiyang cuisine, Wensi Tofu must be cut to this thickness to be considered authentic."

"And the concept of meticulousness can actually be reflected in many places in Chinese culture, such as the slicing of traditional Chinese medicine, wood micro-carving, and scroll paintings."

"Our craftsmen treat every part of their work with a fault-finding attitude to make it perfect, seeing the big from the small, and in the end, they can often display an amazing masterpiece."

"Wensi Tofu is like this, the hollow ivory ball is like this, and the Along the River During the Qingming Festival is even more so."

As she spoke, BGM with a distinct Chinese landscape atmosphere played, and the treasures displayed in the Chinese Museum were presented on the screen one by one.

This was just a very, very small part of the crystallization of the wisdom of the Chinese people over thousands of years.

But just as Miss Luo Quan said, seeing the big from the small.

Chinese people achieved the best they could in every detail, and after thousands of years of accumulation, it finally formed such a brilliant and beautiful civilization today.

As an introduction, a dish of Wensi Tofu successfully stirred up the interest of foreign audiences in this country.

In their previous cognition, it was hard to distinguish between China and Japan, and coupled with the deliberate propaganda of the media, it gave people a feeling that Japan was the center of Asian culture.

But now the truth was before their eyes; China had always been the ancestor of the East Asian cultural circle, all surrounding countries were subjects, and back then, they were just one of the members among the ten thousand nations coming to pay tribute.

No matter how the media smeared it, the historical foundation of a country and the cultural self-confidence of a nation could absolutely not be covered up.

And the subsequent True Sea Bream Jiangshan Painting generally popularized the four major Chinese cuisines of the southeast, northwest, and center for foreign audiences.

It wasn't particularly detailed, but it allowed everyone to get a glimpse of the whole leopard.

And through this dish, Miss Luo Quan also extended the topic to the Chinese people's concept of territory.

Differences in culture created different taboos for their respective peoples.

Westerners couldn't understand why Chinese people valued land so much, just as Chinese people couldn't understand why Westerners valued freedom so much.

Westerners regarded freedom as the meaning of life; losing freedom meant losing everything.

And land was the lifeblood of the Chinese people.

It was the territory set by the First Emperor of Qin sweeping across the six states, and the territory opened up by Emperor Wu of Han sealing the wolf and living in the north.

It was even more proof of witnessing the two great prosperous ages of the Tang Dynasty, Zhenguan and Kaiyuan.

To put it in simple terms, the land of China was fought for by ancestors with their lives, and future generations must never lose an inch.

Otherwise, they would be sorry to their ancestors above and sorry to the common people below, and they would be nailed to the pillar of shame forever.

This was where the Chinese people's obsession with territory lay.

After this episode of the variety show was broadcast, foreign audiences were somewhat shocked.

Originally, everyone just came to watch Miss Luo Quan cook, but they didn't expect to be given a foreign history lesson.

However, this history lesson was even more blood-boiling than many of the cool dramas on Netflix.

Although they didn't know why the history of another country could make them feel so excited.

Cultural export was actually like this: it had to be spread in a way that foreigners liked and could accept.

If you directly took things like Along the River During the Qingming Festival or High Mountains and Flowing Water for others to watch and listen to.

Out of politeness, others might praise it a couple of times, but the probability of truly meeting a soulmate would be too small.

But if you said that Along the River During the Qingming Festival was a painting treasure of China's "Renaissance" period, with a status comparable to Michelangelo's immortal masterpiece "The Last Judgment."

Then the status would immediately go up.

Whether it was the Renaissance or Michelangelo, both were extremely important symbols in Western culture.

With a comparison, foreigners could preemptively know how amazing this painting was.

After actively appreciating it in depth, they would also nod: "Hmm, it's indeed very amazing."

Cultural exchange was originally like this, unable to escape the commercial mutual blowing of "you praise me, I praise you."

China still couldn't treat the West like it treated Japan; Western culture was no less brilliant than China's, and the latter was completely a father-son relationship; the two were essentially different.

Therefore, when Miss Luo Quan narrated, she didn't use the so-called tone of a "Heavenly Dynasty."

If she played that "Great Qing" set—"Our dynasty has vast land and abundant resources, possessing everything; how can you small barbarian states with only a thousand years of culture compare with us?"

If it were like that, then there would be no point in exporting anything.

So Miss Luo Quan kept her tone as flat as possible, using a narrative tone, while also praising these foreign masterpieces and celebrities, making everyone think the two were on the same level, which could also strengthen the memory points and cognition of foreign audiences.

In this subtle way, the goal of cultural export was achieved.

On this point, Wang Xiaojiu's approach actually didn't have much difference.

As the hottest Chinese creator on YouTube, her fans were even more numerous than Miss Luo Quan's.

All along, she had also been the most important symbol of Chinese cultural export, not even needing to add "one of."

She had also never told Chinese history and specialties to foreign fans like preaching big truths.

It was just simply planting vegetables, cooking, making handicrafts, and so on.

And then, in this leisurely and relaxed atmosphere, she would mention some of the Chinese people's cognition and achievements regarding farming, cooking, and art.

This was also the most effective way at present.

But unfortunately, Wang Xiaojiu hadn't updated her videos for a long time.

It was said that there was a dispute with the domestic agency, and there was a conflict in the distribution of benefits.

Simply put, she was cheated by capital, and the brand "Wang Xiaojiu" temporarily didn't belong to Wang Xiaojiu herself.

It sounded absurd, but capital was like this; for the sake of profit, they could do anything outrageous.

Although Wang Xiaojiu would solve the name problem sooner or later, it was estimated that she wouldn't be able to post videos in the short term.

Miss Luo Quan just happened to fill this gap; of course, compared to Wang Xiaojiu's lifestyle videos, she focused more on history and culture.

It was hard to say which was higher or lower in terms of pattern, but the effect was definitely very good.

After "A Bite of Chinese Cuisine" was broadcast, the number of clicks exceeded two hundred million in a short time.

The entry "Ancient Civilized Country China" hit the Twitter hot search.

The reason was that Miss Luo Quan mentioned it when cooking, saying that now only China remained among the four ancient civilizations.

This statement aroused the dissatisfaction and questioning of citizens of many countries who prided themselves on being ancient civilizations.

Among them, the most indignant was the neighbor, A-San. ===== CHAPTER 615 =====