Beijing Boyce

-

A year ago, we were counting down one month until the Beijing Olympics. A dire mood prevailed as people had trouble getting visas, the media pushed a “no-fun Games” theme, the Fuwa were caught in a sex-tape scandal, and questions lingered as to whether China could keep security, pollution, and logistics under control. Then The Games started and were, well, fun.

Over the next six weeks, I’ll post a half-dozen “Olympic flashbacks“. First up: My one and only media monitoring project, which focused on the predictable widespread coverage of Wangfujing snack street and especially that treat known as scorpions on a stick.

From the BBC to ESPN, from The LA Times to Forbes, from The Washington Post to The Age, reporters couldn’t resist “look at the weird food in Beijing” stories, though some realized that the customers tended to be tourists and journalists rather than this city’s citizens (see below for full list of stories). I gave Dave Barry of the Miami Herald the gold medal for best coverage:

The Chinese people I saw all seemed to be buying things like lamb kebabs and fruit. On the other hand, the people gathered around the centipedes and scorpions on a stick were, in almost every case, tourists or American TV reporters doing fun features on weird Chinese food. These people were basically lining up to eat scorpions. A reporter would hold up a skewer of scorpions, and the camera person would get a close-up shot. Then the reporter would scrunch up his or her face, take a bite of a scorpion, chew, swallow, and declare that it really wasn’t that bad. Then, depending on how in-depth the feature was, the reporter might take a bite of seahorse.

The silver went to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post (“Foreign media doing scorpions-on-sticks pieces is just about the lamest form of journalism imaginable…. So here’s my version”), while bronzes went to Iain Marlow of The Toronto Star and Chris O’Brien of Forbes.

The media monitoring project kicked off with this post and also covered scorpions in a bottle and scorpions on a cracker. Here is a full list of posts:

• Scorpions on a stick: The medalists
• Scorpions on a stick: This post rocks!
• Scorpions on a stick update: Washington Post, NBC, Miami Herald, and more
• Scorpions in a… bottle?
• Scorpions on a… cracker?
• Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more
• Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal
• Scorpions on a stick update: NBC
• On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

2 comments

Thousands of journalists are leaving Beijing and they have served the world well by informing it about that local delicacy known as scorpions on a stick. But one wonders who will tell the follow-up stories? About the impending unemployment among vendors when the reporters are gone. About rising housing prices due to so much lumber having been used for sticks. About the despondency of scorpions who no longer feel wanted.

In any case, it seems time for this media monitoring project to look back on all those scorpion stories and award a few medals to the best ones.

-

GOLD

Dave Barry, Miami Herald

Key performance:

The market was bustling with people. But here’s the thing. The Chinese people I saw all seemed to be buying things like lamb kebabs and fruit. On the other hand, the people gathered around the centipedes and scorpions on a stick were, in almost every case, tourists or American TV reporters doing fun features on weird Chinese food. These people were basically lining up to eat scorpions. A reporter would hold up a skewer of scorpions, and the camera person would get a close-up shot. Then the reporter would scrunch up his or her face, take a bite of a scorpion, chew, swallow, and declare that it really wasn’t that bad. Then, depending on how in-depth the feature was, the reporter might take a bite of seahorse.

I watched as this procedure was repeated with several different TV crews. Then the truth hit me: The Chinese don’t eat scorpions. They feed their scorpions to TV reporters. I would not be surprised to learn that the Chinese word for scorpion is “TV reporter food.”

Barry misses a perfect 10 because he limited his observations to TV reporters. Trust me, Dave, print media are just as fascinated by scorpions.

-

SILVER

Dan Steinberg, Washington Post

Key performance:

Foreign media doing scorpions-on-sticks pieces is just about the lamest form of journalism imaginable. It’s hackneyed, cliched, predictable and useless. It relies entirely on the gross-out factor, and is basically Fear Factor on location. It creates an image of life in Beijing that is demonstrably fake, no different than if every visiting journalist in the U.S. sent home pieces on American food, based entirely on FedEx Field concessions or the Texas State Fair. And, on top of all that, it’s just lazy.

So here’s my version.

Steinberg provided a “meta” view and even wrote a second article about the scorpions phenomenon.

-

BRONZE (Tie)

Iain Marlow, The Toronto Star

Chris O’Brien, Forbes

Both wrote good pieces – Marlow about street food , O’Brien on the broader scene – and put scorpions on a stick in its proper place as a fringe food.

-

Finally, no metal is precious enough to make a medal for this blog’s readers, who broke three huge stories, including The Scorpions on sticks, scorpions in a bottle, and scorpions on a cracker. Thanks to MH and m-dawg.

-

See also:

Scorpions on a stick: This post rocks!

Scorpions on a stick update: Washington Post, NBC, Miami Herald, and more

Scorpions in a… bottle?

Scorpions on a… cracker?

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

4 comments

With tens of thousands of foreign journalists in town to cover the scorpions on a stick story, and occasionally the Olympics, it is hard for the individual scribe to distinguish himself or herself. But, much like a gold medalist, Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post has found that slight edge to distinguish himself from his competitors – write TWO stories about scorpions on a stick (see his second offering here).

This might impress your average reporter, but not so the readers of this blog. MH, who broke the scorpions in a bottle story, tuned up her investigation skills, so to speak, and has broken the most rockin’ story of all – The Scorpions on a stick. I’m not sure what this venerable power band would taste like, but given the outfits, I imagine quite chewy with a hint of leather.

See also:

Scorpions on a stick update: Washington Post, NBC, Miami Herald, and more

Scorpions in a… bottle?

Scorpions on a… cracker?

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

4 comments

Foreign reporters informing readers about Chinese cuisine based on a short visit to a Beijing night market popular with tourists. Hmmm, sounds about par for the course. Here’s the latest on the scorpions-on-a-stick media monitoring project:

-

Category: Scorpions on a stick = crystal meth for journalists

Candidate: Dan Steinberg, Washington Post

Clip:

Foreign media doing scorpions-on-sticks pieces is just about the lamest form of journalism imaginable. It’s hackneyed, cliched, predictable and useless. It relies entirely on the gross-out factor, and is basically Fear Factor on location. It creates an image of life in Beijing that is demonstrably fake, no different than if every visiting journalist in the U.S. sent home pieces on American food, based entirely on FedEx Field concessions or the Texas State Fair. And, on top of all that, it’s just lazy.

So here’s my version.

[Kudos to Steinberg for putting the addiction in perspective and, in the rest of this story, taking us through the process. We hope rehab goes well for him.]

-

Category: America, your next Mark Twain (very poor man’s version)

Candidate: Dave Hyde, Florida Sun-Sentinel

I must confess: I ate a spot of Spot. And I feel awful about it. No, really. I physically feel awful, though the problem might not stem from that teensy-tiny bite. Nor was it probably from the stir-fry pig liver (tastes like chicken), roast young pigeon (tastes like chicken) or fried scorpion (tastes like scorpion). It’s because I accidentally swallowed the leash! Ha ha ha ha, sigh.

-

Category: Duh, we’re not in Kansas any more

Candidate: Jennifer Floyd Engel, Kansas City Star

Clip:

Or maybe a place [like Beijing] where donkey and fried scorpions are considered lunch actually is just that exotic.

[Read this one if you are a fan of reporters who sound like wide-eyed tourists that did zero research before coming to China.]

-

Category: Big Macs and Coke? That’s a crappy, rather than a picky, eater

Candidate: Alex Cabrero, NBC News

Clip:

Friends who know my taste in food (or lack of taste in food, depending on your point of view) started sending me e-mails of dog brain soup. Deep fried starfish. Snake. Crispy scorpions. Beetles on a stick. Every e-mail ended with Good Luck! I’m serious, every single one. I’m not just exaggerating about the emails like I am about the food in Beijing. OK, OK, I admit a few of them didn’t say “Good Luck”, they said “Good Riddance.” But only a few!

[The story title: "Picky eaters won't starve in Beijing - Forget the dog brain soup; I'm going to Mickey D's".]

-

Category: The Michael Phelps of scorpion references

Candidate: Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

Clip:

[1] Laid out in trays and boiling in cauldrons are everything from goat lungs with red peppers to scorpion brochettes, seahorses on skewers, iguana tails, dung beetles and silk worms on a stick, by way of fried sparrows, grilled snake and turkey vulture schnitzels.

[2] One U.S. visitor, Jackie Siegel, could not resist starfish fried in shark oil, though the centipedes, worms and scorpions on offer ‘kind of bothered me a little’.

[3] So the visitor must put their ideas of good taste on hold for the duration of their visit and try a freshly fried and seasoned skewer of farmed scorpions, one of the most famous of the delicacies on offer, which costs about 50 yuan (£3.70).

[4] Scorpions are said to make your blood hotter in cold weather and to cure ‘certain conditions’, although no one seems sure what grasshoppers on a stick are a remedy for, or mixed cow and horse soup, come to that.

[5] While living in China, Dunlop ate rabbit heads, pig brains, scorpion and preserved duck eggs – known as 1,000-year- old eggs – whose oozy black yolks and ‘noxious aroma’ caused her flesh to crawl, made her feel sick and left a toxic black slime on her chopsticks.

-

Category: The Michael Phelps of scorpion references II, but with a point

Candidate: Dave Barry, Miami Herald

The market was bustling with people. But here’s the thing. The Chinese people I saw all seemed to be buying things like lamb kebabs and fruit. On the other hand, the people gathered around the centipedes and scorpions on a stick were, in almost every case, tourists or American TV reporters doing fun features on weird Chinese food. These people were basically lining up to eat scorpions. A reporter would hold up a skewer of scorpions, and the camera person would get a close-up shot. Then the reporter would scrunch up his or her face, take a bite of a scorpion, chew, swallow, and declare that it really wasn’t that bad. Then, depending on how in-depth the feature was, the reporter might take a bite of seahorse.

I watched as this procedure was repeated with several different TV crews. Then the truth hit me: The Chinese don’t eat scorpions. They feed their scorpions to TV reporters. I would not be surprised to learn that the Chinese word for scorpion is “TV reporter food.”

-

See also:

Scorpions in a… bottle?

Scorpions on a… cracker?

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

4 comments

I have posted often about the pack journalism surrounding “scorpions on a stick” and how a lone freelancer named m-dawg dared to take the path less trodden and discovered an entirely new angle to this story – scorpions on a prawn. Well, it seems m-dawg has a kindred spirit. Another intrepid freelancer, MH, has done her own undercover investigation – away from the media masses at the bustling Wangfujing night market – and taken the story up a notch. Her discovery: scorpions in a bottle. Drink ‘em, eat ‘em, you’ll never forget ‘em. What’s next – scorpions on a plane?

See also:

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

No comments

Yet another update of my scorpions on a stick media monitoring project – but this one with a twist. It’s hard to believe that thousands of journalists have missed this story, but Olympic visitors will be comforted to know that Wangfujing snack street is not the only place to sample these creepy crawly treats. Instead, enjoy them in comfort at Quanjude Roast Duck Restaurant, which serves up the little critters… on crackers. Scorpions: with or without sticks? That’s a debate for the gourmands to decide. Kudos to m-dawg for his investigative skills and the photo.

See also:

Scorpions on a stick update: Globe & Mail, LA Times, BBC, DNA India, and more

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

Comments are off for this post

Update number three of my scorpions on a stick media monitoring project. For full details, see: On a stick? In Beijing? No way! (Note: Donkey meat and cooked penis are giving the scorpions stiff competition for the hearts and minds of the media.)

Category: You are what you eat, Garry

Candidate: Garry Linnell, Herald Sun

Clip: [Actually, this story is about penis. Oh, it also mentions scorpions.]

“No, we came here for the food, in all its bizarre, exotic glory. Take your pick. Scorpion kebab? Roast dog leg? Deep fried worm? And for the absolutely fearless, what about the ham sandwich on offer at the Olympic media centre?”

-

Category: You are what you eat, II

Candidate: Staff reporter, The Sun

Clip: [This is another item about penis.]

“DOG may have been banned from menus at Beijing’s Olympic Games but Brits can still scoff a stomach churning array of food – including SEAL PENIS. Olympic chiefs will not be serving dishes containing man’s best friend at official Olympic restaurants – in a bid to make visitors feel comfortable. But they WILL offer a menu worthy of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here including deep-fried scorpions and sea urchins, cow stomach, turtle and brains in a hot pot.”

-

Category: They made me write it

Candidate: Mitch Moxley, Globe & Mail

Clip:

Every evening, a mix of camera-wielding tourists and locals gather at this 2,000-square-metre bazaar, where red lanterns mark vendors hawking standard Beijing street fare such as boiled corn — as well as slightly more exotic dishes including fried scorpion and lamb penis. [Moxley adds context in the next paragraph.] Truth be told, while the unsuspecting Olympic visitor to Beijing might find a crispy duck’s head or sautéed pig’s intestine on their plate, most people I have met here certainly do not eat everything but tables and planes. [Fair play]

-

Category: I don’t get out of the house much

Candidate: Hal Habib, Palm Beach Post

Clip:

Mug of Tsingtao, skewer of fried scorpion – that will be more challenging for the uninitiated, not to mention songwriters trying to find something that rhymes with it.

-

Category: Unfortunately, the scorpions aren’t curried

Candidate: DNA India [The title is: "Skewered scorpion? Coming right up..."]

Clip:

These days, about the only wildness you’ll experience [in Beijing] is in the menu itself: deep fried cricket or skewered scorpion or seahorse kebab is the standard bill of fare in Wangfujing Snack Street in downtown Beijing.

-

Category: Hey, I have to at least *mention* it

Candidate: Iain Marlow, The Toronto Star

Clip:

In Beijing, be adventurous. Flee the main streets and get lost in the alleyways. Try the tripe and the duck neck and maybe even the scorpions. [This comes in the last paragraph of an excellent article about Beijing street food. Fair play.]

-

Category: Hey, I have to at least *mention* it, II

Candidate: Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times

Clip:

From the contemporary offerings of the Courtyard, diners can travel, culinarily, to the street fare of Beijing, where vendors sell such things as scorpions or starfish on skewers. [Again, this is stuck in the last paragraph of an otherwise interesting piece. Fair play.]

-

Category: Penned as she ate a steak from a cute furry kangaroo?

Candidate: Mary-Anne Toy, Sydney Morning Herald

Clip:

DOG may be off the menu for the Olympic Games, but adventurous gastronomes can still choose from a dazzling array of culinary delights in Beijing – from seal’s penis to deep-fried scorpions and brains in hot pot.

-

Finally, thanks to the BBC, we have this completely natural, unrehearsed, unposed photo of a woman eating scorpions on a stick.

-

See also:

Scorpions on a stick update: Forbes, Wall Street Journal

Scorpions on a stick update: NBC

On a stick? In Beijing? No way!: ESPN, Boston Globe

-

(Photo: MH)

4 comments

They’re weird, they’re wacky, and they’re just the thing to make the folks back home go, “Ewww, gross.”

They’re scorpions on a stick!

You just know foreign journalists will use these little suckers during the Olympics for a quick laugh in a pinch (scorpions, pinch, get it!?). I guess that’s fair. After all, people in Beijing eat scorpions every single day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as mid-afternoon and midnight snacks, on picnics and at weddings, and to amuse visitors.

Anyway, in the spirit of James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly, who chronicles overuse of the boiled-frog analogy, I’m taking on the Olympian media monitoring task of scorpion-on-a-stick references because, well, because I care.

Scorpions were not an easy choice. There are any number of topics the media will soon trample to death like baby kittens beneath a stampeding herd of terrified buffalo – wild taxi drivers, squat toilets, Chinese youth and their Western ways, etc.

And I realize its natural for tourists to be intrigued by scorpions on a stick. I simply wanted to give long-term expatriates, many of whom feel unease in these turbulent times, something familiar about which to roll their eyes during the coming months.

Let’s get snapping!

Category: An ass talking about a donkey?

Candidate: Bob Holtzman, ESPN

Excerpt:

It helps to be courageous at some of the local restaurants, as well. Since our vocabulary was limited, our camera crew generally did the ordering for our entire group. Grouse eggs. Fennel seed dumplings. Donkey. Donkey?! I tried it. I’ll leave it at that. If donkey doesn’t do it for you, there’s always the option of wandering out to one of the street vendors for some fried scorpions on a stick. Don’t worry; if you’re not a fan of scorpions, they also offer fried seahorses.

Comment: Holtzman gets the equivalent of an NBA triple-double by including donkeys, scorpions and seahorses in one paragraph. The only way to top this would have been a reference to boiled silkworms and/or the penis restaurant.

Category: But squatters make it easier to pass scorpions

Candidate: John Powers, Boston Globe

Excerpt:

While some food items can be unsettlingly exotic for the American palate (the Wangfujing Night Market offers silkworms and scorpions on a stick), most of the domestic cuisine, like kung pao chicken, will look reasonably familiar. But if you want Brazilian, French, Spanish, Russian, or thin-crust pizza, there are places that serve it and locals who eat it.

Analysis: This article is generally informative and well-written, but it loses points for using the word “capitalist” in its subtitle, given that the Globe discovered China had free-market tendencies as far back as, uh, November 2007. I also wonder about Powers equating “modern” and “squat toilet.” Pressing your ass against the same seat that a thousand other people have used is more sanitary / modern than having your bottom airborne? Really?

That’s a thought to consider while munching on some scorpions – or seahorses – on a stick.

(Photo: MH)

1 comment