Search This Blog

Friday, October 08, 2010

A taste of Chinese History in NYC Time Square



Watch video here

NTD: An event thousands of years in the making, descends upon the heart of New York’s Times Square. NTD’s Third Annual International Chinese Culinary Competition is underway

Times Square has never seen anything like this. We’ve recreated Chang’An, China’s ancient capital.….Contestants from 11 nations have joined in to participate. They’re slicing, dicing, and “wokking” (show a shot of a wok) their way to a gold prize award of 10,000 dollars. In this two-day competition, chefs will be in a race against the gong to complete their masterpieces.

But the biggest challenge was for the 11 contestants who were unable to participate in the competition. They were all from China. Chef Hua Zhang, last year’s gold medal winner and a judge in this year’s competition, knew five of those missing 11. Despite filing out the necessary paperwork, none were given permission to leave China and no official explanation was given.

Mr. Zhang said one of the chef’s called him and explained the situation. He had been put under 24-hour surveillance. Mr. Zhang said, “They threatened him that if he does go (to the competition), the consequences will be severe. They said if you dare to go to the competition, think about how your wife and your son will live their lives…My friend was afraid.”

NTD has taken a critical stance on China's human rights record and policies - which may be part of the reason Party authorities banned the chefs from participating. Read more...

1 comment:

Juan M Tavella said...

Hi MaKina,
Im Juan, a Dafa practitioner from Argentina. Great blog! Thank you for sharing.
Best

Juan Manuel