Hello Uncle Foreigner

How do you get a room full of kindergarteners to be quiet? Tell them there’s a lost phone in the classroom. They get it.

Over the past few months, we’ve really pushed ourselves in the realms of storytelling and video production, figuring out new techniques and workflows. It’s been a lot of fun and really, well, productive. But it has made us look back at some of our older pieces and think, “We can do better.” Those old videos will always be treasured memories to us, but we can also now turn the footage into something a little more artful; something that could entertain and delight someone who wasn’t there when it happened.

The new Bamboo Sea (above) isn’t the first time we’ve done this. KTV and Egg Bar are both based on archival footage. Stone Sea also uses older video, but we never actually got around to telling that story at the time! And we’re looking forward to revitalizing many more of our old stories in the coming months.

Revisiting good times is one thing, but we also have the benefit of more China experience and a different perspective. They, in turn, enable us to tell deeper stories and take artistic risks. It’s been a fulfilling process so far, and Peter and I both hope you enjoy these new videos as well.

The backstory on this 2014 trip to the Bamboo Sea is here, if you’d like to enrich your viewing with a more straightforward written account of our adventure. The video remix above is a more poetic look at (wo)man’s relationship with nature and … bamboo.

I also use the word “susurrating,” so listen carefully!

Shopping for presents is easy in China, where you just have to find a red envelope and some cash to put in it.

People, even after almost seven years, are always welcoming us to China and Luzhou. Is it annoying or endearing? Well, that’s up to you to decide. I personally am trying to take it as a moment to moment affirmation of my presence, rather than an act of othering that implies I don’t truly belong. (Although, on a bad day, it can feel like the latter.) The only word they are actually saying is “welcome.” That’s way better than America does to its immigrants.

“Beijing Welcomes You” is actually the name of a song written for the 2008 Beijing olympics. It’s also the name of a pretty good book by Tom Scocca — written about the 2008 Beijing olympics — which is pretty good. Let’s call it an official Uncle Foreigner recommendation.

Springtime in Luzhou … it can be beautiful, but the weather can be very strange. The humidity makes it sweaty out, even when the temperature is not that high. But just wait a few weeks. From the time of taping this video to now, it’s already switched. Now it’s hot and humid. Get ready for that summer heat!

China is wild about skincare, which is great, because so am I. Sheet-masks, overnight serums, just a plain old lotion … I love it. There have always been health and beauty stores all over Luzhou, but now we have a Watson’s and a Sephora! It’s an exciting time.

Who doesn’t love a smoothie? Especially when it’s delivered right to your door.

Meituan Waimai forever!

The menu at the bakery inspired this Uncle’s Shorts musing on language and translation. Also, in the past seven years, there has been an incredible increase in the amount of English that is just out and about all over Luzhou. And more and more, it’s English that makes sense.

Take a taxi.

“Teachers Exist in China” was our biggest project to date! It was a lot of work in a short amount of time, but we’re really proud of what we put together, and it was actually a lot of fun.

The idea grew out of a sort of professional jealousy. I’ll admit it. Another YouTuber whom Uncle Foreigner follows put up kind of a rant about what it’s like to teach in China, and I thought, “I could do that, but way better.” (This is the same reason I got my nose pierced. A sense of superiority drives most of my life choices.) But once we got to work, it was all about figuring out how to best share my experience with those who were seriously thinking about diving into the China ESL game, in a way that would be comprehensive and informative, but most importantly, watchable.

Originally, I had only intended to write the Jobs Guide, which turned into our centerpiece Thursday video. But as Peter and I kept talking about it, we kept coming up with more and more ideas, until we had a six-episode series. We were careful to try and keep the workload balanced and doable: The Preview and Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday videos were of a format that we refer to in-house as “Uncle’s Shorts” — videos that can be written and shot quickly with minimal production. And the Friday video — about the expat lifestyle in China — we decided that I would riff live from an outline. I hate speaking extemporaneously, and would have preferred to write it, but the Jobs Guide took about seven hours to write, three hours to shoot, and a bajillion hours to edit. If we hadn’t chosen a looser format, Lifestyle would probably have taken a similar amount of time, and we just didn’t have it. Also, it’s a good exercise for me to practice “just talking” on camera. Probably.

Anyway, pre-production and shooting took about a week, and editing and posting took another week. We made some mistakes; I said “nature” instead of “neighbor” in one of the videos, but there was NO TIME for a reshoot. And there were definitely some things we’d like to have put a little more polish on. We could have spent an entire month, or more, editing this series to perfection! But part of the experience was to see what we could do given such a tight deadline. And I think we did a lot.