madammiaow
Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 5
Location: London
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 Posted: Thu Feb 27, 2003 7:31 pm Post subject: Charles Campion campaign |
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Dimsum readers might want to know more about the response to Charles Campion's Daily Mail article. This press release was sent within days of the offending article appearing and contains the address of the excellent "Why Charles Campion is wrong" website.
MM
The Chinese Takeaway Association (UK)
UK Chinese Catering Association
The Chinese in Britain Forum
"http://www.whycharlescampioniswrong.co.uk"
MEDIA RELEASE: Wednesday 14 August 2002
*** Chinese rally against race-hate attack in Daily Mail ***
An outraged Chinese community today begins its campaign against the recent gratuitous attack by Charles Campion in the Daily Mail (see article below).
1) A public meeting has been called jointly by the Chinese in Britain Forum, the Chinese Catering Association and the Chinese Takeaway Association to address the issues, gain feedback from the community, and to garner support from friends. All are welcome.
Date: Wednesday 14th August
Time: 4:00pm
Venue: Chinese National Healthy Living Centre
Address: 29-30 Soho Square, London, W1V 5DH
Underground: Tottenham Court Road
2) A letter of complaint has been sent to Paul Dacre, Daily Mail Editor, signed jointly by: British Born Chinese; Chinatown Online; Chinese Catering Association; Chinese Civil Rights Action Group;
Chinese Professional Association; Chinese Take away Association; London Chinatown Chinese Association; London Chinese Community Centre; London Chinese Community Network; Lord Chan of Oxton; Min Quan; Mr Lee Jasper - Policy Director Equalities, Mayors Office, Greater London Authority.
3) A website is under development:
"http://www.whycharlescampioniswrong.co.uk"
Other activities are being planned.
Spokesperson Thomas Chan of the Chinese Takeaway Association (UK) said: 'Once again the UK Chinese find themselves under attack in the media. Just over a year ago the Chinese were unjustly blamed for the outbreak of Foot and Mouth.
'In an article which has taken negative racial stereotypes to an extreme, we are now being accused of "taking howling liberties"; of serving unhealthy and second-rate food; Chinese are defined as outsiders to Britain's heritage despite being in Britain for over 200 years; are more concerned with profit than quality; and are barbaric — hence the nice little story of the toads at the end of the article.
'Why are the Chinese finding themselves increasingly targeted by sections of the British media? Why is there so little representation of the Chinese in television, and a constant negative portrayal of them in other media? What have the Chinese community done to deserve this?
'The Chinese community is saying enough is enough. We call upon all those with an interest in the development of a truly multi-cultural Britain to support us in this fight. This is not just a battle between the Chinese and one particular national newspaper. Rather it is a battle between all those who seek a just society, and those who would pick off minority communities at will to ridicule and belittle them. They are bullies, and cannot be allowed to get away with it. After all why attack a community whose only crime was to make their cuisine Britain's favourite food?'
NOTES:
For further details please contact Thomas Chan of the Chinese Takeaway Association on 07957 484833
The text of the original article is given below, along with the joint response by the Chinese community.
=== original article ===
Daily Mail, Page 10, August 7, 2002. Written by Charles Campion.
CHOP PHOOEY!
The unpalatable truths about Chinese dishes that are now Britain's favourite food.
We've we taken leave of our culinary senses?
Chinese takeaway is now the nation's favourite, pushing its old adversary, the truly wonderful Indian takeaway, into second place.
Last year we ate 109.7million Chinese meals and only 70.3 million Indian ones.
Why have we sold out?
Chinese food is far and away the dodgiest in the world, created by a nation which eats bats, snakes, monkeys, bears' paws, birds' nests, sharks' fins, ducks' tongues and chickens' feet.
A wise old Chinese foodie once claimed that the Chinese would eat anything with four legs except a table. Which is fair enough, but what about eating all those puzzling slimy things that have no legs at all?
Where's the appeal of the 'snake restaurants' in which the reptile is brought to the table and beheaded so that you can drink a glassful of its still warm blood while you wait for its body to be fried with a little ginger and garlic and return as a bony main course?
Blistering
At least when you pick up a carry-out from your local Indian takeaway you know what you're getting. Curry is as familiar to the British as a Constable painting, a double-decker bus or a bacon sandwich.
We are experts on curry. A meat Madras may not be readily available in India, but in Britain we know just how it should turn out. We know how hot the sauce will be. We know how chewy the meat should be. We know the dark rich colour of the dish.
This may not be gastronomy but Indian takeaways serve honest food and it really hits he spot.
There's a blistering Vindaloo competitive Madras, the abled Chicken Tikka Masala and a mild Korma or Biryani for he ladies. And they are all part of our heritage.
With a Chinese takeaway you can never be exactly sure what the oozing Day-Glo foodstuff balanced between your chopstick actually is.
Think back to that lat order of sweet and sour pork balls Cantonese style.
Are you absolutely sure that they didnít glow in the dark?
How much was pork-and how much greasy battered dough ball (basically flour and water and some second-rate meat)?
And just where did that lurid food colouring come from?
The Chinese take howling liberties. Take prawn toast.
This stuff is fried bread with sesame seeds that gets fried again by the restaurant.
You can buy it ready-made, from any Chinese supermarket.
As for any Prawn content, the operative who made the industrial fishy sludge that cements the toast to the sesame seeds may have once seen a prawn in the distance. But to judge from the flavour, thatís about as close as the sea creature can ever have got to this dish.
Then as you eagerly unwrap your expensive portion of 'Imperial prawn Toast', you find that it comes with a radioactive red jollop identical to the one that was glooped over the pork balls. Spooky.
Flabby
Chinese spare ribs are an outrage too — and a far cry from those served in any halfway decent American restaurant.
The latter, surprisingly enough, have meat on them and the bones, which are hard enough to chew, and are served with a rich, sticky sauce.
The Chinese variety are cooked in advance, often having been bought ready-marinated, then kept warm for so long that they are flabby.
They are served up in a sea of glop, otherwise known as sweet and sour sauce, made from ketchup, vinegar and Chinese rice wine. Then there is Chow Mein. You won't find it in China (they don't know what it is) but you will find it on many take-away menu. It's a byword for pre-cooked noodles, mixed with leftovers and a little bit of meat.
Order chicken chow mein and you'll get greasy noodles, the ubiquitous bean sprouts and, on a good day, the odd spring onion. Just don't expect them to be as fresh as a daisy.
As for spring rolls, there's nothing spring like about them.
Next time you order one, unravel the disproportionately thick, crispy batter (that's after you've rested it in kitchen paper to absorb the vegetable oil in which it is deep fried) and take a look inside.
Wherever you buy it, and whatever you paid for it, it is guaranteed to be almost empty. A dozen bean sprouts, a few bits of shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, and, if it's a meat spring roll, a few sprinklings of pork if you're lucky — just don't expect them to be prime cuts.
No wonder they're so cheap, if you buy them wholesale as many Chinese takeaways do. You an buy twelve large spring rolls for £3.45 from a Chinese wholesaler.
Work it out. That's just 28p per springless spring roll. Takeaways may not have their eye , but they do have their eye on their profit margins.
The health benefits of a Chinese takeaway are negligible to say the least.
Granted, any kind of meal you carry home in a foil tray is always likely to be a less likely option than a freshly cooked dinner, but a Chinese takeaway is extreme by any standards.
Disease
A portion of sweet and sour pork at 715 calories and a staggering 42g of fat, contains more calories and fat than a Burger King Whopper and a large fries, and thatís before youíve unpacked the egg fried rice to go with it.
The claggy yellow ice adds a large helping of sugar and fat and a further 1,330 calories.
Chinese food even has its own pet disease. 'Chinese Restaurant Syndrome' is defined as an acute hypersensitivity to monosodium glutamate. A refined food extract from fermented soya beans or made synthetically by fermenting molasses of starch.
You can buy it in Chinese supermarkets labelled 'taste powder'. Just a pinch adds a marked 'savoury' taste — or chemical aroma — to any sauce. MSG enhances flavour by reacting with other substances in food; together they multiple the sum of the separate flavours.
Chinese takeaways use a lot of MSG, and an argument rages over whether the syndrome is real, or the ësufferersí are just imagining the headaches, heartburn and palpitations.
But avoid Chinese takeaways and you can avoid the majority of MSG in your diet.
And that way you avoid soy and oyster sauce too, both of which contain high levels of histamine, which can provoke a dramatic allergic reaction in the susceptible.
I will never forget standing in the bustling Shanghai food market and watching in disgust as an old lady selected toads from a large bucket.
First she would give them a dig with her finger, and then, if they kicked out strongly she would pick them up and impale them on a long spike which she held upright like a guardsman's sabre
That, I suppose, was a Chinese takeaway — and I didn't want that one either.
=== joint letter of response ===
Mr. Paul Dacre
Editor
The Daily Mail
Northcliffe House
2 Derry Street
London W8 5TT
Dear Mr Dacre
Re: Chop Phooey article, Page 10, Daily Mail, 7 August 2002
It is said that the Chinese do not eat to live, but rather live to eat. Food is central to Chinese culture and practice, and the attack by Charles Campion on Chinese food is a thinly veiled attack on the Chinese in general.
The Chinese do not, as Mr Campion suggests, view the Indian Takeaways as adversaries. The Chinese have lived in peace and harmony in this country for over two hundred years. This attempt to cause division with our respected neighbours is unwelcome. At best it is misguided, and at worst an incitement to racial hatred.
Mr Campion declares that 'Chinese food is far and away the dodgiest in the world'. Clearly the British public do not believe so, the facts speak for themselves: Chinese food being Britain's most popular. Perhaps this is another case of the so-called 'experts' being totally out of touch with what everyday honest folk in Britain think.
Why Mr Campion is so angry at the popularity of Chinese food we do not know. His prejudice against what the Chinese eat (he lists snakes, snake blood, duck tongues and chicken feet among the offending items) demonstrates a cultural ignorance, and racially motivated criticism that has no place in a national newspaper — indeed any newspaper. Snakes, snake blood, ducks tongue and chicken feet are bad, but eel, black pudding, tripe, ox tongue, and pigs trotters presumably are OK, because they are 'as familiar to the British as a Constable painting, a double decker bus or a bacon sandwich'? This is not simply hypocrisy; it is hypocrisy that has been marinaded in bigotry and prejudice. We are saddened that the Chinese are once more viciously and unjustifiably attacked in the media.
The health benefits of the Chinese diet is well documented, and yet Mr Campion chooses to declare that the poor health benefits of Chinese food is 'extreme by any standards'. This simply shows a level of ignorance that we find surprising in a so-called food critic. We would have expected better! Your readers certainly deserve better. We suspect Mr Campion has another agenda. He declares with authority that you won't find Chow Mein in China. This will come as a surprise to the hundreds of millions of people in China who eat Chow Mein every day. Its like saying you wonít find egg and chips in Britain. Itís not true, its bad journalism and it exposes the level of ignorance with which the article was written.
It is regrettable that the Daily mail should choose to give any column inches to this article. Itís embarrassing to read. We ask that the Daily Mail publically apologise for the misinformation given in this article, and the great distress which it has caused not only Britain's Chinese community, but all people of good conscience.
Shame on you Mr Campion, for lazy research, for your reliance on stereotypes, for your attempts to cause racial tension and for your clear inability to see Chinese food for what it is — the nation's favourite.
Yours sincerely,
Stanley Hui
Executive Director
Chinese in Britain Forum on behalf of and in partnership with the following organisations and individuals:
British Born Chinese
Chinatown Online
Chinese Catering Association
Chinese Civil Rights Action Group
Chinese Professional Association
Chinese Take away Association
London Chinatown Chinese Association
London Chinese Community Centre
London Chinese Community Network
Lord Chan of Oxton
Min Quan
Mr Lee Jasper - Policy Director Equalities, Mayors Office, Greater London Authority |
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