qinyuan lei

shenzhen, china

documentary filmmaker & tech-art researcher

“Dad made ‘ginger hits milk’ (Cantonese style ginger milk pudding) for the us the other day. He is proud to have added a little twist to the traditional Cantonese recipe. As a documentarian, I couldn't miss the chance to document that, as well as the joke he insisted on cracking for his audience. I am also embedding in the vlog a little message of love to the world.”

March 14, 2020

Shenzhen, China

Transcription:

Dad, "Why is there sunlight on the cup?"

Mom, "What's going on, my girl?"

Dad, "The shadows are strange."

Mom, "They cut my hair really quick. Five minutes a person."

Lei, This is my mom's a pillow. The pig pillow has been washed and this is how she is right now. 

Lei, “Mom, have you washed her?”

Mom, “Yes, don’t touch her!”

Lei, She’s clean, she’s clean. My mom's pink pillow, she is clean as a bean right now.

Lei, Hello everyone. Welcome back to my vlog. Today's a special one. As you can see from the title of vlog, it's called ‘Ginger hits milk’ and  it's about how a ginger hits milk and it really enjoys it hitting milk. 

Text, Cantonese “Ginger Hits Milk” Recipe #1. First prepare two bottles of milk and a lot of ginger. Then you hit the milk with ginger. Hit, hit, hit. Cantonese “Ginger Hits Milk” is done. 

Text, Cantonese “Ginger Hits Milk” a.k.a Ginger Milk Pudding Recipe #2. Blend the ginger with a blender. Let me show you how much ginger that is. 6 teaspoons of sugar (for three servings). Add 1 cup of milk to 2 eggs. 

Dad, “2 eggs for 3 bowls/servings.”

Lei, “We are wasting a lot of ginger.”

Dad, “Yep, we can’t use them afterwards. Squeeze it in.”

Lei, “Doesn’t it liquefy?”

Dad, “When you make it in the traditional way, you have to hit ginger juice with hot milk.”

Text, Hence, “ginger hits milk.” Ready to be steamed. 

Lei, “Why covering it?”

Dad, “The pudding will come out smoother.”

Lei, “It won’t get bubbles.”

Dad, “That’s right.”

Text, Steam it for 10 minutes.

Lei, Hallo. How's your day? 

Dad, “Is it successful?”

Mom, “Yes, very good.”

Lei, this is not as successful as it should be. 

Lei, “It looks too watery. This one is more liquified.”

Lei, Welcome back to my vlog. As you probably already saw from the clip ‘Ginger Hits Milk,’ it's actually 姜撞奶 (literally, ginger hits milk), which is a Cantonese dessert. And what you just saw was basically a typical Cantonese afternoon and my dad making ginger milk pudding for the whole family.

I wanted to send out a message with this vlog because I've been thinking the other day and also when I was filming my dad making the ginger milk pudding, I was thinking if I look back in the future of this time of 2020, what has happened it would be a terrible crisis, which we're still very much in.

But I would also remember my dad making ginger milk pudding for us and all these small things in our daily lives, I would be really happy and to see that that he’s still around me and still well he's taking care of the family and we're trying to make the best out of this crisis. That would be something that I would really remember about this time.

I guess the message I wanted to send out with this video is that I know that there are a lot of other messages around about the coronavirus, especially after it becoming a pandemic. So not just an epidemic in China. You must be going everywhere trying to look for facts and scientific knowledge about the virus and stuff. I know there are people putting out opinion pieces, scientific knowledge and facts about the virus and the measures the government are taking. I don't feel that I'm equipped to do that.

I also feel that as a documentarian, my job is to document this time and I want to be able to look back to this period and appreciate the time that I was able to have with my family and seeing the small things that we shared. I'll be able to smell the air, the apartment with ginger milk pudding. I guess what I'm saying is that if you're around out, if you're somewhere in the world, if you're worried about your family and if you are in home quarantine, I hope that you are safe because that’s the most important thing. Hope you and your family are safe and I hope I share this feeling with you that there's still things in your daily life if you’re in home quarantine, that you can appreciate and if you look back I'm sure you’ll be really happy like I am now. To be able to share this moment with your family and to have your parents still well and around.

I got a really nice message from one of my Instagram friends. She’s currently living in Italy. Her name is Mimi and she tells me that a lot of people are panicking in Italy but she really thinks that only love can cure this and we should spread love. I very much agree with her. I think in the time of crisis, it's very much it's very important for us to just spread love and care about people around us. Yeah. I hope you're safe. I hope you’re, despite being in home quarantine, having a good time and getting the best out of these times with your family. I’ll see you in my next vlog.

Lei, I just finished yoga. I'm trying to do yoga every day to kind of like stay healthy even though I'm still doing like voluntary home quarantine. Just to make it clear, you don't have to stay at home but it's still recommended by the government just in case that, because so many people returning to work. So for those who don't have to go out, we're still trying to stay indoor, which is what I've been doing. Because I mostly work from home. And to compensate not being outside and being so active most of the time, I'm just trying to do like yoga with Adriene every day on my balcony, on my parents balcony.

And it's been quite raining for the past two days or so. I don't know what it is but there's something very Cantonese like something like in the air that just smells and the color of it just looks very Cantonese today. It's like a typical Cantonese spring evening weather. It's very like wet at the moment very humid, because it just rained this morning. It's been raining for the past several days and you can see the sky is all like overcast. It's about like six o'clock right now so the sun is about to set, but we can't really see the sun at all and a lot of the lights from homes are turned on. You can see the light from my parents’ living room. Everything just looks so, I don't know, like Cantonese. I can't describe it any better than that.

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