A chubby man, wearing a chef's hat and a white apron, is cooking on the spot and explaining the steps of cooking. Moreover, there will always be one or two graceful women around to observe and explain at the scene, and from time to time they will be scared and scream by the oil spilled from the oil pan. Finally, after the cook cooked the food, one or two hostesses picked up chopsticks, slowly put the food in their mouths, then closed their eyes and looked intoxicated with the delicious food, giving a tut-tut compliment, "It's delicious!" The above description is roughly the usual routine of most TV food festivals. It is difficult to keep the audience with the taste memory created by the fixed space where chefs and beautiful women host and cook on the spot. However, China on the Tip of the Tongue, which was released by CCTV some time ago, has opened a brand-new field of vision for food programs and opened the taste memory of China audience who have been harmed by food safety for a long time.

Before China on the Tip of the Tongue, CCTV had produced many excellent documentaries. The story of the Yangtze River in the 1980s, the Great Wall in the 1990s, the Forbidden City and the New Silk Road since the new century. Most of these documentaries are based on historical humanities, showing the culture and history of China from a macro perspective. China on the Tip of the Tongue, on the other hand, from the perspective of food, shows the relationship between people in China and food through the fusion of food, and shows the life of ordinary people in China in a microscopic way. In this respect, China on the Tip of the Tongue is more grounded.

China on the Tip of the Tongue is not a documentary about food. Starting from the particularity of its own theme, it extends the multi-angle and diversified viewing effect through many aspects of Chinese food. China people's living conditions, traditional values, China's national culture, folk customs and other elements are vividly reflected through the stories behind the food.

China on the Tip of the Tongue consists of 7 episodes, each with a theme. The main line of each theme adopts a fragmented editing method, which is combined and grafted between different regions. No matter what kind of editing, the film projects the perspective on ordinary people all over the world, and most of them appear in the film as family groups. Lao Huang of Dali, Yunnan, pickled ham with his son; Two brothers who specialize in digging lotus roots in Jiayu County, Hubei Province; As a professional photographer, Bai Bo can only go home to eat jiaozi with his family during the Chinese New Year. Jin Shunji, who has settled in Beijing, returned to her hometown to learn how to make kimchi with her mother ... There is a family behind almost every kind of food, which carries the happiness and warmth of the family and embodies a strong human touch. On the tip of the tongue, China discussed more than just "eating". With diet as the medium, it quietly conveys China people's wisdom and taste aesthetics through simple and delicate description of food and subtle understanding of the relationship between people and ingredients. Every food can evoke the viewer's deep homesickness. All these make this documentary show its unique charm.

For people who have lived in modern cities for a long time, China on the tip of the tongue provides a window for people to peep at the outside world without leaving home. The food culture, customs and rituals of those ethnic minorities present a strange and novel world for the audience, which is definitely a spectacle for the secular urbanites in the depths. In the first episode "The Gift of Nature", Zhuo Ma and her daughter in Shangri-La walked to the virgin forest 30 kilometers away at 3 am to pick matsutake. When Tricholoma matsutake was unearthed, Zhuo Ma immediately covered the fungus pit with pine branches on the ground. Only in this way can the mycelium not be destroyed. In order to continue the gift of nature, Tibetans carefully abide by the rules of the mountain forest. On the one hand, we can't help but feel reverence for the delicious food that nature has given to human beings and lament the magic and mystery of nature. On the other hand, we lament the long-standing harmony between nature and human beings.

China on the Tip of the Tongue was filmed for half a year from March 20 1 1 year. This is the first large-scale food documentary filmed with high-definition equipment in China. The crew spans more than 60 regions in China, covering all regions of China, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In China, apart from CCTV, there is probably no other large-scale shooting that consumes manpower and material resources. However, CCTV, as the mainstream TV media representing the national image, has become the mouthpiece of propaganda of national ideology, and its voice is bound to have some kind of national machine or ideology. As a documentary filmed by CCTV, there is bound to be the voice of the main theme.

Aiming at ordinary people in real life, this film reflects the touch of ordinary people's daily life from a head-up perspective, which is more likely to cause the audience to sing emotionally. Every audience can experience the pleasure of food stimulating taste buds from these foods which are the most livelihood and closest to themselves, thus reading a kind of power from grassroots. The laughter of ordinary workers, the simple people who live and work in peace and contentment, and the happiness and self-sufficiency of small traders in the film are obviously incompatible with the reality in China, but the film provides an ideal utopia for the audience. In this ideal utopia, the audience temporarily forgot the depression and dissatisfaction in reality, and tried to find a trace of spiritual suture and spiritual comfort in this beautiful utopia.

In today's China, when there are serious hidden dangers in food safety, and when gutter oil, tainted milk powder, clenbuterol, Sudan red, leather shoes capsules and so on challenge the public's psychological defense line again and again, China on the tip of the tongue, a documentary that preaches the truth, goodness and beauty of the national mainstream ideology under the guise of food, comes out at the right time, making people indulge in the delicious food in the image and linger, temporarily forgetting all kinds of sufferings in reality. The dream-making power of this image is exactly the same as the control of the mainstream ideology of the country on the people.

According to some mainstream views, the whole content of this documentary can be expressed by a lyric: "The industrious and brave people of China have entered a new era full of energy". Look at the industrious and simple working people, humble ordinary people, people living in agricultural civilization and simple living, and craftsmen who have inherited the wisdom and skills left by their predecessors and ancestors. We can't help but sigh "This nation is really great", and then we will have a sense of national pride.

For a documentary, China on the Tip of the Tongue presents a very valuable head-up angle, showing the living conditions of ordinary people. However, this tender expression similar to the main theme deliberately hides the true face in reality. Perhaps, we should not expect CCTV documentaries to complete more problems in reality.