September 5, 2022 ASIA / PACIFIC THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3 Some like it hot: Eating spicy in China’s WWII shelters CHONGQING, China (AP) — The city of Chongqing, dubbed one of China’s four “furnace” cities, is known for both soaring temperatures and spicy cuisine — notably its hotpot, a peppery bubbling tabletop broth into which diners dunk bite-size pieces of food to cook and eat. The inland metropolis on the Yangtze River has the perfect escape to enjoy hotpot, even in what has been a summer of unusually stifling heat: World War II-era air raid shelters, converted into restaurants, where the temperature is naturally cooler. Locals call it “cave hotpot.” Chongqing was the temporary capital of China during World War II, as a Japanese invasion drove the government out of the then-capital, Nanjing, and occupied eastern China. Leader Chiang Kai-shek, the military, foreign diplomats, and others set up in what was then a remote city in the southwest. At the sound of air raid sirens, residents crowded into the often dark shelters dug into the hilly cityscape to protect people and military weapons. Thousands died in the Japanese aerial bombing attacks. Today, the stone arch doorways of the former shelters still dot the city. Some have become cafés and mahjong parlors and others, restaurants. Red Chinese characters hang over one entrance, its stonework half-hidden by a refrigerated drinks display case and stacked up plastic chairs. The characters read: “Cave Pavilion Hotpot. Founded 1989.” Inside, tables and chairs line two long and narrow tunnels connected by a corridor. A starry night sky has been painted on the semicircular roof to reinforce a feeling of coolness. A painting of a World War II fighter plane hangs on the wall. Diners drop beef tripe, meat, fish, and vegetables into a bubbling broth filled with floating red chili peppers and lip-numbing Sichuan peppercorns. A non-spicy broth is also available — in a smaller container. “We stay away from the summer heat in these air raid shelters,” said Tang Ronggang, as wisps of steam rose in front of his face from the hotpot on his table. “It’s HISTORICAL HOTPOT. Customers eat hotpot in a hotpot restaurant located in a converted World War II-era air raid shelter in southwestern China’s Chongqing Municipality on August 20, 2022. The city of Chongqing, dubbed one of China’s four “furnace” cities, is known for both soaring temperatures and spicy cuisine — notably its hotpot, a peppery bub- bling tabletop broth into which diners dunk bite-size pieces of food to cook and eat. (AP Photos/Mark Schiefelbein) cool in here, a good place to stay in summer.” Particularly this summer, which has seen what meteorologists are calling China’s strongest heat wave since the government began recording rainfall and temperature 61 years ago. High temperatures have persisted for more than two months, topping 40º Celsius (104º Fahrenheit) in many places. Shopping malls have closed in Chongqing for most of the daytime to conserve power. Wide swaths of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers, which meet in the city, have dried up, drawing people to the exposed riverbed. The extended heat and drought has been blamed on a high-pressure system parked over western Russia that is also causing this summer’s heatwaves in Europe. Chongqing, immediately east of Sichuan, was part of the province until the city and the surrounding area was broken off administratively in 1997. Some date the city’s hotpot tradition to the 16th century, when porters ate meat and vegetables boiled with fiery spices after a hard day’s work on the docks on the Jialing River. The dish moved into abandoned air raid shelters in the 1970s, giving birth to a new tradition, the cave hotpot. Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang contributed. South Korean garlic video ad roasted over purported obscenity By Hyung-Jin Kim The Associated Press S EOUL, South Korea — A rural South Korean town is getting roasted over its video ad on garlic that some farmers say stinks of obscenity and has even sexually objectified the agricultural product. The controversy surrounds a 30-second video that had been posted on a YouTube channel for Hongseong County, a small central-west South Korean town of about 100,000 people known for its local “Hongsan” garlic, for about two years. The video shows a woman touching the thigh of a man named “Hongsan” with a full garlic head mask and saying words like “very thick” and “hard” to apparently describe the quality of the local garlic. It’s also a parody of a famous scene from a 2004 hit Korean movie titled Once Upon a Time in High School. The spicy ad, which reportedly generated about 190,000 views, had been largely kept underground, but began to take root in the larger public when it was aired on electronic billboards at a Seoul express bus terminal and a downtown street in the central city of Daejeon in July ahead of the garlic’s release. One farmer who saw the video notified some farmers’ groups, while South Korean media also began reporting about it, leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths. “We can’t repress our astonishment,” said a joint statement issued by the local branches of two major farmers’ organizations — the Korean Peasants League and the Korean Women Peasants Association. “The video offended the people who watched it and dealt a big blow to the image of the agricultural product that farmers have laboriously grown.” Calling the video “suggestive” and “inappropriate,” the statement said it “sexually objectified” garlic. The farmers’ groups asked Hongseong to apologize, punish those responsible for the video production, and formulate steps on how to prevent similar incidents. Shin Ji Youn, an official at the Korean Women Peasants Association, said the farmers’ groups asked Hongseong to respond to their requests. Hongseong officials said they withdrew the video from their YouTube channel and had stopped airing it on the billboards in late July. The county had not issued any official statement on the issue, and officials said they were discussing how to respond to the farmers’ requests. County officials said they formally changed the name of their local garlic to “Hongseong” after their county name in January. Many South Koreans believe garlic, one of the essential ingredients in Korean cuisine, boosts stamina. Some think it can improve men’s sexual functions as well. During the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, the country’s women’s curling team earned the nickname of “Garlic Girls” — four of the team’s five members came from another rural town known for its own famed garlic — as they had a fairytale run to win the silver medal. Go paperless! Read The Asian Reporter – exactly as it’s printed here – online! Visit and click the “Online Paper (PDF)” link to view our last two issues. We’re proud to be that neighbor that other neighbors count on. FŸƟɔȞȕɔǛġõƟƧəɔǕġʉǔġɔđġġūɔõɔƜõƟƳɔŸĹɔƳŁġɔ§õĒņȐĒɔvŸƟƳŁǕġƧƳɯūŸƳɔŘƼƧƳɔ õƧɔõɔȐūõūĒņõşɔņūƧƳņƳƼƳņŸūɔđƼƳɔõƧɔõɔşŸĒõşɔĒƟġęņƳɔƼūņŸūɔđŸƟūɔõūęɔƟõņƧġęɔ within the communities we ser ve. Drop by one of our 55 branches õūęɔǕġʉşşɔņūƳƟŸęƼĒġɔǛŸƼɔƳŸɔƧŸũġɔŸĹɔƳŁġɔȐūõūĒņõşɔƳŸŸşƧɔõūęɔƟġƧŸƼƟĒġƧɔ that will help you to achieve your greatest potential. • Checking & Savings • Mortgage Loans • Business Ser vices ɢ ƟġęņƳɔõƟęƧ • Auto Loans onpointcu.com/ locations · Federally insured by NCUA. Equal Housing Opportunity.