Wuxi and Soup.

I have just done a Salon class (conversation class really) about Cultural Differences.  It is useless to try to get the students to tell you about differences they have noticed between foreigners and themselves because their experience is limited.  Many have not been to foreign countries.  Many of them first meet a foreigner at our school.  And then the first thing they notice about us is our white skin and blue eyes.  They don't have much to say about differences in beliefs, values, behavior and artifacts.  So I have resorted to asking them about cultural differences between parts of China.  It is a legitimate question to ask because China is so vast.

This afternoon, I had a woman tell me about differences between Wuxi and Guangdong province.  Soup is more important to people in Guangdong than in Wuxi.

Coming from Canada, I can attest to this.  The soups of Wuxi are often nothing more than tepid water with a vegetable dipped in for no more than ten minutes.  I have never seen my wife spend all day making a soup.  Maybe, once it took her thirty minutes to make a fish soup.

So, don't go to Wuxi for Soup.  I was pleased to hear that not all of China has such bad soup as Wuxi.