Travel TV

Armchair travel is the only kind of travel these days. But even when times are normal, most of us can’t hop on a plane every time we feel like it. That’s why there’s travel TV. I recently wrote about my love for inflight movies, and mentioned that on my last trip, I watched a Chinese travel show. It was a surprisingly educational experience.

The flight from Beijing to Hong Kong was too short for a movie, but there was TV. I watched a Chinese travel show that proved travel shows are the same no matter what language they’re in. Even without subtitles, I could imagine what they were saying. Watching a foreign travel show about a familiar place was unintentionally hilarious.

Hilarious

Here we see the rural Canadian peasant, who still drives a tractor much like the one his grandfather owned.

The camera cuts to images of a curling match.

The same harsh winters that cut the farming season short have given rise to a unique sport. Some of the best players in the world can be found in this out of the way place.

In the next segment, the team travels to New Zealand. The earnest, curious presenter is speaking with a chef against the background of a farmer’s market.

“What is this here?”

“We call it a kiwi.”

This humble, fuzzy fruit has come to represent a nation…

voice over

“What else must I try?” asks the presenter in their very best English with Chinese subtitles.

The camera cuts to a shot of fish and chips wrapped in newspaper. The presenter takes a bite, nodding agreeably.

The fishing economy of this island nation…

The host pops a French fry in her mouth and wads up the newspaper. The camera traces its arc into the trash can.

“Served on newspaper, the whole thing can be wrapped up and tossed, turning a greasy finger food into an easy meal.”

Uncomfortable

But it also made me a little uncomfortable because it revealed how easily we fall into the pitfalls of exoticism. Before she had an acclaimed novel under her belt, I read an excellent essay by Taiye Selasi that talked about exoticism with such nuance. It was not the famous Bye Bye Babar. I can’t find it online now, and ironically/appropriately, I think I may have read it in an inflight magazine.

In the essay she likened it to sexual attraction or infatuation – problematic but inevitable, and ultimately not something you want to get rid of entirely. It’s the unfamiliar “otherness” that draws our attention.

But if you lean too heavily into exoticism, it turns a natural response into a harmful one. Instead of drawing people together, exoticism becomes alienating and objectifying. It can only be valuable if people move past it. Attraction must lead to curiosity and examination. Initial attraction should lead to meaningful relationships. Whether it’s people or countries, you shouldn’t just stay on the couch being entertained while maintaining the illusion of otherness.

What to Do

And yet, in the middle of pandemic, the best thing we can do is stay home. For now, watching travel shows with a critical eye and Reading Around the World are the only avenues available for connecting with foreign cultures. Even planning future trips is hard, because we don’t know how things will be different when all this is over – we’ll be emerging into a different world than the one we closed our doors on in March 2020.

I hate to end with a whimper. But I don’t have any deep thoughts for a conclusion. Sometimes things just suck and there’s nothing to do but sit with it. Or, I don’t know, watch more K-drama and learn how to make bibimbap at home.