Hit Chinese food show draws new criticism from audiences

[photo: from dfic.cn]

Chinese audiences seemed to have been underwhelmed by the third season of the highly anticipated food documentary "A Bite of China."

Even though the series has maintained high viewership ratings since its comeback last week, much higher than other programs aired at the same time, the ranking on Douban, a social networking website featuring films, literature and events, slipped to 4.5 out of 10, as of Sunday, compared with 9.3 and 8.4, respectively, for the first two seasons.

Picky viewers complain that some of the narration is not accurate, while others pinpoint misleading content. For instance, marine life expert Zhou Zhuocheng wrote on his Weibo social media account that U.S.-imported largemouth bass is used to describe fish that appeared in Chinese literature more than 1,700 years ago in east China's Taihu Lake.

At the same time, food blogger @barbarababa questioned whether it is appropriate to give a close-up shot of the poisonous plant nandina in a food program. 

[The audio clip is from Studio+, produced by CRI] 

(News source: Chinanews.com)