Homage: Damiao Wang

In this special bonus episode of Deep in the Woods, I take a unique approach—stepping into the kitchen with Damiao Wang as we prepare a meal for the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year. Damiao shares the word homage and reflects on the traditions, ancestral reverence, and cultural stories that make this celebration so meaningful.

As we cook dishes like shrimp stir-fry, dumplings, and Guobao Rou, Damiao recounts childhood memories of fireworks, family gatherings, and honoring ancestors through rituals passed down for generations. We also explore the connection between storytelling and remembrance, touching on poetry, history, and the importance of keeping traditions alive.

For the first time, Deep in the Woods is also available in video format! Watch the full cooking experience on YouTube at https://youtu.be/xs-3HtAldIY?si=qYLXn26DJe6PD4Kn

Season 3 of Deep in the Woods launches in March, focusing on the power of storytelling. Stay tuned for more inspiring conversations and immersive walks through the stories that connect us all.

Transcript

Welcome to Deep in the Woods with Andrew McIntyre, where we take one word and one
walk to share our stories that show how we are all connected. In this bonus
episode, I take a different approach as Damiao Wang and I walk around his kitchen
and prepare a meal for Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. Damiao has chosen the
word homage to share his stories growing up in China that connected this event that
celebrates and honors his ancestors. Before we start, I have a few notes on this
episode and some updates about the upcoming season. For this recording, I created the
first video podcast of Deep in the Woods where you can watch as Damiao and I
prepare this meal while discussing his word. You can find the link in the
description. Season three of Deep in the Woods will begin in March as this year's
theme is connected to the power of storytelling. I'm excited to be a part of
highlighting these stories as we have a wide variety of guests who will share their
perspectives on the world through the lens of their word. Finally, I hope to bring
more video content of the places we walk this year on Instagram and YouTube. My
goal is to allow you to hear the conversations and experience the walk as if you
were there while highlighting these wonderful hikes and experiences. Now, Let's get
started with today's bonus episode with Damiya Wang as we explore the word "hommage".
If you could pick one word that represents Chinese New Year. And do you call it
Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year? I would say a Spring Festival. Spring Festival?
OK. Spring Festival. Right. So I would say "hommage". Hommage. OK.
So that's H -O -M -A -G -E -Homage. That's not a common word, isn't it? - No, we do
use it, but I wouldn't say we use it often. - Right, so in the U .S. - Right, so
especially like in here, like I would say people use like worship, or worship God
and things. But in China, it's like pay homage to their ancestors, to our ancestors,
that's the most important thing during this time of year. - Okay, so today is spring
festival, festival or the United States we call it Chinese New Year or Lunar New
Year. To us yes but this spring festival. So what are we doing right now?
So we're gonna prepare traditional like authentic Chinese food. Okay.
Let's put it closer. Yeah. There we go. We're moving around.
We're flying around. There you go. - All right, we're trying to do this on video
for the first time. Let's see how it goes. All right. - So we're gonna have a
shrimp stir -fried with broccoli. - Okay. - So that's a traditional food. Like my
family always cooked that. And we have the pork with cabbage that we'll wrap inside
the dumplings. - Okay. - So we're gonna butcher the shrimp. I got like a nice
shrimp. Like they're not peeled, So we have to peel them this is different for me
because I've never done this before so I'm excited That's really fun. It's like so
break the head. Yeah, just me the body. Yeah, you break the head off You really
we're gonna keep it, you know, we we fry this shrimp Peels and the hot inside of
hot oil. Oh, wow And then we collect the oil the oil is really like had lots of
like fresh seafood flavor so you you do this you peel this from the feet the part
of the feet see that okay yeah so all right tail comes off tail comes off just
like if you eat a shrimp you know I'm peeled yeah but there's an important thing
we want to cut the back
and then we got the guts out of the shrimp. - Okay, well I will work on this
part. Now while we're doing this, one part of what I'm doing this next year is
related to stories. So can you tell me some stories from spring festival when you
were a kid? - Well, no, it was okay, right. So that's the, in China that's the,
yeah, that's the most fun part of the year okay all right um is it kind of like
our fourth of july might be or is it different um i'll say it's halloween to kids
oh okay you get candy and then um christmas you get them so just name it number
one holiday okay the biggest holiday so to me i really like them The spring
festival I'll take that part. Okay. Yeah. Hey, you did a good job. Yeah, I
shouldn't take your job Okay, so so tell me tell me a story like you were a kid
that you remember about spring festival What's something that stands out? So I will
remember Started with the little new year lunar you near lunar,
okay? The little new year day is seven days ahead, so that's the day like the
gateway of the new year, so everybody feels that new year started that day,
so we will have a family meal but not as fancy as the New Year's Eve,
but we will have some dumplings, okay, okay and my family will get the fireworks
ready that day, that seven days before the new year and we're gonna go outside and
shoot a little bit not all of it just tiny bit and we kind of warm up seven days
before seven days before okay and as a kid I really feel that excited excitement
like started that day that's what I remember the number one - Yeah,
it's the excitement. - Excitement. - Excitement, yeah. - Yeah.
- Ooh, that was bloody.
I guess that's blood, I don't know. - It's not, it's actually the seeds. I mean,
you know, seeds here like fish, eggs. - Oh,
okay. - You know, like the shrimp has eggs here. - Well, that's the seed. - I didn't
expect that. - Every fruit has seeds so so does the shrimp so tell me why you
chose that word homage in relation to so spring festival right so you're asking
about one word about the Chinese New Year so to me I feel like it's most just an
excitement like fun things get together but I feel like the tradition of the New
Year's, Chinese New Year is like always focused on their ancestors.
Okay. Okay. So my grandparents, they are going to set up a stage thing.
What is it called? It's not a stage, but just like a little thing. You know,
altar? Yeah. Yeah. They have their parents, their grandparents pictures there.
yeah yeah yeah like a shrine right they're gonna put the the instinct insect let up
the insect incest incense incense incense right yeah yeah right they're gonna let up
that you know they're gonna pick up the most beautiful fruit and some like little
cakes you know put in front of the picture to to remember to pay homage to their
ancestors, okay? So I feel like this is really like a culture in China.
This is the moment of the year to remember your ancestor.
- How did you participate in that? Did you also put pictures out of your family or
was that something that just your parents did? And Do you still do something like
that? My grandparents like they like to do that, you know, I as a kid by then I
don't understand Why you do that? So it's not a big deal to me, but they do Make
me just stand in front of the picture and they will introduce the people in the
picture to me Okay, because I never met them in them in person. To me,
they were just a picture. But to them, they are their ancestors. But as I grow
older, you know, I realize that more and more, you know, like, hey, this is the
part of where I'm from, you know, my culture is. Yeah,
it reminds me of like in Mexican there in El Dia de los Muertos where they put
the pictures out and they go visit the graves and they talk about their family. And
I remember one thing that stood out to me, I think really this is the movie "Coco"
have you seen it? Yes. Where the guy says that they do that so they don't forget.
They don't forget that if you, nobody come to see you or you know,
you can't forget you're you're not gonna exist, right? - Well, and that goes back to
stories, because if you have a story that is,
if you've started to forget the people from many generations back, and you forget
their stories then, this seems like a way to maintain that. Is that what's
happening? - Yeah, I mean, my grandparents will tell me like some stories about their
parents, you know what they did so my grandpa my dad's that's that's my great great
grandfather right i think it's let's let's see no my great grandfather it's not my
great great it's my great grandfather it's my grandpa's father okay he once upon a
time he was the most paid homage person in his village.
He was a carpenter. He left the village,
lived in a big city back in his time, you know, but when his father died,
he just went back to his tomb and to just stay beside a tomb for three years,
didn't do anything, didn't leave the tomb, that's the culture. So as a son,
you're supposed to show this to your father, if your father died,
you don't leave the grave for several years. - You just sit there? - He just stayed,
he didn't leave physically, he didn't leave all his meal,
three meals a day, two meals a day, it's other people deliver to him.
- Now this is what he, this is what he chose to do, or is that what's expected?
- So you don't have to do it, you don't do it now, but this is what you supposed
to do in the history. - I gotcha. - But not everybody is like that extreme you know
that's why he became the most son the most son in that in the village well
surprise me I'm not really sure it's about like it's two years or three years but
it's like at least I think it started two years that's a long time yes do they
ever did you guys when you were younger did your family tell you any stories is
this the time when that was common to tell the stories about your ancestors?
Yeah, this is a yeah so my grandparents told me most of this that's the stories
about the ancestors you know my mom and dad don't really they grown up after the
the new China so it's a little bit you're pretty fast man no sorry I'm I think I
missed that one up. That's good so yeah my grandparents told me like most of the
story like this like my parents they don't really like tell me the story about
ancestor but they read books to me you know okay that kind of story like snow
white yeah so what are some common stories that you were read to as a kid that
were passing down the culture that you were learning.
- Yeah, so, you know, like in China, we have lots of poems, poems like from Tang
Dynasty. - Okay. - So it's about like 900 ,000 years, you know, Tang Dynasty. So we
learned that at school, but I also learned a lot from my
grandparents, okay, so they will read the poem to me and tell me the story behind
it. It's really like how to say, it's abstract history culture,
so in the poem it's like usually
28 letters characters, but it has a lot of like meaning behind it like this whole
story behind it yep so I can read like recite you one that would be amazing yeah
so this is one that's from Levi who is from a tongue dynasty okay most number I
say is he is one of the most famous poem poised back in the history okay so So
this poem is about to, it's about to,
how to say, homesick, you know, it's like you like just miss your,
your motherland or your hometown, okay? So this poem is called 靜夜死,
床前明月光, 疑是地上霜, 望明月 ,低頭死故鄉 Do you understand?
Did you catch it? Every bit, yeah. That's right. It's really easy poem.
Is that something you had to memorize as a kid? Yeah, we learned that at school. I
still can remember a lot of the things I read before.
It's just
this point uh -huh that the meaning is called the silent night the silent night the
silent night the silent night okay yeah so it's um it's the bright moon light shine
at your bed it looks like feels like that the frost on the field,
you know, (speaking in foreign language) You pick, you raise your head and look at
the moon. (speaking in foreign language) And then you just put your head back down
and then you start to feel like home sick. You think about your hometown.
- Okay. - So that's, he is not actually from the mainland China like this poised he
is actually from like I say Afghanistan area okay he's not a he's kind of like a
Caucasian mixed with Chinese Asian he's not a typical Chinese okay but he actually
become the most famous Chinese poised like back in Tennessee so he lived in China,
but the mainland China, you know, but it's far from his home. He is a lot of
Yeah, lots of store. Lots of poems about that
Well, so when you now when you're looking back, do you feel Thinking in that
stories about homes that you've been over here in the United States for a while
Does that resonate with you? Does that connect? Or does that really? I kind of like
miss a part of it, you know, like where I grow up, you know, my parents, my
friends, but my family is here, so yeah. Yeah, I'm just more like busy with the
kids every day here for kids. You're making your own story happen. Yep,
but I really do want to introduce more culture to them, you know,
like that's why we're, we're like hosting this, it is fun, you know, like, but
another reason like why I'm doing this is just really want them to,
to inherit age a little bit, the culture, yeah, I think,
and I think you do an amazing job because you've invited other people to come today
and you do these things for other events what are some other events throughout the
year that you celebrate through China so we have we have like several really like
traditional holidays in China we have the Dragon Bowl festival okay so on that day
people will play Dragon Bowl but we also yeah just tossing the trash can but we
also eat the sticky rice wrap -stained sticky rice with meat fillings and sweet red
bean fillings on that day to remember a poet named Qu Yuan.
That's one of the major holidays. And we have meat autumn day.
We have mooncakes on that day. So that's in the fall to celebrate harvest.
And we have old people show old people respect day so that day is um we uh just
to show your elders yeah you know yeah so and get together and let's see yeah that
day we have we have let me think we have some other holiday yeah we also have
Chinese Valentine's Day it's during the mid -summer fall before fall age you know
like in the lunar calendar it's the July Chinese Chinese Valentine's Day.
Do most of the holidays connect to the lunar calendar? Yeah we we use actually
before this everybody calendar we use only use little in China because yeah most of
people in China just farming yeah yeah so
yeah so let's go back to your word what do we first before we do that what are
we gonna do next let me see oh so this is the the pork tenderloin this is called
global roll this is a hey I show You're too bad. So this is the most popular
dishes, like in the recent year, this is from my hometown, Guobao Road. It's a
pork, and then we coat it with potato starch. Deep -fried, and then coat it with
sweet sour sauce. Like that's, everybody loves it,
okay? - Okay, and that's what you're making tonight? - Yeah, so I'm soaking this I'm
soaking the starch and then we're gonna we're gonna do this after we wrap the
dumplings okay the dumplings and now I'm gonna now I'm gonna roll this dumping dough
one more time okay let's do that a lot you're doing that we can finish up yeah I
will do that so your we use this go back one more time to the homage.
So to the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival was this past Wednesday. So tell
me what that would have looked like in your hometown this Wednesday. Yeah, so that
day both of my grandparents, like my mom's parents and my dad's parents,
they both they all passed away. So, but in the family, we still have one,
um, one of the older left in my, my hometown,
it's my grandma's younger sister. Okay. So my dad will go visit her house on that
day. So all the family is going to be at her house because she is
They're going to take fruit and I'll say Chinese liquor as a gift because during
that festival time you have to eat and drink with the whole family. That was the
most fun thing to me now, you know. So I think there will be around like 25,
30 people at her house that night, so they are going to wrap dumplings together.
Everything has to be made from scratch, just like what we're doing now.
So this is dumpling dough, it's a little bit soft, then I expect it should be
around 55 % hydration, but it knows maybe a little bit more. How do you know?
Yeah. Is there a way to know how much hydration there is that's right that's that's
right one is called experience but I have a scale yeah so you just pour water in
you know and use chopsticks mix it like a crumbly and squeeze it together but you
have to let it rest and you roll it this
So the dough will be ready in two hours, but you want to finish wrapping in four
hours. If it gets too long, the dough is going to get sticky,
the gluten will break.
This is the second time, every 15 -20 minutes, you roll it one time
There's this crumbly that is getting like smoother.
It's gonna be more smooth later. - And this is the dumpling dough you said? - This
is the dumpling dough. So we're later, I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna break in half,
you know, make a big doughnut and then break and just make a little piece of dough
and we have to roll it out or we can have to come like from scratch. But now
these days, you know, you can't find dumplings at the supermarket frozen. You just
Are they as good as this though? Definitely not. So I I made some like the shrimp
and leek and
Cabbage and pork mixed together. I didn't make it a little bit early earlier on the
spring festival But I kept the half to share with you guys today. We're gonna only
use the pork and Pork and cabbage. Okay. Yeah,
because the leak, you know, you have to go to Atlanta to buy it This is no way
you can find it here. The leak here is But like this thick. Okay.
I have a picture of the Chinese leak I'm gonna
come on I'm calling you carry I'm sorry that's the Chinese skinny almost like green
onions they are really skinny they're like this long this this way so it's just
like grass basically okay but it's yeah it has a is that what this is here.
This is swancho. Okay. This is for stir -fry later. Okay. And this, thank you.
We got this.
Let's see what I want to do. I want to grill this first. Okay. Well, I want to
finish one last question and then it can be done. Yes. So tell me the name of the
city you were from. Shenyang. Shenyang. Shenyang. So what would that city looked like
this past week. - Okay. - And many festivals and-- - So the city is, in my mind,
and you might remember, I don't know now, but in my mind, like, city was, nobody
is on the street, okay? They will have like a big street, like interstate here,
you know, like super busy traffic jam. Maybe that's a day before the Spring
Festival, the New Year's Eve, But on the certain day, this is nobody out,
you know, you don't see a car on the street It's completely like a ghost town, but
everybody's at home. So they're wrapping dumplings. They're cooking and you know,
getting ready and
There's a the TV How to say it's gala,
you know, it's a guy like a party, but every year the government will have a
Chinese New Year gala and lots of famous people will be on that on TV.
It's supposed to be live, but I don't think so.
Most every family will turn the TV on just watching It's like started around like
six and lost until midnight. It was a long time. - Wow. - And they will do the
countdown, like, you know. - We're getting attacked. - Oh, goodness. - Got me.
- You know, like the, the, what's the time square, countdown. - Oh, okay, yes. - So
the dollar will also have the same thing. You know, they have the singing, dancing,
and and think opera Chinese opera we watch a little bit this year okay so that's
like doing the meal you know and you know you drink and eat and after everything
done it's probably like 10 11ish and the kids will put up their thickest clothes
and go outside and start to do a little bit fireworks okay but you don't want to
do it so fast because we want to do it at the the new year time at the right
time right that's the at the 12 o 'clock so we're gonna like time it down and just
when it's actually 12 we just set up all the fireworks we have you know and shoot
at one time yeah and that's this that time also that city the whole city is
covered by the fireworks So my grandparents, they used to live on the 25th floor,
so they can see pretty far around them. The whole city has fireworks throughout.
That was pretty fun. Yeah, that's really cool. Now, is it always like typically the
red and yellow colors, or is it all kinds of colors? That's like the force of the
light, but it's not just one spot of the town, it's everywhere. But just imagine
the next morning. So a lot of like, you know, that fireworks thing,
but they clean up pretty fast. - So who has the better fireworks show in China or
the U .S.? - I would say like in China, I remember like, yeah, we have like the
whole town start to shoot at a fireworks at the same time. It's a little bit
different, you know? I've seen like in the U .S. for the first time, it's pretty,
But it's just different, it's just like you're just not doing it yourself,
you know So it's just like it's different you're watching people other people doing
it for you Well, I'm gonna let you get to it and then do this here, but yeah,
thanks for telling me some of your stories and sure Always enjoy.
This is the second time you've got to be a part of this. Wow. I
- No, look at this. (laughing) (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to today's
episode with Damiao Wang on the word homage. I look forward to sharing some more
episodes with you for season three coming soon. And I can't wait for you to listen
next time. Thank you again.