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Ms.
Yeah is a Chinese youtuber that uses became a sensation very recently. Her
videos involve her using everyday objects you can find in an office and she
uses those objects to cook her, and sometimes her coworkers, food. As a media
scholar, I should use a Humanistic Approach is the most
appropriate way to understand this video.
We have to look at this as an outsider. Ms.
Yeah is a Chinese citizen living at an undisclosed heavily populated city. The
meals she prepares are traditional Chinese cuisine and prepared using
traditional Chinese techniques to prepare the food. The materials used may not
be what is traditional used, but the techniques are. If we critique as someone
not from China, we may say “it is unsanitary to prepare Jello in used folders”
or “why didn’t her boss fire her for doing all this at work.” We can’t be so quick
to judge another cultures video without understanding the origin.
If
we take the time to understand the video like I have, she has explained in Q&A
video that she works at a company that produces content for other companies to
put on their social media sites. It so happens that she started doing all this
cooking in her office out of boredom and started recording it. After one video she
trended to the top spot of Youtube and became an instant hit. Her boss took
notice and made it her job to continue doing all this cooking at work. Her
videos have become famous even outside of China and she finds it amazing that
people outside of China find interest in their cooking and culture. And I for
one enjoy all her videos despite a cultural barrier.
Hi there! I loved your choice of media, I hadn't thought of choosing a Youtuber to analyze. I think there was more opportunity to apply the Humanistic Approach to this piece, or perhaps to choose a different approach. Because the Humanistic Approach focuses on how education can better society. Maybe you could touch on how Ms. Yeah's videos and freedom to express her recipes is an intellectual pursuit to better society. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI like this choice of video, I think it is nice to show videos and content from other countries where cultures do vary in these types of ways, and people who are not from that culture are very quick to judge them for doing something different from their own. Though I do think that you could have talked about how it used the Humanistic Approach. But I really enjoyed reading your post!
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