When Jiang Xuan, 41, also known as Jiang Laodao online, started to create food videos in 2013, the short-video platform Douyin had not been established and Bilibili was barely known. The short-video streaming and sharing sector was in its infancy.
41岁的姜轩（网名“姜老刀”）2013年开始制作美食视频。那时短视频流媒体共享平台还处于起步阶段——抖音尚未建立，而哔哩哔哩还是小众平台。
图源：微博@日食记
The major video-sharing platform was Tudou, where Jiang launched the first episode of Cat's Kitchen, a series of food video clips specializing in Chinese cuisine and traditional delicacies, which had more than 54 million subscribers across all platforms by the end of last year.
当时主要的视频分享平台是土豆网。姜轩在土豆网上发布了《日食记》的第一集。《日食记》是一系列聚焦中国菜与传统美食的视频短片。截至去年年底，其所有平台订阅用户已超过5400万。
"Everyone is the director of their life" was the slogan of Tudou, as it aimed to stimulate the creative enthusiasm of individuals and startups, says Jiang. "Cat's Kitchen has been established to deliver our thoughts about food to the younger generation."
土豆网的口号是“每个人都是生活的导演”，旨在激发个人和初创企业的创作热情。姜轩说：“《日食记》是为了将我们对食物的理解传达给年轻一代。”
动图图源：微博@日食记
It was not until 2015 that he began to promote videos of Cat's Kitchen on Bilibili, because Jiang used to regard the platform as a service provider that catered for a much younger audience that had little interest in cooking. However, once on the platform, the video series was very well received and enjoyed a boost to even greater levels of popularity.
直到2015年，他才开始在哔哩哔哩上推广《日食记》。因为姜轩曾经觉得哔哩哔哩的目标用户是年轻观众，而年轻人对烹饪毫无兴趣。然而，《日食记》系列视频一进入该平台，就受到了广泛好评，并获得了更高的知名度。
"I started to think that our positioning had been inaccurate when our videos turned out to be very popular on Bilibili," says Jiang, who initially set his target demographic as college graduates who are just starting to live independently and getting married. "However, while many college students may not have fully entered society, they have very clear preferences and attitudes toward life, and cooking is an important element of that," Jiang explains.
姜轩说：“当我们的视频在哔哩哔哩上非常流行时，我开始觉得我们的定位不太准确。”他最初将目标受众设定为刚刚开始独立生活或即将步入婚姻生活的大学毕业生。姜轩解释道：“然而，尽管许多在校大学生可能还没有完全融入社会，但他们对生活有着非常明确的偏好和态度，而烹饪就是其中一个重要因素。”
The team was one of the top 100 Bilibili content creators in 2018. As of early November, the official account for Cat's Kitchen on the platform had uploaded 459 video episodes, and currently boasts over 6.29 million followers.
姜轩的团队是2018年百大UP主之一。截至11月初，《日食记》在哔哩哔哩上的官方账号已上传459集视频，目前拥有629万粉丝。
Since 2015, Jiang has also posted videos on YouTube. "Although we don't think YouTube will bring us many business prospects, we are very keen for people in other countries to see our content and what we are trying to express and convey," Jiang explains.
自2015年以来，姜轩还在YouTube上发布了视频。姜轩解释说：“虽然我们不认为YouTube会给我们带来很多商业价值，但我们非常希望其他国家的人们也能看到我们的作品以及我们试图传达的理念。”
He adds that he receives emails from many other users in other countries to interact with him about the dishes featured. Some even invited him to visit in person and cook with them after the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of that, he says, he feels "a sense of presence among many foreign friends when sharing videos on the platform".
姜轩补充说，他收到许多来自其他国家用户的电子邮件，与他探讨特色美食。一些人甚至邀他见面，在新冠疫情结束后一起做菜。姜轩表示，正因为如此，他感到“在平台上分享视频让他在许多外国朋友中间有一种存在感”。
He observes that his team "often gets strong feedback when making a very traditional and Chinese-style dish". For example, a particularly popular episode featuring traditional Chinese cuisine, called Steamed Chinese Cabbage in Supreme Soup, received "10 times the clicks compared to the average interactions with other videos" they uploaded.
姜轩观察发现，他的团队“在制作一道非常传统的中式菜肴时，往往会得到强烈的反馈”。例如，一集介绍传统中国菜“开水白菜”的视频特别受欢迎，点击量是他们上传的“其他视频平均互动次数的10倍”。
开水白菜。受访者供图
Jiang says that, last year, the team made an episode of the Complete Manchu-Han Banquet, the palace feast that took place during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), of which 88 dishes from more than 100 years ago have been re-created. It is a banquet which features royal cuisine and local delicacies of both the Han and Manchu ethnic groups. The team spent over two months on the video.
姜轩说，去年他们团队制作了一桌完整的“满汉全席”，88道100多年前的菜肴被重新制作。“满汉全席”为清朝（1644-1911年）的宫廷盛宴，是集汉族和满族的皇家菜肴以及当地美食而形成的中华大宴。姜轩的团队花了两个多月的时间制作视频。
图源：YouTube@日食记官方频道
To his delight, their effort paid dividends. The video performed impressively — it has been clicked over 56 million times on Bilibili and viewed 140,000 times on YouTube.
令姜轩高兴的是，他们的努力得到了回报。这段视频大受好评——在哔哩哔哩上收获超过5600万次的点击数，在YouTube上的浏览次数达到14万次。
Jiang says that presenting ancient dishes is not easy. "When making modern dishes, there will be countless methods, but for some older cuisines, many ingredients are no longer available," he says. "Also, there might be disputes or arguments among the viewers, since we can only present them through our understanding of the available historical references."
姜轩表示，呈现古代菜肴并不容易。他说：“制作现代菜肴有无数种方法，但对于一些老菜系来说，许多配料已经很难再找到。此外，观众之间可能会有不同的看法，因为我们只能通过我们所理解的现有历史参考资料来呈现菜品。”
图源：Bilibili@日食记
Jiang believes that Chinese aesthetics contains many illuminating areas that can be illustrated, some of which "may get ignored, forgotten or taken for granted by us Chinese at certain times". Once they are dug out and presented, they will shine brightly. "I think it is good that such content can be mentioned and noticed again, with the help of internet influencers, such as Li Ziqi," Jiang says.
姜轩认为，中国美学博大精深，值得深入探索。其中一些内容“在某些时候可能被我们中国人忽视、遗忘或视为理所当然”。一旦它们被挖掘并呈现出来，就会闪闪发光。姜轩说：“我认为在李子柒等KOL的帮助下，这些内容能够再次被提及和关注，是件好事。”
受访者供图
He adds that the treasure trove of Chinese cuisine is so large that no dish has been repeated in Cat's Kitchen over the past eight years. "That is the most special characteristic of Chinese food, which has also impressed the outside world."
他补充说，中国菜的宝库如此之大，以至于在过去八年中，《日食记》没有重复做过一道菜。“这是中国菜最独特的一点，也给外界留下了深刻印象。”
图源：微博@日食记
As well as introducing archaic dishes to "inherit the history of our cuisine", which accounts for one-third of Cat's Kitchen's content, Jiang also focuses on the contemporary.
除了介绍古老的菜肴以“继承我们的烹饪历史”（占《日食记》内容的三分之一）外，姜轩也关注当代的美食。
"We are willing to zoom in on common dishes, such as barbecue chilled noodles, or signature snacks from Heilongjiang province, which are good representatives of contemporary Chinese cuisine that also deserve to be displayed."
“我们愿意深挖家常菜，如烤冷面或黑龙江招牌小吃，它们是当代中国美食的优秀代表，也值得展示。”
烤冷面摊。图源：东方IC
编辑：商桢 周婵
录音：Stephanie Stone
实习生：舒好
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