It's not "just food"

Okay. So I am not very happy.

I'm watching Masterchef Australia, season 3. Now, usually, this is a highlight of my day or week--there's something about the excitement of Masterchef Australia that makes me really happy when I'm watching the show. Please note that this does not apply to Masterchef US--the American version is arbitrarily exploitative, gratuitously mean and probably some of the guiltiest guilty reality TV watching that exists.

Today, however, Masterchef AU has got my blood boiling. The reason for this unhappiness? The contestants are cooking a fantastically gourmet meal for ("His Holiness") the Dalai Lama.

Now, I'm not a hardcore PRC loyalist, and I especially want to point out that I'm not against the Dalai Lama's reception by Western media figures, celebrities or even political figures. I think he can be a powerful and important symbol for peace and international cooperation, and should have the appropriate attention and support when his cause is worthy. I even thought it was cute and amusing that he had spent his last visit to Australia with Bindi Irwin.

But it's what Masterchef represents that is inherently incompatible with a Buddhist, spiritual leader. Masterchef is about fine dining, fancy ingredients, sparkly presentation and gourmet (read: expensive and small) food. On the other hand, what do we think of when we think about Buddhism? Humility, modesty, suffering... And what do we think of when we think of Tibet? It's a politically-uncertain territory, represented by a government-in-exile and controlled by a powerful military, a culture that is said to be 'feudalised' by its system built around landholding noblemen and monastries.

"It's just food", narrates Ellie when the Dalai Lama holds her hand and seems to be forgiving her for not getting her planned dish on the plate. But that's just the problem--it's not just food. It can't be, and it shouldn't be just food to someone who represents a poor, uneducated nation, who is supposed to embody frugality and subsistence. At least she managed to plate the gnocchi up, otherwise I would be expecting a well-deserved discussion about the waste of food.

Instead, the utmost importance of food is dismissed with a flowery sentence about the Dalai Lama's appreciation for the contestants' efforts, and the episode seeks to be emotive by being fluttery. Dani giggles like the ridiculous fangirl she is, as the Dalai Lama speaks a few phrases of what sounds like broken English (is that all he picked up during his many years in India?). Guest judge and 'the original ABC' Kylie Kwong, in her usual costume of all black, too many rings for the food safety department to approve of and dark-rimmed glasses, shows him around the pantry and speaks to him as if he's a little child ("That's cheese! You like cheese, right?").

In the end, even Ellie's rivals' generous help in helping her get her dish together doesn't save her from going into an Elimination Round--not exactly a triumph for compassion.

The judges and the Dalai Lama preparing themselves to eat through prayer. Photo credit The Daily Telegraph

In my last history class in college, we read memoirs on the Cultural Revolution and the crazy fanatic qualities that the Red Guards exhibited when they gathered in Tiananmen Square to greet their idol, Mao Zedong. We went around the small seminar room and each student thought about whether there is any celebrity, politician or public figure of any kind that could make us go crazy like that. Unsurprisingly, we couldn't come up with anyone whom we would idolise in that way.

Watching the star-struck faces of the Masterchef contestants, hearing their tears at small setbacks and out-of-breath, irrational claims ("The Dalai Lama just touched me!!!" - Billy) and Kylie Kwong's deep bow before the food is presented, I realised that the fanatic behaviour attributed to the Red Guards towards Mao can be replicated on 'reality' TV with clever writing and video editing, in a situation where the so-called 'fans' had never really been emotionally attached to the idol.

Isn't the media eerily powerful in an absurdly inappropriate way? Isn't it scary that the Western media can downplay the stark realities of the lack of food and resources, and instead focus on sugarcoating a political figure, in the same way that the CCP was able to during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution?