Li Ziqi’s ‘The Life of Cucumbers’

Bundles of bamboo provide a climbing wall for a healthy batch of luffa fruit. Cucumber plants sprout and are transplanted into a larger plot of land nearby. In this video, Li Ziqi grows, harvests, and prepares these cucurbits into delicious dishes. She even expertly weaves a leaf basket while hunting for edible mushrooms in the forest.

Li Ziqi‘s YouTube Channel depicts pastoral life in the mountains and forests of Northern China’s Pingwu County where she lives with her grandmother. She writes:

During the Covid-19 outbreak in the first half of the year, I set up bamboo fences around the outer walls, and planted some vine plants and vegetables, like cucumbers and luffas. When fleeting spring gives way to summer, these cuties start to send green glow.

Pick the fresh cucumbers from the vine, and some termite mushrooms from the mountains. Cucumber peels with Lap-mei, cold noodles with chicken shreds, fried rice with cucumbers, Chinese chicken burrito.

Note: There are a few brief but clear shots of the whole chicken being prepared for the meal.

Watch more Li Ziqi videos on TKSST or on YouTube, including:
• Li Ziqi and the Golden Season of Corn
• Li Ziqi’s ‘The Life of Cotton’
• How traditional Chinese cloth shoes are made
• Blue calico dyeing and batik printing with Li Ziqi