For many young Chinese, meals are becoming flavorless without videos

Zhang Jianyi, a college sophomore in Handan, Hebei Province, has developed an eating ritual. In addition to a comfortable chair and table, and delicious dishes, a smartphone or tablet is indispensable. With her favorite show, Empresses in the Palace on the small screen, she finds her meal tastier.

Debuted in 2011, the popular Chinese costume drama tells the story of a woman's survival amid jealous intrigue and betrayal within the imperial palace walls. Zhang said she has watched the 76-episode show 10 times, if not more, not only when she eats, but also when she cleans her room and in bed before falling asleep.

"If I don't watch those videos when I have my meal, I feel like everything is wrong and has no flavor," Zhang told Beijing Review. She said sometimes at lunchtime in her dormitory, she and her five roommates all eat at their own desks, in front of their own video players, relishing their respective shows while eating.

In recent years, dianzi zhacai, or digital pickles, has emerged as a term that refers to videos people watch when eating, which they find make the dining experience more relaxing and the food more delicious. The term comes from the preference for using zhacai, or pickled vegetables, as a seasoning or condiment to add flavor to dishes during meals. While it has seasoned the life of many young Chinese, it has also aroused discussion.

Seasoning for the senses

"Dianzi zhacai can be thought of as a brief escape from the busy and stressful urban life for young people," Wang Chengwei, a professor with a research focus on the social impact of science and technology at the University of Science and Technology of China, told Beijing Youth Daily. "Or we could say young people just want to have a space to be left alone."

While having a meal or a cup of coffee together with other people is commonly seen as a way of relaxing, they can be exhausting for many people. Introverts in particular may find that eating and socializing with people they are not that familiar with drain their energy.

"In comparison, enjoying digital pickles alone can be a way for them to recharge themselves. After being refreshed from the process, they can go back to their adult life and be as social as they need," Wang said.

In November 2022, DT-Tamen, an official account affiliated to business portal Yicai.com on Weixin, one of China's most popular super apps, released a ranking of the most popular digital pickles among young Chinese.

The ranking was based on about 3,500 responses to a poll on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) on people's favorite shows to watch while eating.

At the top of the list was My Own Swordsman, an 80-episode comedy set 500 years ago, focusing on the encounters between six people working at an inn. Its irony and heartwarming plots have led to its enduring popularity since it made its debut in 2006.

In addition to Chinese series like My Own Swordsman and Empresses in the Palace, which ranked third on the list, several works from other countries also made it into the ranking. Japanese anime Crayon Shin-chan and U.S animation SpongeBob Squarepants were in second and 20th places and American TV series Friends was No.5. Among the 30 TV series on the list, more than half are dramas, more than 10 are sitcoms and three are animations.

Alongside TV series, other types of short and long videos are also popular for use as digital pickles, including mukbang, a form of social media video in which people eat in front of a camera, and game-streaming.

Yi Ze is a gaming influencer. When he first started live-streaming himself playing games, he took breaks for lunch and dinner, until one of his followers suggested he continue to live-stream while he ate his meals. He took the suggestion and became a digital pickle producer.

"Reality shows can bring them joy, chat shows companionship, and game-streaming the excitement of playing with zero cost," Yi said.

Digital comfort

At some points, Zhang wanted to stop watching videos to focus on eating. "I may eat too much before realizing it, because my focus is too fixed on the dazzling screen," she worried. "Internet addiction is not a new phenomenon, but now an increasing number of people have it. We swallow information from a wide range of online sources without thinking about it deeply, but do we really absorb it, and are those fragments of information worth taking in the first place?"

Han Chuanxi, Dean of the College of Humanities and Communication at Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, believes the development of media technology brings increased entertainment and convenience, but is making people lonely individuals who look to find comfort and emotional support on these platforms. "Indulging in these behaviors will make people socially distant and unable to exercise self-discipline," he said.

However, Wang believes that digital pickles can bring people with the same tastes together, especially online.

On Douban, China's popular social networking platform, a group named May I Try Your Digital Pickles was set up in December 2022 and now has more than 70,000 members. The group recommends and discusses shows and influencers that make good mealtime viewing.

"When I run out of shows to watch while eating, I turn to the group and often discover new 'treasures' there. I'm also excited to see that many people love the same shows as I do," Liu Xin, a member of the group and a translator in Shanghai, told Beijing Review.

Zhang also finds pleasure and a sense of belonging in the bullet comments, or danmu in Chinese, as she watches videos on Bilibili.com, a popular online TV platform with more than 300 million monthly active users. Danmu is a feature on online video sites in China and Japan that allows comments from viewers to fly across the screen in real-time as videos play.

"Some witty danmu cracks me up, while some express the exact same words I have in my mind. It's a kind of communication, too," Zhang said.

Despite the comforting effect of digital pickles on the soul, medical professionals warn about its negative impacts on the body. Xu Xiaojun, supervising nurse in the emergency critical care department of Shanghai Songjiang District Central Hospital, said watching a cellphone screen rather than concentrating on eating can lead to many risks, including swallowing a foreign body, infection of the digestive tract, obesity and shortsightedness.

In an article written by Xu and published by Xinmin Evening News in April, he acknowledged there's more to the issue. "People are always encouraged to put down their phones and focus on eating," he wrote. "But that's easier said than done."