In the latest episode of the Taiwanese variety show “HiHi Mr. Guide,” host Li Pei-Yu (Da Pei) appeared holding a fruit basket filled with fruits and famous chili sauce from Taichung, making Ha Zi guess, “As soon as I see this jar, I know I have to go to Taichung.” Feng Yuan-Zhen, who has been living in Taichung for 6 years since getting married, also appeared on the show to share about local life and food culture.
The location to be explored in this episode is the Central District of Taichung, also known as the Old City area. Da Pei questioned Ha Zi, “Why do we have to go to the Old City area?” To everyone’s surprise, Ha Zi replied, “Because we are considered ancient artists.”
This remark led Da Pei to immediately retort, “You may be, but I am not!” This banter prompted Ha Zi to mockingly say, “How many years have you been in the industry? It’s almost 20 years, trying to act young there, please.” Da Pei, having her years of debut exposed, quickly asked Ha Zi to “shut up,” and their amusing conversation had everyone bursting into laughter.
When welcoming the guest players Ah Xiang and Feng Yuan-Zhen, Ha Zi introduced them as “relatively old artists,” which prompted his partner Da Pei to remind him, “That’s impolite.” Unexpectedly, Ha Zi had his unique perspective, saying, “How is it impolite? Older artists are more familiar to everyone and have more emotional connections.” This left Ah Xiang and Feng Yuan-Zhen speechless.
Feng Yuan-Zhen, often dubbed as the “Taiwanese Lin Chi-ling,” moved to Taichung after getting married. She finds life in Taichung very interesting, including enjoying papaya milk with grilled toast or bread, as well as sour plum soup with noodles.
As a native of Tainan, Ah Xiang tried to forge connections with Taichung by bringing up the association, “My wife’s sister is from Taichung,” which amused Ha Zi, “Do we want to know that? Who cares about your wife’s sister?”
Ah Xiang mentioned that he is familiar with the Old City area of Taichung as a Tainanese, but he rarely visits now because people from the Philippines, Indonesia, etc., go there for shopping. Ha Zi jokingly teased, “You going back there means you’re the home team now.” Ah Xiang, mistaken as a new immigrant, self-deprecatingly said, “Why do I rarely go? When I go, they speak in the regional dialect, I can’t understand a thing. If they speak in Indonesian, would I understand?” Their banter brought laughter to everyone.