【Sea and River Food Talk】Did you know? Wuhan’s famous snack, duck necks, turned out to be a fictional creation from a novel!
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Chi Li helped create a Wuhan specialty snack – duck necks. In 2000, Chi Li wrote her new work, \"Life Show\". The protagonist of the novel is Lai Shuangyang, an individual female owner who sells duck necks at the night market on Jiqing Street in Wuhan. Lai Shuangyang is a celebrity and brand ambassador on Jiqing Street. She has to sell 15 jin of duck necks every day ； Anything that couldn’t be sold that day was bought in its entirety by a man named Zhuo Xiongzhou.
In Wuhan, Jiqing Street is a real night market street, but duck necks are a fictional snack created by Chi Li. At that time, on Jiqing Street, no one sold duck necks. However, with the release of the novel \"Life Show,\" duck necks became an internet-famous snack. There was a person named Liu Qiong who took advantage of the popularity of \"Life Show\" to open a duck neck stall on Jiqing Street; she even registered the \"Lai Shuangyang\" brand of duck necks with the Hankou Branch of Wuhan’s Industry and Commerce Bureau.
In 2002, \"Life Show\" was adapted into a film of the same name, starring the famous actress Tao Hong. During the filming, actors such as Tao Hong went to Jiqing Street to experience local life, where they met Liu Qiong. Liu Qiong immediately realized this was a rare opportunity for promotion, and she enthusiastically invited Tao Hong and others to have duck necks.
After its release, \"Life Show\" was a huge success, receiving both critical acclaim and high box office returns. It won the Award for Best Female Actor at the 8th China Film Huabiao Awards in 2002, as well as the Awards for Best Actress and Best Screenplay at the 22nd China Film Golden Rooster Awards in 2002. Not only that, but after the TV series \"Life Show\" became popular across the country, duck necks turned into an ideal accompaniment for drinks at night market stalls everywhere, thus giving rise to an entire food industry chain. Today, brands such as Jiujiu Duck Neck, Jingwu Duck Neck, and Laishuangyang Duck Neck, which can be found everywhere, are all names created in \"Life Show\".
Even more legendary is the fact that duck necks have given rise to three listed companies: Huangshanghuang, which was listed on the Shenzhen A-share market in September 2012; Zhouheiya, which was listed on the Hong Kong stock market in November 2016; and Juewei, which was listed on the Shanghai A-share market in March 2017. As of now, the market value of Huangshanghuang is 12.54 billion yuan, that of Zhouheiya is 19.18 billion Hong Kong dollars, and that of Juewei is 49.04 billion yuan. People joke that without Chi Li, there would be no world-famous Wuhan duck necks.