Video of the Week: Laowai speaking Sichuanhua

Jonathan Kott (Jiang Nan) is an American who has been living in Chengdu for over 10 years. In that time he seems to have mastered the ins and outs of Sichuanhua and is now fluent in the local dialect. In the time he's been there, Jiang Nan has developed quite a reputation in Sichuan, he's been profiled multiple times in the mainstream Chinese press and, as a presenter on Chengdu Television's Daoting Tushuo program, is now become something of a household name in Chengdu – a Sichuan Dashan if you will. In other accomplishments he was awarded the title of the Chili Eating King (辣椒王子) at a Chili eating competition and last June opened his own bar in Chengdu. He also happens to be quite a good photographer.

Since mid-March Jiang Nan has been posting short films starring himself on to video sharing sites such as Tudou and Youku. In the videos, he can be seen narrating in fluent local dialect as he wanders the streets of Chengdu in search of a good bowl of noodles. The videos have attracted quite a bit of attention for their novelty value of a laowai speaking in a local Chinese dialect. However, the appeal of a foreigner speaking fangyan is nowhere near as high as that of meinü at the ongoing Beijing Auto Show. This video was uploaded to Youku 2 days ago and has already been viewed over 800,000 times.

Links and Sources
Sina: 江喃的BLOG (Jiang Nan's Blog)
Photo.net: Jonathan Kott
Xinhua: 一位老外眼里的成都
Sohu: 江喃爱成都（外国人在中国）(图)
Tudou: 面面俱到：江喃吃面记
56.com: 面面俱到：江喃吃面记
Youku: 面面俱到: 江喃吃面记 (2)
Youku: 北京车展极品美女