**Title: Love Notes on the Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures**
**Author: Divine Witch Who Loves to Eat**
**Publisher: Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore**
**Publication Date: 2020-08-17 17:30**
**Introduction:**
The Lover, originally intending to pen an erotic book due to limited experience, decided to begin with aquatic products, a subject more familiar to many. It turns out, the intimate lives of these creatures significantly influence their taste and quality. A curious fact: the gonads of smelt fish taste like cucumber, the body of swordfish hardens post-mating, and both the roe of female crabs and the fat of male crabs are products of their amorous nourishment.
**Is it perverse to delve daily into the sexual lives of aquatic products?**
I pondered and concluded that my work remains dignified. Aquatic creatures, I find, are more fascinating than humans—they exhibit more vigor, purity, and beauty. The authenticity of the ancient marine life book, ‘Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures’, drawn by Qing Dynasty painter Nie Huang, is questionable, yet it has captivated emperors with its alluring charm.
**About the Book:**
‘Love Notes on the Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures’ is a tribute to food enthusiasts. It is my belief that, as apex predators, we should approach our sustenance with humility. The vastness of nature, once tasted, leaves us as mere transient visitors on Earth, knowing very little. Respect and dependence breed infatuation, and the human-nature relationship is governed by the grand law of ‘love’.
Through this light-hearted book, I hope to inspire love for nature, beginning with the food on our plates. ‘Love Notes on the Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures’ uses the creatures in ‘Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures’ as a starting point, emotionally exploring the loves, hates, dietary flavors, and chef secrets of 30 aquatic species. It is a collection that is both informative and entertaining.
**Contents:**
– 19 essays
– 12 hand accounts
– 30 vivid ‘love and affection pictures’
This book is an engaging, amusing, and informative note on the ‘love and deliciousness’ of marine life in the ‘Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures’. The separate volume, ‘Fish Water Joy’, features illustrations and is available for pre-order on JD by searching ‘Love Notes on the Illustrated Catalogue of Mistaken Sea Creatures’.
**Personal Reflections:**
Despite years of eating, food has not fully healed me. The anxiety of hunger remains, as does the unease I feel during love or press conferences. The more I eat, the more I find myself unable to let go. As I savor the stewed egg with silver fish, I am filled with gratitude for this deliciousness in my heart.
I am grateful for the opportunity granted by Shanghai Sanlian Publishing House and SFC Shanghai Film Art Cinema to embark on this peculiar yet enjoyable first show. I would like to extend my thanks to a group of wonderful friends who have supported me in this journey:
– Yu Xiaoqin, the mother of China’s Nasa Exhibition, who was the earliest instigator of this book.
– My special assistant Melon, who experienced everything with me.
– Illustrator Bamboo, with whom I co-created the intimate life of fish, a process akin to giving birth.
– Kuang Kuang and Qiao Mei, who accompanied me in passionately revising the manuscript until late at night.**’Love Notes of Illustrated Marine Creatures’ – A Tribute to Nature’s Bounty and the Art of Eating**
*By Shen Po Ai Chi, Published by Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore*
The ‘Illustrated Marine Creatures’, a Qing Dynasty masterpiece by artist Nie Huang, though its authenticity is a subject of debate, it still perfumes the emperors’ pillows with its charm. This book is a dedication to all food enthusiasts, reminding us of the humility we must embrace as we stand atop the food chain. Despite our voracious appetites, we are but transient visitors to this Earth, and our knowledge, even after a lifetime, is minimal. Respect and dependence on nature’s wonders are the foundations of our infatuation with the world, and the relationship between humans and nature is governed by the grand law of ‘love’.
In this light-hearted yet insightful book, I hope to inspire a love for nature by encouraging readers to cherish the rare delicacies on their plates. ‘Love Notes of Illustrated Marine Creatures’ takes the creatures from the imperial bedside book as a starting point, sensually exploring the loves, hates, dietary flavors, and culinary secrets of 30 aquatic species. It is a collection that is both informative and engaging, filled with ‘dry goods’ and intriguing narratives.
The book comprises 19 essays, 12 firsthand accounts, and 30 vivid ‘love and affection pictures’, making it an informative and delightful exploration of the ‘love and deliciousness’ of marine creatures. It also includes hand-drawn notes on the dragon head fish and is printed in two colors, accompanied by a full-color booklet ‘Fish Water Joy’, which secretly reveals the love secrets of these aquatic elves. For a preview of ‘Fish Water Joy’, search for ‘Love Notes of Illustrated Marine Creatures’ on JD.
I have been a lover of food for many years, but food has not completely healed me, particularly regarding the issue of hunger when nervous, which has always been a concern.
**The Launch Event and its Significance**
The launch event of ‘Love Notes of Illustrated Marine Creatures’ was a celebration of both romance and the joy of eating. As I savor the delicacy of silver fish stewed in egg, I am filled with gratitude for this delightful taste and the opportunity provided by Shanghai Sanlian Publishing House and SFC Shanghai Film Art Cinema to host this unique and entertaining event.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to many friends who have supported this book. Yu Xiaoqin, the mother of China’s NASA exhibition, was its earliest advocate. My special assistant, Melon, was there through every step. The illustrator, Bamboo, and I co-created the journey of the fish’s sexual life, a process akin to giving birth to a child. Kuang Kuang and Qiao Mei have been my constant companions, passionately working on the manuscript until late at night.
I have also been fortunate to work with many talented individuals on the creative opening show, including Teacher Eyebrows, Teacher Wang Wenwei, Teacher Lv Qing, Teacher Fang Yilan, and young dancers Yao Chenhao and Wang Ruoxue. The main visual was created by Zhang Ying, and I am grateful to the food critics and celebrity chefs who appeared in my book: Wu Guoping, Annie, Zeng Qihui, Hou Xinqing, and many others.
**A Special Thanks**
I extend my special thanks to the chairman of Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore for recommending ‘The Love Notes of Hai Cuo Tu’. If there are any friends I have forgotten, please reach out to me, and let’s share a meal together!
**NO.1 New Book Launch at the Cinema**
SFC Shanghai Film Art Cinema and Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore came together for a cross-boundary collaboration. On August 14, at 4:30 PM, at the Onyx Hall of SFC Shanghai Film Art Cinema, Hongqiao Yonghua Store, the famous music poet Wang Wenwei gently plucked the strings, and the ethereal music filled the air.Subsequently, in the ‘ocean’ woven by the music, two ‘goldfish’ dressed in colorful clothes slowly swam out, touching, depending on each other, turning, and separating… This is the love of fish, their memory is very short, a love may only last seven seconds, but it has already created the dazzling beauty of their lives.
This is the launch of the new book ‘The Love Notes of Hai Cuo Tu’ published by Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore, a cross-boundary attempt by two cultural enterprises. This is a food and photo book about the delicacies of fresh seafood, with the imperial bedside book ‘Illustrated Manual of Aquatic Creatures’ as its clue. The author, a food influencer known as ‘Goddess Who Loves to Eat’, claims to be a Virgo Type A obsessive-compulsive foodie. After years of feasting on the fresh and humid sea breeze according to the seasons, she discovered that the migration, mating, and spawning of marine life are closely related to flavor. With a bloated belly from overeating, she wrote this book with great interest. She, who does not follow the beaten path, had long planned with the publisher to hold an unconventional new book launch to arouse more people’s appreciation for the lives of fish.
Her friend, Wang Wenwei, is a legendary musician whose music continuously evolves and extends with emotions, providing a perfect vehicle for the love of fish. After he agreed to create impromptu music on the spot, she invited international up-and-coming designer Lv Qing to present the fleeting gathering and disappearance of fish through fashion design. Cross-disciplinary artists Eyebrows and dramatist Fang Yilan provided ample guidance for dancers in terms of body language and integration with music.
After the new book launch show, the movie ‘Big Fish & Begonia’ was screened, vividly displaying the ‘love affairs’ between humans and fish. The integrated launch show of music, dance, books, and movies left a deep impression on the attendees, and the content boundaries of the book and movie were expanded invisibly. It is reported that SFC Shanghai Film City and Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore will take this cooperation as a starting point to further discuss in-depth cooperation, making better use of the high-quality content of book publishing and the comfortable space of the film city, complementing each other’s resources and interacting across different fields.
On August 14th, from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM, there will be a delicious live broadcast titled ‘People Who Love Eating Have a Love for Food | ‘Love Notes on the Illustrated Manual of Aquatic Creatures’ Book Exhibition Conversation’. NO.2 The strictest book fair in history with Tencent Live Broadcasting (due to the epidemic, ticketing is limited!) I practiced overnight the ultimate technique of eating with chopsticks through a mask, a skill to be passed on only to those who are not thin! Everyone has heard that this book fair is limited in terms of flow. So basically, tickets were sold out instantly, and masks must be worn throughout the exhibition. To make the live broadcast more vivid, Queenie from Tencent suggested I do a bit of ‘aquatic food broadcasting’. The exhibition organizer reminded that it’s not allowed. What about eating with chopsticks through a mask? If you can do it, try it! This time, I am so confident because I have invited big names to support! Everyone is familiar with Teacher Dong Keping, who graduated from the Philosophy Department of Peking University. He is a food critic, the founder of the ‘Big Bite Food List’, an expert advisor for the APEC Beijing Leaders’ Meeting, a food consultant for the first and second seasons of ‘A Bite of China’, the chief consultant and planner for CCTV’s ‘Chinese Flavor’, the chief consultant for CCTV’s ‘Taste·Way’, the gourmet master for ‘Chef’s Competition’ on CCTV’s financial channel, the organizer of Morgan Stanley’s China Summit banquet, a final judge for the world’s top thousand restaurants by La Liste France, a director of Meituan’s Black Pearl List, a director of the Olive China Restaurant Awards, and a director of Ctrip’s Food Forest. Author of ‘Foodie’ volumes one and two, ‘Oral Cravings’, ‘Food Fun’, ‘Fresh Eats’, and ‘Taste Quest’. Consultant for the culinary documentary ‘Flavors of the World’, chief planner for ‘Flavor Lab’, member of the World Chinese Catering Industry Federation’s Food Culture Committee, honorary president of the Yunnan Catering and Gastronomy Industry Association, honorary president of the Jiangsu Catering Industry Association’s Gastronomy Committee, and consultant for the Shenzhen Food Culture Promotion Association. Listen to the wise words of a food connoisseur, read ‘Love Notes on the Sea Error Map’, and understand every bite of food, comprehend the vibrant life and love of seafood, and cherish every mouthful!
Nie Huang, consultant for the China International Food Expo. Producer of ‘The Table of the Gods’. ‘Sea Error Map’ Food Bless You!
