saintcavish

we're coming up on 100,000 followers and to celebrate, we're gonna turn it over to you guys: our first annual fan Q&A!

graeme and i are both dangerously transparent, so ask us anything, and you're likely to get an answer, in video format.

we'll record all of our answers as one video in the coming month, so we're open for questions right now! we'll pick from the comment section here and on the Chinese platforms we use. DEADLINE FOR QUESTIONS IS DECEMBER 1, 2025.

while we're at it, we're going to crowdsource an idea for one of our upcoming episodes. tell us where in mainland China we should go and what you think we should film there. we'll choose one winner and add the episode to our upcoming shoot list.

ASK AWAY!

1 week ago | [YT] | 211

saintcavish

guys, we have been delinquent in telling you about our Patreon -- and in maintaining the Patreon itself. but we're bringing it back to life, so if you haven't already, go over there and sign up: www.patreon.com/saintcavish

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 84

saintcavish

A year ago this week, Graeme Kennedy and I launched this documentary series about Chinese food. We’ve gotten a lot of views and a lot of followers – and a lot of questions about who pays for all this. So for our first anniversary, I’m going to explain.

We are not:

1. Rich
2. Government-sponsored in any way
3. Soft advertising for our subjects

Our funding comes from:

1. Five private investors who contributed seed money to cover our travel expenses
2. YouTube’s AdSense program, which has paid us about $10k USD total over the course of Season 1’s 13 episodes (or roughly 10% of our costs)

In fact, we’re just a couple of guys who believe strongly in telling food stories from China, where we have lived for a combined 30+ years. Neither of us have the kind of money to allow us to do this privately, and it’s only through the generosity of our first investors (our friends) and our team of researchers that we’re able to do this at all, without having to complicate things by involving government or advertising interests.

So how do we make money?

The simple reality is, we don’t, at least not yet.

Graeme, myself and our team donate our time to the project. We stay in cheap hotels, fly economy and pay for all our own meals, even when we are filming a business. We keep costs low and guard our investment. No one gets a salary. We don’t have an office.

Of course, we are not monks. We have a blast making these videos and believe there is some reward in the bigger picture, both in terms of karma and finances. We can’t and won’t do this for free, forever.

That’s not to say we don’t have a business plan. We do. Corporate partnerships, sponsorship, AdSense, long-tail video revenue – all of that. We’re working towards it.

If you’re in a position to talk about sponsorship or interested in supporting our mission by becoming an investor, by all means, get in touch. We are fully legal, with registered entities in both China and the US. We’d like to keep making these documentaries.

But for now, at least, we are trying to build something good first and worry about the money second.

And at this stage, we’ll just as happily take a like, a subscribe and a second of your time to tell someone what we’re doing over here in China.

Thanks YouTube!

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 617

saintcavish

3 months ago | [YT] | 69

saintcavish

season 2 debut = october 1!!!

3 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 37

saintcavish

shoot day... guess who's back

6 months ago | [YT] | 139

saintcavish

still in the editing process, in the tea hills of fujian.

(the story is about sichuan)

-- c + g

6 months ago | [YT] | 82

saintcavish

hi guys, we are preparing a longer video for our next episode and need a little extra time to make sure it’s up to standards. stay with us.

— chris and graeme

7 months ago | [YT] | 155

saintcavish

tried to write a shanghai restaurant list for friends, ended up with a 70-page manifesto covering 50+ restaurants, just chinese food, just shanghai.

if you're interested, i'm selling it for the price of a fancy coffee: $5

stcavish.gumroad.com/l/yllgxi

it's opinionated, highly personal, neither fair nor balanced, incomplete, and the photos are in black and white.

it's also the result of 20 years of living in shanghai and writing about its food, and includes dazhong dianping links to all restaurants, as well as translated names and addresses.

some of the restaurants i dissect in detail, some i just allude to.

if you're in shanghai, visiting shanghai or just curious about shanghai, i hope it's worthwhile.

thanks!

-- chris

8 months ago | [YT] | 169

saintcavish

one way to count how many dumplings are in the shengjian pan — the old pen and paper

8 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 66