Funda Singh Yildiz (right) learns how to make suomian from master Lin Fazhu (center). [Photo/WeChat account: jrra2023]
This May, a film crew from Galileo, a flagship science TV program on Germany's Pro7 channel, visited Nanshan village — located in Rui'an, a county-level city administered by Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province — to document the 300-year-old craft of making handmade suomian or fine noodles through immersive storytelling.
Host Funda Singh Yildiz followed noodle master Lin Fazhu for two days, experiencing every step — from kneading, rolling and resting, to pulling, drying and collecting the noodles.
Impressed by the demanding process and the precision required to work with nature's rhythms, she praised the artisans' dedication to tradition and quality.
Producer Lisa Bader said the team was first drawn by a viral photo of a 3.8-meter noodle strand less than a millimeter thick. What they discovered in Rui'an was a village where every household continues to make noodles by hand, a process that's been unchanged for centuries.
"The fate of this village seems intertwined with suomian," Yildiz remarked.
While artisans like Lin, 75, remain devoted to the craft, he acknowledged that many young people choose other paths — a reality Yildiz noted is common worldwide, as tradition meets modernity.
The filming in Rui'an marked the fourth stop of Galileo's five-episode China series, which has recently aired in Germany. Yildiz shared that the experience deepened her love of China and even inspired her to begin learning Chinese.
