I've read that their mother still lives in Taiwan... I'm certain their accent/vocabulary is Taiwanese-influenced though. Jih is also the Wade-Giles rendering of the word "季" ("season"), which while read the same in Mandarin is spelt Ji in Pinyin.
Or maybe it's to do with the "Taiwan = / != China" issue? Affairs are much more complicated than the layman in the West thinks it is! Won't dwell upon it, but noting that unlike what the Western media tries to imply, China's not the devil reincarnate when it comes to foreign affairs...
*speaking as someone more familiar with, but not inclined towards either side*
A little more from MM...
On behalf of RFF, I thank him/her for his/her generosity, and hope TPTB would be nice.First of all, the entire crew consists of no less than ten people. I didn't count, but I'm guessing around twenty. Preparations were done by both the American and Chinese crews: the Chinese side was a film company from Beijing - I can't remember the name. The Guilin leg was organized by the Taoyuan Travel Agency. Planning and preparation took a week, with the Beijing crew arriving first to pave the way. Route planning and the recces were run by CBS the day before. Actually, every task and every location has been tested the day before by the crew. I followed my Boss around the entire circuit in one day.
I received the teams the day the planes arrived. Each team is followed by two crew members: one for lighting, one for filming. When the teams run out of the airport - that's the time they change their equipment. They've got huge packs, I'm thinking that's the equipment, that they threw at the crew, and they tossed out all the old stuff. The (main) crew followed onto the vehicles and trailed the taxis the whole way - that's how they get a lot of the footage.
The process was really interesting! Hoho!
I did have a run-in with the Taoyuan Travel Agency people. Not very friendly folks, I must say.
They actually cut out a lot of the fight between the mother/son and the blacks. I was watching while they were fighting. Because the son had trouble communicating, he eventually cried . His mum kept trying to console him, saying "Let it go, forget it...", but he couldn't calm down. In the end two members of the crew, including my Boss [name], tried to resolve the issue, and it took them a long time.
I thinking now that it's over it's OK if I speak. Those old folks (at the tasks) don't know much; the crew wouldn't tell them much, and they'd simply do as they're told. Sometimes they'd be confused over why everyone was in such a hurry, and sometimes they'd just crowd around to see what was going on. Some of the crew got upset over this. The crew and the production assistants were really worked hard, some had to work overnight without going home. It was so bad it could take your life. (This is a similar expression to Victor's quote).
We're not allowed to help the contestants, not even be seen by them. Otherwise there'd be no point to the race!
Uh-oh.
MM, I know who you are. I am Z, haha!
Don't forget the contract is three years!
Random quote.
Victor and Tammy should let their next driver call dispatch, and tell them that if any foreigners get onto a cab with a camera, and constantly scream "Go go go!", they should first drive those teams to Shijiazhuang. They should call the other companies as well, so no matter what taxi the other teams get on they'd be headed for Hubei Province.
The posts following that suggest Shenyang... and then Harbin...
Just stumbled onto a thread where they're
really not happy about Jaime's attitude towards China... *backs off slowly*