The Bulgarian villagers hunker over their books, struggling with their Mandarin words and characters. But they are not going to China — the Middle Kingdom is coming to them. Because of yogurt.
“It’s difficult. You have to be quite tough not to give up,” says pensioner Tsvetka Radkova, 66, as she puffs and pants in the classroom in the village of Momchilovtsi in southern Bulgaria. But her daughter Veselina, 37, accompanied in the lessons by her nine-year-old girl, trots out whole sentences in Chinese, to the cheers of her classmates.
Few Europeans, and not many Bulgarians for that matter, have heard of Momchilovtsi, perched high on the slopes of the Rhodope mountains in south-eastern Europe near the border with Greece.
Photo: Wilimedia Commons
But in China, Momchilovtsi conjures up images of mystery, wonder and longevity, having given its name to a kind of drinking yogurt that is all the rage for Chinese consumers.
This summer Momchilovtsi played host to hundreds of Chinese visitors attending the village’s third Chinese-Bulgarian yogurt festival.
Signs in Chinese are everywhere, directing visitors to the village hall for lectures on yogurt’s prodigious health benefits or to yogurt and cheese tastings.
Children run around chirping nihao (你好, “hello”) and giving out festival brochures and village maps in Bulgarian, Chinese and English.
MISS YOGURT
A beauty pageant on the festival’s second day picked the new “Yogurt Queen” to adorn the Momchilovtsi packaging.
“There’s two things every Chinese knows about Bulgaria — yogurt and roses,” said one visitor, Lei Lin from Shanghai.
The people of Momchilovtsi have been used to the sight of Chinese visitors ever since Chinese firm Bright Dairy in 2009 took back home the bacteria found in the local yogurt.
Crucially, the strain enabled the company to develop drinking yogurt for Chinese consumers. Drinkable with a straw, it’s much easier to consume than the thicker stuff and doesn’t need to be chilled either.
But Bright Diary didn’t forget its roots, branding its product “Momchilovtsi,” the label featuring a Bulgarian maiden in traditional dress, it began cultivating links with the village.
Known in Chinese by the shorter name mosilian (莫斯利安), it’s the top seller in this booming sector, on sale in most supermarkets and its adverts a common sight on bus stops and on television.
Its popularity has been helped by the contaminated milk powder scandal in China in 2008 pushing many towards brands seen as international or traditional and therefore safer.
With its slogan “The miraculous secret of the village where people live a long life — Momchilovtsi,” sales were US$910 million last year, a company spokesman said.
“Momchilovtsi has been famous as ‘the village of longevity’ because of the high number of centenarians living here,” Pan Jianjun (潘建軍), the spokesman, said on the sidelines of the festival.
Indeed, at least three participants in the language course — for which 40 locals have enrolled — said they had family members who had lived to be over 100.
“Our research showed that one of the secrets of this longevity is the local yogurt,” Pan said.
OFF THE TOURIST TRAIL
The 1,200 inhabitants of Momchilovtsi already host about 1,000 Chinese tourists annually out of a total of 5,000 to 6,000 visitors, mayor Siyka Surkova said.
“The numbers are growing every year and this is only normal considering the huge advertising campaign for the yogurt in China that also benefits us,” she added.
In 2014, the Chinese version of reality TV show “Survivor” was set in Momchilovtsi, with seven contestants thrown in with a local family armed only with a Chinese-Bulgarian dictionary.
But with just 18,500 Chinese visitors last year, Bulgaria is seriously lagging in the Europe-wide drive to attract Chinese tourists.
Direct flights between the two countries are only but a dream, experts said. Visitors to Momchilovtsi have to take an internal flight within Europe to Sofia or Plovdiv. And from there it’s a long and winding journey of several hours up to the village — but worth it.
Late last month Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro told the Philippine Senate that the nation has sufficient funds to evacuate the nearly 170,000 Filipino residents in Taiwan, 84 percent of whom are migrant workers, in the event of war. Agencies have been exploring evacuation scenarios since early this year, she said. She also observed that since the Philippines has only limited ships, the government is consulting security agencies for alternatives. Filipinos are a distant third in overall migrant worker population. Indonesia has over 248,000 workers, followed by roughly 240,000 Vietnamese. It should be noted that there are another 170,000
Hannah Liao (廖宸萱) recalls the harassment she experienced on dating apps, an experience that left her frightened and disgusted. “I’ve tried some voice-based dating apps,” the 30-year-old says. “Right away, some guys would say things like, ‘Wanna talk dirty?’ or ‘Wanna suck my d**k?’” she says. Liao’s story is not unique. Ministry of Health and Welfare statistics show a more than 50 percent rise in sexual assault cases related to online encounters over the past five years. In 2023 alone, women comprised 7,698 of the 9,413 reported victims. Faced with a dating landscape that can feel more predatory than promising, many in
“This is one of those rare bits of TikTok fitness advice with a lot of truth behind it,” says Bethan Crouse, performance nutritionist at Loughborough University. “Sometimes it’s taken a bit too literally, though! You see people chugging protein drinks as they’re scanning out of their gym.” Crouse recommends the athletes she works with consume 20-30g of protein within 30-60 minutes of finishing a resistance training session. “The act of exercising our muscles increases the breakdown of muscle proteins,” she says. “In order to restore, or hopefully improve them — and get gains such as increased muscle mass or strength —
“Far from being a rock or island … it turns out that the best metaphor to describe the human body is ‘sponge.’ We’re permeable,” write Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie in their book Slow Death By Rubber Duck: The Secret Danger of Everyday Things. While the permeability of our cells is key to being alive, it also means we absorb more potentially harmful substances than we realize. Studies have found a number of chemical residues in human breast milk, urine and water systems. Many of them are endocrine disruptors, which can interfere with the body’s natural hormones. “They can mimic, block
RSS