Longevity, laughter, and longing for home

Share this post on Facebook



By Eugene Kok Li-Jin

Rachel and Jack longed for the Chinese New Year (CNY) festivity as it approaches. No more would their minds be focused during lessons at the university – unconsciously, they would drift away with images of the CNY mood such as the blaring music of Cai Shen Dao (God of Wealth), eating the sweet brown sticky Nian Gao, and the delicious soft white Jiao Zi.
Their parents would either call or text them, to ask for when they would be home.
“Ah Boy, when would you be back home?”
“Girl, how are your studies? Have you bought the bus ticket already?”

Parents being parents, too, longed for their children and missed their children who are away studying for their tertiary education.
When arriving back during CNY, the atmosphere changes, and that is when we can see the lightings of mini red lanterns being hanged, parents cringing each time as they inserted money into the ang pao packets.
Behind these typical storyline circles around our life, as we reach our sacred place called home. We would then toast longevity while tossing our yee sang (or Yu Sheng) which consists of shredded raw fish (popular ones are salmon), many variety of herbs thrown in and poured with sauces.

When all or most of the relatives have gathered around the table asking each other to ‘lai, chi fan’ (come, let's eat), it’s time to have a chopstick fight to toss the yee sang as they stand by the table.

However, each food served during CNY has its own meaning – it is not some typical custom to just gobble up, munch down, or slurp away the essence of the story behind each food.
As Malaysian would say, “Kalau sedap, just makan.”

Translation: If it's tasty, just eat it.

Some of us would recognize a typical CNY delicacy. However, some amongst us would fail at naming the food available.
So in this article, I shall offer what I have found and educate some of the common food available during CNY.

A typically prepared yee sang waiting to be tossed into the air by family members.

For example, Yee Sang (鱼生) relates to the increase of abundance in our lives or some would say adding prosperity. That is why people would stick chopsticks into the Yee Sang and toss the mixture as high as they can, while shouting out - the higher the toss, the more abundance in life!

One of the ways of eating a nian gao – sandwich with two pieces of yam and deep fry it.

As for Nian Gao (New Year Cake) or in Chinese (年糕), it is a form of sticky brown cake. Loosely translated, ‘Nian Gao’ can also mean ‘higher year’. Sometimes, the Nian Gao is sandwiched between two layers of fried yam, or sandwiched with a red bean paste in between, or even just eaten as it is after being fried. Therefore, eat more Nian Gao and raise yourself each new year!

A plate of jiao zi, waiting to be devoured!

Then, for the Jiao Zi (饺子) or known as the Chinese Dumpling, it typically consists of ground meat with vegetables, or perhaps just the vegetables itself. The dumpling would be rolled with a slice of dough, and then pressed and sealed at the side by crimping it together, wantan style.

Also, there would be Yu Wan (fish balls) and Rou Wan (meat balls), which is a symbolic representation of "reunion". So, when the family sits around the table they would have some laughter and chat to catch up with their family members.

Even after that, when relatives come or go, they would be presented with tangerines and oranges that sound like ‘gam’, deriving from the Cantonese dialect. It also has a similar sound to wealth or gold.

Armed now with some new knowledge, let there be a better view on the food you eat while knowing the significance each food holds. Also, CNY is really about having a reunion whereby we set time to be rekindled with our closed ones.
As a quote from Mother Teresa goes, "Love begins by taking care of the closest ones- the ones at home."

Filed Under: English , Features