Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Ever since I moved to the UK for work, I have found it hard to keep up or observe the proper Chinese New Year traditions my mum used to teach me. I think part of it is because I have forgotten how it was as I have not been back to Singapore for 8 years during this festive period and another part of it is because I want to be a modern woman who doesn’t need to follow the superstitious rules.
Yesterday we were celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival, which is also known as the Duanwu Festival, and falls on the 9th June 2016. It occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the traditional lunar calendar. The festival involves eating dumplings (zongzi – sticky rice) and racing dragon boats! If you want to know how the dumplings look like, check out my post I wrote two years ago.
As some of you might remember that I help run Lichfield Mandarin Club which started four years ago and I like to involve arts and crafts with the children especially Chinese festival. So this school half term, I organized a Dragon Boat festival.
Although living in the UK can be a lot of fun, sometimes the fusty old British interior design scheme can leave a little to be desired. So for anyone who’s looking to update their interiors with a few Chinese themes, here are some ideas.
Last year when I went back to Singapore to visit, I bought a few mooncake moulds and now it is the time of the year to make it! As I don’t have the main ingredients to make mooncake, I decided to make piglets instead. For my previous mooncake bakes, do check out my swiss roll snow skin mooncake and colourful snow skin mooncake.
Piglet or 豬仔餅 has always been my favourite snack to eat during the mooncake festival. But my mum always refused to buy them for me as they are not particularly healthy and they are made from leftover pastry for the mooncake. Now I can totally understand what she meant!
We all heard something about Feng Shui – the traditional Chinese philosophy that helps people take care of their life better. It works on many levels in our life, and it works on the premise that what is closest to you has the most impact on your physical and emotional health. And what can be closer to you than your clothing?
Today I am going to share some Feng Shui tips for your wardrobe. To use it or not – it is all up to you, but nothing will change if you won’t make an impact. So do your choices and let’s get to those tips right away.
The Chinese Hungry Ghost Festival is also known as Zhong Yuan Jie. In Chinese culture (especially Asian countries), the Chinese Lunar seventh month calendar is regarded as the Ghost Month in which ghosts and spirits, including those of the deceased ancestors, release from the lower realm (Buddhist- the wheel of Samsara) for the whole month. During this month, there will be a grand scale of praying and celebration which will have Getai (singing in Hokkien or Teochew) and dinner with bidding for lucky things on such a night.
This year Dragon Boat Festival falls on this coming Monday 2 June 2014 which is today! There are a few versions of how the history came about. For what I learnt at school it is about Qu Yuan. He was a poet and minister (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu. To cut the long story short, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River. The local people raced out to save him but was unable to do so. So they dropped balls of sticky rice (dumpling) into the river so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan’s body.
If you would like to find watch the Dragon Boat race, do pop by to Brindleyplace Dragonboat Festival. They are celebrating the 15th anniversary this year by setting an ambitious fund-raising target of £50,000 which will be donated to local charity HelpHarryHelpOthers. The race will take place on 28th June 2014, with 20 teams competing in a series of heats in traditional Chinese longboats from Pitcher and Piano, The Water’s Edge in Brindleyplace, to the winning post at The NIA.
Growing up in Singapore I always associated dumplings with the festival as my grandma, my mum and aunties were always gathered around and wrapping them for the festival. But as time passed, dumplings became a very common snack in Singapore which you can get throughout the year.
Dumpling is made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. The fillings could be: plain, chestnuts, chicken, Chinese sausage, pork, cooked peanuts, salted egg yolk etc.
What is Confinement?
It is a postnatal practice aimed at helping a new mum recover from pregnancy, labour and birth. It also means the new mum and baby are confined at home. For Chinese, the period lasts for a whole month, which will coincide with baby’s first month. During this time, the new mums have a lot of taboos and restrictions.
In many countries like the USA, they celebrate baby shower before the baby is born. As for Chinese custom, this is traditionally celebrated one month after the baby is born. This also coincides with the end of the new mum’s confinement period. During the confinement period, visiting the new mum and baby is not advisable. The full month is the day where both mother and baby are introduced to the extended relatives and friends.
It is a big celebration in Singapore but when I had my first child, Mr K, we lived in London with no relatives close by and friends to invite. Before the party, the baby undergoes the hair ritual. So we had a small hair cutting ritual for Mr K. In this photo, my mum held Mr K while I cut a bit of his hair to keep inside an ang pow (red packet).
Qing Ming festival is a day where you pay respects at your departed loved one’s grave. The day varies each year as it goes according to the Chinese lunar calendar. This year it falls on the 5 April 2014. However, it is an acceptable tradition for the families to pray to their ancestors 10 days before and 10 days after the actual day. This is to avoid major congestions at the cemeteries and temples. As many countries like Singapore are densely populated and short of land, most of the deceased are cremated.
If you would like to know how this festival originated, check out Chinese Culture for more details.
Now I like to share with you some photos of how it looks. Besides offering the traditional types of gold ingots and money, there are now offerings that include high tech gadgets to allow the afterlife to “catch up” with trends!
My granddad passed away in 1989 on Chinese New Year day. So on every Chinese New Year day, besides the celebrations, we will also offer joss sticks. These photos were taken a couple years ago before the 25 years lease is up. Now my family has moved and cremated my granddad and placed his remains along with my grandma who passed away on 24 March 2013.
Last week, I wrote a blog post about Chinese superstitions when entering a hotel room, this week I would like to share some tips of gift ideas to avoid buying for your Chinese friend. I find that it is sometimes not easy to understand one person culture but by learning through interaction or reading will help each other to understand and live in a better and tolerable environment.
Last February, my mum and sister both flew to the UK to visit us. While they were here, we all went on a road trip to Scotland. You can read more about our Scotland trip with Barny here.
We stayed at Premier Inn throughout our holiday at various locations. The last location was Edinburgh, where we happened to have opposite rooms to my sister. I noticed that my sister went through her hotel routine. She knocked on the door and said we are just sharing the room with you for two nights, thank you. This triggered memories for me when I was younger I was told that I must do this hotel routine and I had forgotten! Okay, not really. I never knock the door but each time I go into the hotel room, I will inform ‘them’ quietly that we will be sharing ‘their’ room. Mr C does not believe in these Chinese superstitions thing! He thinks I am totally crazy to do this!
I had two separate unpleasant ghost experiences while staying in a hotel with him while we were in Italy and Japan. So he was used to me doing such crazy things while in a hotel room. I don’t practise these superstitions as much as I used to be because both of my children had started questioning my bizarre behaviour.
Many of you might recall that I had recently written a series blog posts for Chinese New Year and that this year is the year of the Horse. In the Chinese zodiac, the horse came in seventh out of the 12 year cycle of the animals.
Sadly tomorrow is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations and this is also my last post for the Chinese New Year theme. Hope you all have fun reading my blog posts from making Chinese New Year lantern crafts to foods!
A reunion dinner is held on the eve of the Chinese New Year, during which family members get together to celebrate. It used to be dinner time where all family members gather around but due to work or other family commitments, it can be any time of the day as long as it is on the eve.
My mum is very particular that everyone is home on time and start at the auspicious time/hour. Since I moved to the UK and started my own family, I’ve adopted this practise this and hope I can pass on this culture to my children.
