Even More Monkeying Around

I forgot about these…

When cooking CNY dishes, the Chinese usually make sure to include certain ingredients in the festive fare. Again, a lot of the significance and auspicious connotations of these ingredients come usually from the sound of their names.

• Soon (young bamboo shoots) signifies “shi shi soon li” (or “all things flow smoothly) – a wish that the path ahead for the coming year will be a smooth one, free of major obstacles. Young bamboo shoots are also prized as they are a seasonal delicacy – available only at the end of Winter/beginning of Spring.

• Prawns always make an appearance in at least one of the dishes at any CNY meal. The word for prawns in Chinese (“har” in Cantonese, “xia” in Mandarin) sounds like the noise of laughter and the word for “to laugh” (“xiao”) respectively. They symbolize the wish to "xiao xi xi" all year round - for the year to be filled with joy and happiness.

• And when serving chicken during CNY, the whole bird is served, in the same way a whole fish (with head and tail intact) must be served (as mentioned in the earlier post). The poultry can be served cut into manageable pieces, but the head should be present. And for the truly traditional Chinese, it is even better if the rear-end is present on the plate too! This may sound horrifying to the Western mind, but it is a representation that there will be no half measures nor “bits and pieces” during CNY, or as the Cantonese would say “mg sum mg sei” (neither here nor there). For the fish especially, the presence of the tail is important, signifying smooth and successful completion and fruition of all endeavors (especially those of the monetary kind).

Earlier this afternoon, I was chatting with a girlfriend and we were discussing the quirky little modern customs that we seem to have come up with in association with CNY. And we recalled something that made us both chuckle. I’m not sure if this is a Singaporean thing or not… but each year a lot of Singaporean women would buy a brand new set of bright hong bao red underwear to be worn on the first day of the CNY, believing this will help raise their personal levels of good luck and good fortune in the coming year. But ironically, many would wear these brightly- and auspiciously-colored undergarments under dark, somber, sometimes even black, outer wear! Go figure. Well, regardless of the efficacy of this practice in affecting personal fortune, I’m sure it will raise the temperature by several notches in the bedroom!

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
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