Fold The Luck

I bet food is an significant part of one's culture no matter where you go. In fact, one of the best ways t truly experience the local culture when you travel is to try the food. Nearly every culture has its own food, and its customs associated with eating food. Among thousands types of traditional Chinese food, I would like to introduce the most essential one—Chinese dumplings.

Broadly speaking, dumplings are made of various kinds of fillings wrapped with dough. As a traditional Chinese food, dumplings symbolize the reunion of families and represent respect and enthusiasm to the guests. They are conventionally used as festival food, especially for Chinese New Year's Eve. In Chinese culture, dumplings are particular about the fillings, the shapes, and the ways to eat.

First, I would like to illustrate how we make the filling of dumplings. The fillings usually combine meat and vegetables, as a homophone for "having money" in Chinese. During the process of preparing fillings, the major part is to chop all the materials. Chopping the meat and vegetables into slices, then shreds, finally minces, you will make a "bang bang" sound. Because of constantly changing in your strength, it sounds melodic, with beauty in rhythm and rhythmic scheme. In ancient times, people preferred to make the longest and the loudest sound because it means "long-term wealth" for their families.

Fillings

In the past, people of the north part of China would put coins in the fillings. On New Year's Eve, if one ate the dumpling with coins, one would gain good luck for the following year. However, in today's society we put candy instead of coins in the fillings because obviously it is not sanitary to put money in your food.


Second, here comes to the shapes. Customarily, the dumpling is half-moon-shaped, displaying a ingot shape. Chinese regard this shape as a symbol of wealth. Some farmers prefer to fold the side with wheat-like patterns, meaning a bumper harvest in new year.

Dumplings of the South

Dumplings of the North 

Finally, the most interesting part is the way to eat dumplings. The first bowl of dumplings is to worship ancestors, showing respect and concerns to the passing elderly. The second bowl is for Chinese deities such as "Zaowangye" (the god of kitchen) to pray for fortune of the family. Families begin to eat at the third bowl. When eating, you should eat even numbers of dumplings, with the meaning of "gain more than you wish for every year".

In the present life, people barely make dumplings on their own; instead, they buy frozen dumplings. Even though many details relating to dumplings have changed through times, I think the atmosphere of reunion of families lasts forever.

Here is a tutorial video of home-made dumplings: