At the Table: Food and Family around the World - Ken Albala (2016)

China

Willa Zhen

Gong xi fa cai! Gong hay fat choy! As friends, neighbors, and relatives visit the Zhen family apartment to bai nian, or greet the new year, they are welcomed with wishes of happiness and prosperity in Mandarin and Cantonese. Today the Zhen family is celebrating the Chinese New Year, starting with preparations for a Chinese New Year’s Eve reunion meal.

The lunar new year is considered the most important day of the year, and family reunions occur on the eve of the event. Far-flung relatives are expected to return home and dine with their loved ones. In the past, generations of extended families lived close to one another, sometimes even sharing the same roof. Gathering together for a reunion meal was not so complicated. Today due to schooling, travel, and work demands, families can find themselves spread throughout their home province or across the country or even dispersed across the planet. Not all families are as fortunate as this one, which is together to celebrate.

Albala

Patriarch Zhen Guo Ping (left) and his son, Zhen Zhi Cheng, prepare dumplings for the family and guests. (Courtesy of Willa Zhen)

This family reunion takes place in the home of Zhen Zhi Cheng, pictured on the right. He is a successful businessman in his early forties who works as a regional sales manager for a large international firm. This high-rise apartment, which he purchased himself a number of years ago, is located in one of the newer wealthier districts of Guangzhou (Canton), the third-largest city in China. Although relatively unadorned with art or photographs, his spacious three-bedroom home features all the trappings of the upper-middle-class urban lifestyle. New furnishings, many of them from IKEA and other Western brands, fill his home. At the center of his living room is a large flat-screen television with hookups to premium cable channels and high-speed Internet. As an unmarried professional, the only other occasional occupants in his apartment are his parents, Zhen Guo Ping and Lü, and his younger brother, Zhen Jian Cheng. Preferring the hustle and bustle of the big city to the quiet of their home in neighboring Jiangxi Province, they have returned to Guangzhou to celebrate the holidays.

At a cursory glance, this looks like a typical New Year celebration. Family members are gathered around a table wrapping dumplings, preparing food for the most important commensal event of the year, the New Year’s Eve reunion dinner. Underscoring this scene are the many changes experienced by urban Chinese society during the 20th and 21st centuries, as captured in the story of the Zhen family.

FAMILY, IDENTITY, AND FOOD

The Zhen family has old roots in Guangdong Province, of which Guangzhou is the capital city. Zhen Guo Ping’s father moved from rural Taishan in the provincial countryside to the city of Guangzhou in the early 20th century. As the first to be educated in his family, he was able to find a job in the city working as an accountant in a firm. Eventually he settled in the old neighborhood of Dongshan in Guangzhou, known for its many residents from Taishan. He must have felt at home there, as he married and raised his family of six children in this community. Zhen Guo Ping, born in 1941, is the oldest child. He has since taken over as the family patriarch after the passing of his father nearly a decade ago.

Though a native son, Zhen Guo Ping was forced to move away from the city because of state mandate. Under state socialism (1949-1976), matters of work, family, love, and marriage were regulated by government authorities. Like many other men and women who came of age under state socialism, Zhen Guo Ping was assigned a work unit (danwei) and put to work in a factory. He was sent to work in a state-owned sugar factory in Jiangxi Province, located north of Guangdong Province. Separated from his hometown and family, he established a new life. He eventually met and married a local Jiangxi woman named Lü, who bore him his two sons in the 1970s, Zhen Zhi Cheng and Zhen Jian Cheng.

Born in Jiangxi Province, Zhen Zhi Cheng was sent back to Guangzhou to be raised by his paternal grandfather in the old Zhen family home. There he lived in a rickety old southern Chinese Lingnan-style home, with living quarters located on the second floor and a balcony facing the sun. He played with neighborhood children, learned to speak Cantonese and Mandarin, and grew accustomed to local tastes and flavors. By accident of his birth he is not technically a local Cantonese, but through nurture he is every bit a tudi (native son) of the city.

His brother, in contrast, was raised in Jiangxi Province. He only learned to understand snippets of Cantonese through the conversations his father had with relatives back in Guangzhou. Instead, he learned to speak the local Jiangxi dialect and Mandarin and adopted the food preferences of his fellow Jiangxi brethren. The lives of the Zhen men show how place and identity have shifted in contemporary China.

Though the roots of this family are in Guangzhou, history and circumstance have spread them to different places. Their multilingual conversations in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Jiangxi dialect, much like their multiregional food preferences, reflect how much Chinese identity and rationality has evolved in the 20th and 21st centuries. Whereas Chinese families once stayed close to one another due to limited social and geographic mobility, the Zhen family has moved from the countryside to the city—from Guangdong Province to Jiangxi Province and back again. While their story does not represent every family, theirs does show the level and depth of social and economic change in China in recent decades.

THE COOKS

Zhen Guo Ping, the patriarch, cooks for his family. Having learned a thing or two during his bachelor days, he enjoys cooking for his family and feeding them. Although his wife, Lü, is a perfectly capable cook, she does less of the family cooking due to protests from her sons. Zhen Zhi Cheng especially is not a fan of her cooking, blaming her copious use of salt, soy sauce, and heavy chilies. These seasonings are typical of Jiangxi cuisine. Because he was raised in Guangzhou, the older son prefers the mild, almost bland, taste of Cantonese food, which favors natural flavors and light seasonings.

Zhen Zhi Cheng, while not much of a talent in the kitchen, cares deeply about the quality, health, and taste of his food. Following food shows on television, he is also a subscriber to Beitai Chufang (Betty’s Kitchen), a localized adaptation of the popular Swiss cooking magazine. Aimed at urban middle-class women, this magazine highlights the latest culinary trends and is filled with home-style Chinese recipes in addition to Western recipes. Yet he only reads these magazines for inspiration and enjoyment, preferring instead to dine out. Because it is a holiday and his day off, he has joined his father in the kitchen. Today, the two of them have taken the lead in preparing the New Year meal.

PREPARING THE MEAL

Here, father and son are wrapping dumplings together, creating an unusual domestic scene. Often dumplings are wrapped by women or, in the case of a reunion dinner, in the mixed company of men and women as a commensal act. This moment capturing father and son cooking together contrasts against conventions of masculinity in China.

The old stereotype is that Chinese men do not cook. This stereotype is often related to an old saying from the philosopher Mencius (372-289 BCE), who proclaimed that “Gentlemen do not enter the kitchen.” This phrase was originally used as an allegory for morality among righteous men. Slaughter, which used to take place in the kitchen, was not a place for men who wanted to maintain moral purity. This phrase has been misused to justify the absence of men in domestic cooking.

It is uncommon, although not unheard of, to find men of Zhen Guo Ping’s generation in the kitchen. But for younger men such as Zhen Zhi Cheng, food and cooking are acceptable hobbies among the emerging middle and upper middle classes. Food has become a form of recreation and a way of demonstrating cultural capital and savvy.

Together, father and son have spent much of their day purchasing ingredients and preparing them for the meal. They began their morning around 9:00 a.m. by visiting the wet market for fresh ingredients. Freshly ground pork, Chinese cabbage, scallions, and ginger are purchased from individual stalls at the wet market across the street from their apartment. To save time and effort, they purchased their dumpling wrappers from Watson’s Supermarket, a Western-style supermarket owned by a Hong Kong company. This breaks with tradition, as in the past families made their own wrappers with flour and water and rolled them out, one by one. Instead they choose to buy their wrappers, as making them would be “too much trouble.”

After shopping to about 11:00 a.m., they set to work around the family dinner table. This dinner table is located in a great room that features a dining room, a living room, and an adjoining enclosed kitchen. The dining room is decorated simply, with clean white walls and a dark black wood dining table. The table has been covered with a cheap disposable plastic tablecloth to protect the table while wrapping dumplings.

The elder Zhen grabs a round tree-trunk cutting board and a Chinese cleaver and sets to work chopping up the vegetables into fine pieces. The vegetables are placed in a cheap plastic bowl and salted to drain out the excess water. Next, the ground pork is placed in a large yellow saucepan. Soy sauce, sugar, salt, ground ginger, scallions, sesame oil, rice wine, and white pepper are added into the mixture for seasoning, folded in with a pair of sturdy bamboo chopsticks. Finally, the vegetables are drained and added into the pork mixture.

As father and son prepare the meal, the other family members occupy themselves with other tasks. Half a dozen relatives and neighbors drift in and out of the apartment. Some have come from neighboring Jiangxi Province and, like the Zhens, prefer to spend their holidays in the big city. Others are cousins of matriarch Lü who have origins in Jiangxi but live in Guangzhou. All guests are offered cups of hot tea, served in disposable paper cups for ease of cleanup, by Lü or Zhen Jian Cheng, the younger son. The two of them take turns hosting the guests, offering packaged cookies, fresh Chinese pears, apples and tangerines, and candy. With the diners talking animatedly, the room is abuzz with laughter and stories. The smell of woody incense, lit for good luck, fills the room. The television blasts loudly, showing broadcasts from China Central Television (CCTV), the state-owned television channel. Comedians, singers, actors, actresses, and other celebrities flicker across the screen as they perform lighthearted skits for the amusement of the millions of viewers who are tuned in at the moment.

As father and son are cooking, the guests meander to and from the table to comment, observe, and wrap a few dumplings. Lined up along the dining room table like soldiers waiting in formation for inspection, dumplings are scrutinized. Guests argue over which look the best: “It looks like a child made these!” “Good thing you have other talents!” “Is that supposed to be edible?” As the number of dumplings grows, Zhen Zhi Cheng keeps them covered with a moist cloth to stop them from drying out as they wait to be cooked.

Several hundred dumplings later, they are placed aside in the adjoining kitchen. Matriarch Lü rises from her seat on the soft leather couch to prepare them for boiling. She dons an old plastic apron and flicks on the two-burner gas stove. Two pots filled with cold tap water are set on each burner, and she waits for them to rise to a boil. She fills a bowl with a mixture of black vinegar and soy sauce, to be used as a condiment for the dumplings. Patriarch Zhen moves to the living room to socialize with guests and reward himself with a cigarette break. Plop, plop, plop. The dumplings are placed in the bubbling vats and set to boil. Floating to the top, they are scooped out and placed into wide, shallow bowls on the counter.

While the dumplings are cooking, Zhen Jian Cheng excuses himself from his guests. As the younger brother, he has taken the child’s task of setting the table. He darts between the kitchen, where the dishes and eating utensils are stored, and the adjoining dining room to grab materials. A disposable plastic tablecloth is placed on the dining table. Ceramic rice bowls, bamboo chopsticks, and ceramic soup spoons for a dozen people are set on a table built for six. The younger brother brings every last stool and chair in the apartment to the table to make room for all the diners. The smells wafting from the kitchen suggest that it is now time to eat.

CHANGING TASTES

It’s nearly 1:00 in the afternoon. The hungry mass hovers around the dinner table, sitting in no particular order. Lü claims the seat closest to the kitchen, as she darts back and forth to grab bowls of hot dumplings. Boiled dumplings (jiaozi) are the main treat for this family feast. The jiaozi are placed in six ceramic serving bowls across the table, and everyone at the table digs in.

It’s every diner for themselves. Each eater uses a ceramic spoon to retrieve a few dumplings, which are placed into individual rice bowls. Chopsticks are used to pick up the food, and dumplings are eaten one by one. A few of the women wait patiently for their dumplings to cool down so they don’t burn their mouths. Some dip their dumplings into the premixed condiment of black vinegar and soy sauce. Zhen Jian Cheng complains about the lack of spice and retrieves a jar of chili sauce from the kitchen to liven up his dumplings.

These boiled dumplings are not typical of Jiangxi or Guangdong Province. The Cantonese prefer to eat yau gok, a golden fried dumpling filled with nuts and sweetmeats. Resembling gold ingots, they evoke joy and festivity. The Zhen family never adopted this tradition, blaming the mess caused by deep-frying with oil. Boiled dumplings are more typical of northern Chinese celebrations, yet the Zhens enjoy them because of their simplicity and their health content. They are certainly a hit at this celebration.

Everyone boasts about the number of dumplings they can eat, with everyone trying to best the other. “Two dozen!” “Only two dozen? I need at least three dozen to feel full!” The animated debates continue in a mixture of Cantonese, Mandarin, and the Jiangxi dialect. There is no pride in eating the smallest amount of dumplings. Bragging rights go to the victor, the one with the largest stomach, as a hearty appetite suggests prosperity and wealth. The dumplings quickly disappear.

After the meal, the younger brother again takes on the child’s tasks to clear the table and bring the dirty dishes and utensils to the kitchen. Guests slink off to the sofa to watch more television and sip on tea, for digestion. Lü goes into the back room of the apartment to retrieve a mahjong table from the storage closet and sets up the table for a postmeal game in the living room. Zhen Zhi Cheng slinks off into his bedroom for a postlunch nap. Patriarch Zhen Guo Ping again returns to the kitchen to do the dishes and dry them by hand.

Chopsticks

Chopsticks are said to have been invented in the Han dynasty in China about 2,000 years ago as an expression of Confucian manners that banish all violence from the table, including sharp implements. To cut meat at the table was considered barbaric. Precut meat and vegetables are also much quicker to cook as well, using less fuel. Chopsticks developed very differently in various parts of Asia, though. Chinese chopsticks are blunt on the end, unlike Japanese chopsticks that are shorter and taper toward the end. In Korea, chopsticks are usually made of metal and are used with a long metal spoon to scoop up rice. In some parts of Asia chopsticks are not used; instead, these areas use combinations of utensils, such as the spoon and fork used in Thailand. The fork is used only to push food on the spoon, which goes into the mouth. Chopsticks are only used for noodles, which were imported from China.

Some Cantonese might balk at the traditions and eating habits of the Zhen family table. Regional identity, which extends to regional cuisine and eating habits, in China was once incredibly strong because of limited social and geographic mobility. Today what it means to be of one region, of one place, has become more fluid due to immense social change. The Zhens identify themselves as a proud Cantonese family, in addition to a proud Jiangxi family. Their multilingual and multiregional celebration of Chinese New Year reflects the many changes experienced by urban Chinese in the recent past. Though their dinner table may not be the most traditional celebration, it maintains the spirit of this holiday—of commensality, family, and hope for the coming new year.

Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings

1 pound Chinese or Napa cabbage leaves, finely chopped

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

¼ cup scallions, finely chopped

1 pound ground pork

⅛ teaspoon finely ground white pepper

2 tablespoons Chinese light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing wine)

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

½ cup water

2 packages store-bought dumpling wrappers

For serving: Chinese black vinegar (Chinkiang vinegar), chili sauce, light soy sauce

1.Finely chop the cabbage. Remove to a large bowl and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for 10 minutes while you finely chop the other vegetables.

2.After 10 minutes, grab a handful of the cabbage and squeeze out excess water into the sink. Continue until all the water is gone. Place the dry cabbage back into the large bowl and add in pork and the other vegetables. Mix well.

3.In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch and water into a slurry.

4.Gently fold all seasonings, except the slurry, into the pork mixture.

5.To wrap the dumplings, spoon a scant tablespoon of pork mixture into each wrapper. Dot the edges of the wrapper with slurry. Fold up the bottom end of the wrapper and press to shape into a half-moon.

6.Place dumplings on a baking sheet dusted with cornstarch. Keep loosely covered with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Repeat with the rest of the dumplings. Do not let the dumplings touch each other.

7.When all dumplings are wrapped, you can cook immediately or keep refrigerated for several hours. To cook, half fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. When boiling, slide in a dozen dumplings. Let the water return to a boil, and gently cook for 6-8 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the dumplings when they float to the top and repeat.

8.Serve with black vinegar and soy sauce, or add chili sauce for spice.