‘NI HAO’ and ‘NAMASTE’
Where China and India meet
China and India, each with a distinctive history dating back thousands of years, are the world’s two most populous nations, home to 30% of the world’s citizens. Politically and economically they have evolved in very different ways, but a closer look at their beliefs, practices, behaviour and even food reveals many similarities that are often overlooked.
In two vast countries with more than 1.2 billion citizens each, cultures and tastes vary based on geography. For example, while most people associate naan with India, it is eaten mainly in the north of the country — but it is also a staple in large parts of western China. However, in other parts of the two countries this flat bread is not part of the regular diet.
But Chinese and Indians have similar kinds of ingredients and spices for their food. Indians can use a Chinese kitchen to cook while Chinese can also walk to any Indian grocery store to find things they need to make a good family dinner.
The differences lie in the way they use those spices and ingredients, the proportions used, and the kinds of dishes they turn them into, be they stirred, fried, boiled, stewed or steamed.
In centuries past, boiled and steamed dishes predominated in Chinese cuisine. Chopsticks or zhu were used originally for cooking, as it was difficult to use spoons to reach into deep, boiling pots, according to Stephanie Butler of the History Channel. Later as the population boomed, resources are scarce and foods were cut into smaller portions and chopsticks were found to be the most suitable utensil for eating them.
While the Chinese use chopsticks for most dishes, Indians use their hands. Hindu culture considers the hand the most precious part of the body. It is linked to a Vedic prayer that says, “On the tip of your fingers is the goddess Lakshmi, on the base is the goddess Saraswati and in the middle is Lord Govinda.”
Indians believe the hands and feet are the conduits of five elements — the thumb as space, forefinger as air, mid-finger as fire, ring finger as water, and pinky finger as earth, according to the Hindu Human Rights Group (HHR). In Chinese culture the five elements are fire, earth, water, metal, and wood.
Family unity is another thing both cultures have in common. Whenever there is a significant event, be it the new year celebration, a marriage ceremony or even a birthday, the whole family — from grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren to aunts, uncles and even second and third cousins — will mingle and celebrate.
There is even an element of shared belief in the gods they worship — and traditions do prevail even in officially atheist China — even if it is not be immediately apparent when one enters a Chinese or an Indian temple. For example, Chinese Buddhist temples feature the constant echo of ringing bells, while in Indian Hindu temples silence fills the air and focuses one’s thoughts inward.
But if you visit the Chinese-Buddhist temple of Wat Saman Rattanaram in the eastern Thai province of Chachoengsao, don’t be surprised to find an enormous statue of Ganesha, the Lord of Success from Hindu religion, shining gloriously in the tropical sun.
Ganesha is the son of Shiva and Parvati, having an elephant head and the body of a human. He is one of the five prime Hindu deities, the destroyer of evils and obstacles, and is worshipped as the god of education, knowledge, wisdom and wealth, says Hinduism expert Subhamoy Das.
One notable physical similarity is in the lucky colour both cultures share. Red is considered highly auspicious for both Chinese and Indians.
For the Chinese, red symbolises fire which scares evil spirits away, and thus it is found everywhere during Lunar New Year observances. Everyone dresses in red and doors are painted with a fresh coat of red to get the new year off to a good start.
Red in India is considered holy and is symbolic of a certain time, place and action in one’s personal life, according to Kate Smith, an international colour expert and president of Sensational Colour.
For Indians, red can signify a girl’s arrival at matrimony. The bride is resplendent in a red sari and bangles on her wedding day, the most joyous ceremony of her lifetime. Red henna is applied to her hands and red sindooram powder to her hair parting.
While red conveys the sense of serendipity and vibrancy, white is the absence of colour and is used for mourning in both cultures. For Indians, white symbolises that one is disconnected with pleasure and the active world outside.
In Chinese culture, the deceased is dressed in a white robe in which white envelopes with paper money are tucked inside. White irises are seen on wreaths in front of the coffin, explains China News expert Lauren Mack.
Numbers are a different story, though, with 8 being the best for Chinese, who favour even numbers in general, but the worst for Indians.
“It doesn’t cost you anything to believe in good luck. If you have a licence number with an eight, you drive more comfortably. If you live in a house with an eight, you live more comfortably. Thinking that you are blessed, you perform better,” Daniel TC Liao, a ranking Taiwanese government official who served as the director of the Chinese Cultural Center in El Monte, told the Los Angeles Times.
The Chinese word for “eight” is pronounced “ba”, which sounds similar to “fa”, which means to make a fortune. That helps explain why the Beijing Olympics began at exactly 8.08 on the eighth day of the eighth month in 2008.
What the Chinese see as a blessing is a curse for most Indians, who believe 8 possesses evil power since it is the numerological sign of Saturn.
According to The Role of Saturn in Astrology by Dev Kaushik, an expert in Vedic astrology, Saturn is considered a cold, dry and malefic planet. Its influence is associated with loss, sorrow, misery, poverty, accidents and hurdles in life. Many catastrophic events happened in India on the 26th, for example, the tsunami on Dec 26, 2004 and Gujarat earthquake on Jan 26, 2001. The numbers 2 and 6 add up to 8.
Marriage ceremonies in the two cultures are also very different. A Chinese man has to pay a bride price to the woman’s family, since they are giving up their daughter to work for the man’s family.
That is completely different from traditional Indian culture in which wealth is divided only among sons and not daughters. So when a woman marries a man, she pays a dowry to the man’s family as a sign that the wealth from her family is being allocated to her willingly, since she would then be able to enjoy her groom’s wealth.
“It doesn’t cost you anything to believe in good luck. If you have a licence number with an eight, you drive more comfortably. If you live in a house with an eight, you live more comfortably. Thinking that you are blessed, you perform better” DANIEL LIAO Taiwanese government official