China Daily Global Edition (USA)
The big feast
The meal on the eve of the Lunar New Year has utmost significance
Weeks ahead of the Spring Festival every year, millions of Chinese migrant workers around China embark on the trip back to their home towns in order to partake in the family reunion dinner. The fact that they do so, regardless of how long and arduous the journey may be, says much about the significance of the occasion.
The tradition of sitting around a table to share a meal on the eve of the Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb 8 this year, is something that has been around for hundreds of years, and it encapsulates the Chinese people’s value of family bonds.
“The reunion dinner is so important because it signifies the unity and prosperity of the family — every generation, from the great-grand parents to newborns, come together for this event. There is hardly another day in the year when you will find everybody in the family around you,” said Qiao Xiaomei, a 66-year-old Shanghai native.
Because large extended families have been split into smaller nuclear units these days, the dinner event has taken on an even greater significance of family reunion.
“We used to look forward more to the nice food but now it’s all about bringing the clan together. It is so hard to be able to get three or four generations together under one roof. This is perhaps the only opportunity in the whole year,” said Wang Yongyong, a 57-year-old Shanghai native.
Preparation for the big feast begins about a month before the eve of the Chinese New Year. This is the period when markets are swarmed with people fighting to stock up on enough vegetable and poultry before the vendors return to their home provinces to spend the New Year.
When most of the ingredients are ready, housewives will list the dishes they need to cook as there is often a comprehensive selection. They include appetizers, hot dishes, soups, rice dumplings and wontons. Qiao said that the total number of dishes must be of an even number as this symbolizes good luck.
The dishes cooked vary between local cultures. For Wang Manhua, a 65-year-old Shanxi native who has lived in Shanghai for more than 20 years, the jiaozi, or dumpling, is an indispensable item on her reunion dinner menu as it is a staple for people in Northern China.
“We usually put a coin in one of the dumplings to see who in the family will have the best luck in the year ahead,” said Wang.
Dumplings, particularly egg dumplings — a kind of mini omelet stuffed with minced pork — has always been a standard dish for Shanghai families. After lunch on the eve of the Chinese New Year, housewives would immediately begin work on these dumplings.
The first step involves pouring beaten eggs onto a large iron spoon that is placed directly over a fire. After a few seconds, the housewives would place the minced meat in the center of the spoon before wrapping it with the semi-cooked layer of egg. The dumplings are made to resemble gold ingots, once used as currency in ancient China. People then dip these dumplings, which are usually used to mark the finale of the dinner, into boiling soup before eating them.
“The kids love to stand on a low stool and help their mothers out. Actually, most of them are just waiting for the opportunity to sneak a quick bite from the rejected dumplings that aren’t made perfectly,” quipped Qiao.
Ahead of the Lunar New Year, the markets often make for a rather extraordinary sight when a large number of dried eels can be found dangling at numerous stalls.
“A piece of paper with someone’s name is stuck on each eel. People like to buy food in advance to make sure that they’ve got the largest and best fish. However, they often don’t have enough space at home to store their food. As a result, they leave their purchases, such as the eels, with the vendors and return to collect them nearer the start of the festival,” said Cai Mengsha, a 56-year-old Shanghai native.
But not all families dine at home. Having a feast at a restaurant has become an increasingly popular option since about 10 years ago. Restaurants of all sorts are usually fully booked ahead of the festivities and some families even resort to securing a table for the next year’s celebrations immediately after they are done with their meals.
Looking back, the food that people are able to enjoy today during the Chinese New Year can be considered a luxury. Decades ago, when China had adopted the planned economy policy, certain food products were rationed and could only be purchased with coupons.
“Before the Spring Festival, you could only get eggs by exchanging them with coupons. They were distributed based on the size of the family,” shared Cai, who also said that housewives during those times were forced to make the most of what was available to them.
“Generally speaking, one chicken, one duck and some pork were made allocated to a family for the festival. As these meats are available only once a year, people would cherish the broths that were made with them, usually combining them to cook soup that the family can enjoy for as long as three or four days during the festival,” said Cai.
The Chinese New Year cake made from glutinous rice, also known as niangao, was another item that was only available during the festival. One ritual on the eve of the Chinese New Year was queuing to have a vendor transform the dry slices of rice into small puffy tubes with his machine.
“One main reason for the popularity of this dish was that people liked seeing the little slices grow. This transformation was something that people found interesting during an age of material deprivation. The queues to the niangao stalls didn’t disappear until after the New Year countdown,” said Cai.
Many people like Wang Yongyong have noted that Lunar New Year in the past was so much more significant given the restrictive circumstances. These days, however, when all sorts of food products are easily available, the occasion has inherently lost a bit of its novelty.
Wang still recalls how she could only look on in envy when her aunt pampered her daughter with a bar of chocolate.
“Together with my three brothers, I could only watch her eat the chocolate. The people of today can never imagine how we used to crave delicious food we can’t have,” she said.