Dumplings（SE1）

Xuehui Deng

WRIT 1133

SE1

Dumplings, a traditional food for Chinese people, are usually appeared at the last night of Chinese New Year and the first day of Chinese New Year. People have tradition to eat dumplings at the eve dinner and the first day breakfast of Chinese New Year because people think the dumplings are symbol of good luck and better life for our future, so people are willing to have dumplings to celebrate Chinese New Year. In addition, dumplings tasted very good.

Dumplings have a long history in China. For example, the shape of dumpling is just like a big golden billion which Chinese people use it as money in ancient China. People think it will bring a good opportunity/chance for people to get rich in next year, although it is kind of foolish behavior in nowadays, people still love to believe it will coming true. Moreover, as I talked above, dumplings are always appeared at the eve dinner and the first day of Chinese New Year. Family members are always getting together to make dumplings. For me, I always follow with my uncle to prepare for the eve meal. Besides, a dumpling is divided by two parts, one is the outside of dumpling, it is made by flour; the inside, we called it “Xian” in Chinese, it can be meat, vegetables or mixture of meat and vegetables and it depends on people’s preference. Also, I want to mention that China is a big country, which means every place has its own traditions of celebrating Chinese New year. For making dumplings, every place also has its own way, so it is kind of different in each place.

Moreover, I want to say this is my first time celebrate Chinese New Year without my parents and relatives. When the Chinese New Year was coming, I missed my home very much. Fortunately, I have friends here, in Denver, so we can celebrate Chinese New Year by ourselves. We are not able to make dumplings, but we can find dumplings in Wal-Mart. We bought some dumplings back home and cooked by ourselves. The dumplings were not tasted as good as my mother’s made, but they were still good and we really enjoyed cooking food by ourselves. In addition, there is a funny thing I want to say. When it is night in China, it is still day-time in the United States. It is kind of wired, but we kept having dumplings in day-time because we want to feel close to our families, so we had dumplings as lunch. Furthermore, while I was eating dumplings, it reminds me to think about my mother. I like eating dumplings very much, and my mother is also willing to make dumplings for me. This summer I will go back to China and one of the important things I want to do is eating dumplings made by my mom.

As I said above, different place has different custom. I was born in Beijing, but my hometown is in Shandong province. Shandong province is in the east of China. In my hometown, people are always getting together to celebrate Chinese New Year and my parents and I go back to hometown every year. I don’t know other people how to celebrate Chinese New Year, but in my family, we like to put something specifically into dumplings, such as coin, jujube, rice cake, peanut and many types of food. We think coin symbol to good luck, which means people can earn more money in next year; jujube represents offspring because people want “new blood” in their family; rice cake represents living in a better life in next year, especially for old people, people want old people keep health in next year. To sum up, everything in dumpling has one meaning, and I think it is also a kind of motivation for people to working harder or living better for the next year. I still remember one thing about my cousin. A few years ago, and I was young, the whole family was having eve dinner. My cousin suddenly said there is a jujube in her dumpling and she was so happy because she just got married few months ago and she really wanted a baby. The next year, when I came back hometown, my uncle told me that they got a new member is his family- my cousin just got a baby a month ago. We were so happy about that and we all believe that dumplings can bring good luck to us.

To summarize, we not only love the good taste of dumplings, but also the good symbol of our life. People prefer to believe dumplings can bring us good luck and better life. In addition, I can still remember that my father and relatives sitting together, eating dumpling, drinking beer, while singing songs. Children are running outside and making firework. People are living better than before, and we also hope dumplings can give us fortune to live well in the future.