Remember the white dot balls in kung fu panda? We all laughed out loud watching all the risks panda took to have a single dumpling. So what actually is this dumpling? Well, for knowing it, we all should fly to the history of great china and Chinese foods.
Actually, Dumplings are famous traditional northern Chinese food. Dumpling got its name according to the fillings and various cooking. We can see that dumpling as a common food in southern China, where people are opposed from growing and eating wheat and wheat products so in southern china their dumplings are typically made of rice.
The Dumpling History
The known first mentioning of the dumpling was on Zhang Yi’s book Guang Ya and it was in the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). As in records, a businessman from the Qing Dynasty started a dumpling restaurant and passed it down from generation to generation which helped the spreading of dumplings too fast.
Dumplings were so popular dish in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), you could see dumpling restaurants everywhere. It was from Tang Dynasty; dumplings took their present age shape and were served on plates as a dish.
In the year 1972, archaeologists in Turpan’s Astana Tombs found buried wooden bowls consisting dozens of half moon shaped objects, which resembles today’s dumplings. It shows how dumplings were attached to Chinese tradition and culture.
An Important New Year Food in China
There is a difference in dumpling in both northern and southern china. In northern china dumplings are mainly considered as the traditional spring festival food item but not in the case of the south. On the beautiful evening of Spring Festival, the dumplings have a priceless place in every new-year banquets. Dumplings represent the pure Chinese cuisine both in shape and filling. They have a cultural meaning of its own. That’s the reason behind its essentiality in Spring Festival because they believe it provides a better life and hopes for future.
Fortune Creator
It is said that having dumplings at the Spring Festival will bring you good fortune both financially and physically. It is because dumplings look similar to ingots which was a Chinese currency that used in olden times.
Symbolic Dumplings
Celery stuffed Dumpling – It represents wealth.
Reason: ‘Celery’ sounds like ‘conscientious wealth’.
Leek stuffed Dumpling – It represents long-term wealth in future and a wish.
Reason: ‘Leek’ sounds like ‘industrious wealth’. It also represents a wish for the family to be in good health and harmony
Cabbage stuffed Dumpling – represents a 100 years life span blessing.
Reason – it sounds like ‘hundred years wealth’. And also represents love. The harmonious never lasting love between new couples. It came from a great Chinese saying “(to live together until the) white hairs of old age (idiom); to live to a ripe old age in conjugal bliss until death do us part”
Mushroom stuffed Dumpling – It is a great mascot for increasing luck and wealth.
Reason: Mushrooms shape is like an up arrow way, I mean, the stock market’s progress, growth and increasing quality of life, or wishes for the new and young generation to grow higher and improve in their studies.
Fish stuffed Dumpling – More and more wealth.
Reason: ‘Fish’ sounds the same as ‘more’. Eating fish dumplings is like wishing you have a lot and a lot of money. It is also a popular saying in China – ‘Surplus year after year’.
Beef stuffed Dumpling – Unbreakable economic growth. The bull symbolises power and strength
and is liked by stock investors. There is also a saying in Chinese – ‘bull energy ten sufficient’. This means wishing happiness and good health.