Chinese Food Puns and Birthday Superstitions

Recently my uncle celebrated his 52^nd birthday and as is the beautiful tradition and social prescriptive it seems, that one always celebrates with food – our family went to our usual haunt, a seafood-based Canton restaurant in Beverly Hills, Sydney.

There is always a generous array and variety of foods we can order at a Chinese restaurant. However, menu selection can definitely be somewhat of a nuanced cultural tango between dishes and meats because of the Cantonese (which I speak) and Mandarin words they may sound similar to or the well-wishing phrases, which may arise.

To put this into context for English speakers (I apologise for non-English speakers, I don’t know any other languages well enough to know about their slang and pun traditions to create an example), but for example a pun manifesting from the consumption of eggs might be that they are egg-stremely egg-cellent (extremely excellent). You get the idea. I’m bad at puns. Moving on.

In Cantonese and Mandarin there exists similar puns and phrases, which translate into menu selection etiquette. This is particularly important at a celebratory affair like a birthday – for names, puns and meanings are perceived to symbolise or somehow impact what the year ahead for the birthday boy or girl will be; such is our superstition. And I love it, because I find it entertaining and moreover it is the only place and time – that is the dinner table of a birthday or new year – where I can seem somewhat witty because I’ve memorized all the puns or well-wishing phrases.

So these are the intricacies of our etiquette, or superstition.

First and foremost, you can choose three or five dishes, just never choose four 四 (sì). This is because it sounds like both the Cantonese and Mandarin word for death死 (sǐ) which as you can see has similar phonetics, but a different tone. For my uncle’s dinner we had eight 八 (bā) dishes which is a popular number because it sounds like the word 发 (fā). Whilst this word on its own takes on several meanings, it is commonly associated with fortune in the new year phrase 恭喜发财 (Gōngxǐ fācái) which means happiness and prosperity.

Clockwise from top left: poached chicken with ginger and garlic dipping sauce, lotus root soup, stir fried gai lan with ginger

From there, we ordered dishes which include lotus root soup, poached chicken with ginger and garlic dipping sauce, pippis, lobster with egg noodle, steamed fish with ginger and shallots, stir fried gai lan with ginger, stir fried water spinach with garlic and chilli and green bean and corn sweet soup for dessert.

pippis on fried vermicelli with xo sauce

stir fried water spinach with garlic, fermented tofu and chilli – my favourite!

YUM. Some of the dishes above do not have food puns, but there are a fair few where the language and puns are a factor in influencing the birthday dinner menu.

This is particularly reflected in our crustacean choice – the lobster. Actually, my uncle prefers the crab dish 蟹 (xiè) with vermicelli, but that has a “唉唉声” (Āi āi shēng) which means a rough sound, thus foreshadowing rough hurdles ahead. This crab pun only applies in Cantonese, and not mandarin, because as you can see from the above xiè and āi use different phonetics (therefore this pun is not applicable in Mandarin).

lobster, fried with garlic, ginger, shallots on a base of egg noodles

So instead, we ordered the lobster 龙虾 (lóngxiā) which literally translated in Cantonese means dragon prawn. From there, the auspicious idiom arises 龙马精神 (Lóngmǎ jīngshén). This phrase is used to describe the vigour and spirit of a dragon 龙 (lóng) to wish one an energetic new year filled with good things. This is also a phrase commonly used as a greeting during Chinese New Year 中国新年 (Zhōngguó xīnnián) to wish those around you good luck for the year. Such is the same tradition that is engrained here for my uncles’ birthday celebration.

Furthermore, we always go with the steamed fish 鱼 (yú) from which the phrase arises 年年有余 (Nián nián yǒuyú) where the last word sounds like the word for extra or remainder 余 (yú). This is supposed to mean that there is always something leftover, a surplus year after year.

steamed fish with soy, ginger and shallots

Such are the auspicious tidings, puns and superstitions that can arise from a Chinese Birthday dinner (as well as Chinese New Year).

I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it – for thinking about food has made me reflect on my culture, and has made me appreciate cultural experiences, that I’ve oft taken for granted. So thank you for reading and learning one of the many nuances of Chinese culture and food.

Sending you lobsters, fish and number eights,

Moony xoxo

p.s. Do you have any interesting cultural experiences and traditions with food? I would love to gain more insight about Chinese and other cultures too!