Dumplings’ Symbolic Significance in Chinese Culture and My Life

Dumplings’ Symbolic Significance in Chinese Culture and My life As a traditional Chinese food, dumplings occupy conspicuous position in Chinese festival and people’s daily life. Unlike noodle or rice, dumplings are no longer just a kind of food. It involves special meaning such as auspiciousness and foison. On every important holiday or event, for example, Spring Festival, a wedding or a funeral, the food people cannot miss is dumplings. How could Chinese have such a special emotional feeling for a food? We need to see the history of dumplings to find out the answer. Back to hundred years ago, dumplings are more like delicacy rather than a nice food to appease people’s hunger. When China was an economically backward country, people always eat cheap roughage such as corn, millet or rice as main meal. Smith describes rice is “a basic component of routine domestic and ritual activity.” (Smith, 2006) Dumplings were not the same thing. They were only appeared in Spring Festival as a decent food to highlight the day. Therefore, food like dumplings was also represented a happy and wealthy life that people wanted and pursued. Because of this reason, dumplings could have an outstanding impact in people’s everyday life. Although in nowadays dumplings is not a luxury food any more, people are still enjoy having dumplings whenever traditional festivals. The thousand years custom have formed to a culture appearance, carry down from generation to generation. No doubt, dumplings bring Chinese people infinite hope and happy, from past till now and possibly in the future. Dumplings gradually transferred from a general food to an influential mascot. This is because the dumplings are provided a satisfaction for people’s psychological need. In another words, Chinese people gave the auspicious meaning to dumplings in the process that people tried to create a health and good life. In the variable kinds of Chinese traditional food, dumplings are not the most “coroneted” one, but

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