My daughters and I made marbled tea eggs for breakfast this morning in honor of Chinese New Year. To make: Crack the shells of hard-boiled eggs with the back of a spoon. Steep overnight in tea and spices. (recipe link)
Marbled tea eggs are one of many traditional foods served on Chinese New Year. A fish--head to tail—promises a good beginning and a good end to the year. Serve a whole chicken for family unity, and long noodles symbolize long life. Tangerines are also customary. The Chinese word for tangerine is similar to the Chinese word for luck, and the word “orange” sounds like the word for wealth. A clever play on words is something the Chinese enjoy, and it is a technique often found in their poetry.
Marbled tea eggs are one of many traditional foods served on Chinese New Year. A fish--head to tail—promises a good beginning and a good end to the year. Serve a whole chicken for family unity, and long noodles symbolize long life. Tangerines are also customary. The Chinese word for tangerine is similar to the Chinese word for luck, and the word “orange” sounds like the word for wealth. A clever play on words is something the Chinese enjoy, and it is a technique often found in their poetry.
Some of the best of Chinese poetry was written one thousand years ago. Around that time, a tradition of antithetical poetry called duilian began. The duilian appears simple: a single couplet using opposing elements to strike a point. (Think Charles Dickens’ “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”) A duilian sometimes uses as few as eight characters but creates a myriad of parallels. These parallels are found in the characters and their meaning and tone. Chinese is a tonal language, and poets play on this. Writing a duilian requires skill and wit. A scholar may compose the first line of a duilian and ask his students to complete it. The poem is a complex game of connecting dots. It's a test of the students' cleverness. Here is a classic example of a duilain:
(The cartoon bird is annoying, but push through. The duilian is incredible, although for English readers much of the parallelism is lost.)
For New Year's Day special duilians, called chunlians, are composed. They express hope and good wishes. Chunlians are written in calligraphy on large pieces of red paper and pasted to the doorframe of homes and businesses. The poems are as important to Chinese New Year as Christmas trees are to our holiday celebration.
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The right side is the upper line and the left side is the lower line. Sometimes a third line is added to the top of the doorway. Many chunlians remain pasted to the doorway all year in the hopes that they will bring the family good luck. The paper becomes worn and tattered but serves as a reminder of happy times spent with family.
天增岁月人增寿 春满乾坤福满门
A new year is added to both nature and man,
A prosperous spring fills universe and this family.
On the door of a barbershop:
提起刀人人没法 拉下水个个低头
A knife in hand, no one’s hair can stand on end,
In front of water, all have to bow their heads.
China is an industrial nation. Today most people buy manufactured chunlians for their home. Still, it is beautiful to think of days gone by when each family composed their own couplet and expressed their good wishes with clever poetry for the coming year.
Wan Shi Ru Yi. May everything be as you wish.
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