Behind the Zodiac

     The first day was coming to an end, and evening was descending upon us as we made our way to our last destination before returning to our hotel: dinner.

     A notorious dish in Beijing is Peking Duck, so we went to a small restaurant that prepared the famous dish.  Again, as a vegetarian, I was worried.  I'd had two meals in China thus far and they were great, but the plane ride here had been disastrous... How would this meal end?

     When we arrived at the restaurant, I was shocked by how small it was.  The first restaurant was, what seemed to me, a five-star restaurant.  It was in a two-story building and was incredibly elaborate, whereas this restaurant was a small building and we were on the first floor with crowded tables.  Like lunch and breakfast, the dinner tables were round and contained a lazy-susan top. 

     But on top of these tables, aside from our dishware, were laminated pieces of paper that contained the Chinese zodiac, the animal, the years, and some characteristics of the animal. I watched as other delegates learned about their Chinese zodiac. 

     In Chinese class at school, we had learned a lesson on the Chinese zodiac, and even learned about the legend behind the zodiac.  I knew that I was a pig--born in 1995.  In class, we had to memorize the order of the Chinese zodiac:

1. 鼠 (shu, pronounced "shoe") Rat
2. 牛 (niu, pronounced "knee-oh") Ox
3. 虎(hu, pronounced "who?") Tiger
4. 兔 (tu, pronounced "two") Rabbit
5. 龙 (long, pronounced "long") Dragon
6. 蛇 (she, pronounced "shut" without the "t") Snake
7. 马 (ma, pronounced "ma") Horse
8. 羊 (yang, pronounced "yawng") Sheep
9. 猴子 (hou zi, pronounced "hoe-tsi") Monkey
10. 鸡 (ji, pronounced "gee") Rooster
11. 狗 (gou, pronounced "go") Dog
12. 猪(zhu, pronounced "jew") Pig

     If you want to learn more about the Chinese zodiac and about which animal you are, I highly recommend you read this page: link

     Phoebe announced that we could order and buy a Chinese stamp with our Chinese zodiac and Chinese name.  Earlier, Phoebe had given us name tags with a Chinese name that fitted phonetically with our original name.  On the back of the card was her contact information.  When my American name, Stephanie, is translated to Chinese, it means gibberish; so, I decided to go with my original Chinese name I had selected from Chinese class: 许梦安 (Xu Meng An, pronounced "Shoe Mung On") which means Promise Dream Safe.  In Chinese culture, the surname is placed first, to show respect for your ancestors.  During the trip to China, everyone called me Meng. 

     So I decided that I would buy a Chinese stamp with my zodiac (the pig) with my original Chinese name on it.  This was my first purchase in China, and I was thrilled it would be a stamp.

     Phoebe explained to us that stamps in China were highly revered.  Once you are an adult, it is "required" of you to have an official seal.  Originally, only the emperor was permitted to have a seal, but then it spread out over the twentieth century to higher officials, and then today to all people. 

     My seal arrived the next night.

On the left is the red ink, and on the left is my seal.

     My worries about food were put to rest: plenty of vegetables were available.  Many students from our delegation were adamant about not eating duck, though.  I was becoming more and more trusting of the foreign food.  Better yet--I was really enjoying Chinese food.  I had only had take-out Chinese food once in my life before, and I had hated it.  This authentic Chinese food was fifty thousand times better. 
     

Culinary School

     After lunch, we drove to a culinary school, which is a vocational school/college.  Once inside the building, we were brought into a small room in order to participate in a tea ceremony. 

 

     The ceremony was held by female students at the school while their teacher supervised. There were two main girls that conducted the ceremony while other students passed out cups and poured the tea. In the photo below, the girl on the left read, in English, a brief history on tea and what types of tea we would be sampling. We tried four types of tea. While her English was articulated and loud, she sounded robotic, even when she was not reading off of the paper. The girl on the right would prepare the tea, pour the tea, et cetera. She was very elegant and graceful in her moves. It was as if she was as elegant as a beautiful swan. It was inspiring to watch.

 

 

     After the tea ceremony, our delegation was split into two groups to go to the kitchens and prepare different dishes.  In the group I went to, we made roses out of dough.  We were first under the impression that they were edible; however, they were not.  You could either make yellow or red roses.  Now that I think of it, I find it interesting because red and yellow are both auspicious colors in Chinese culture. 

 

 

     The roses were actually difficult to make.  I am not physically artistic and crafting a rose from modeling dough was frustrating.  First we had small blocks of dough that we had to roll out into flat, round pieces.  Of course, I was the one unfortunate enough to pick out the driest blocks of dough, and had to start over with new dough.  But once I had dough pieces with enough water, the process was much easier. 

      After rolling out the dough pieces, you had to pick one and roll it into the center of the rose.  Then, you had to place other flattened pieces around the rolled ones, expanding it until it looked like the flower part of a rose. 

     When the rose flower was as thick as you wanted it, you would add a leaf to it.  The leaf was rolled out flat like the other flower pieces.  You would use a toothpick to make the indentions to look like a leaf.  Then, when complete, you would stick the toothpick into the rose and voila! Rose is complete.

     Our two groups then switched rooms.  The next activity we had was to make dumplings! ....pork dumplings.... As a vegetarian, I decided to watch as the other delegates made dumplings from scratch.  While watching the other delegates make the dumplings, I spoke with Phoebe.  Turns out she is also a vegetarian!

    

 

     While in the dumpling room, I was shocked to discover that there were two Chinese boys, approximately my age, goofing off.  They would playfully slap each other on the back of the head, would argue over who would collect (and who would cook) the dumplings.  It was childish and completely unexpected, but it also proved a point: People are people literally everywhere you go.  Westerners typically have the assumptions that Asians are studious, hard-working students who make straight-As and never enjoy themselves.  But that's not true! Stereotypes are just stereotypes.  People of any culture can stand outside their stereotype.  That's what makes us human: we are all different from society's expectation.