Dai Jie , professor at the Art Institute of Yunnan Normal University , has been visiting the White Yi of Xundian county for more than ten years. The paintings below are nearly two metres high.
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Just outside Kunming on the old road to Qujing some locals have set up an adhoc barbecue area in the roadside forest.
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| The fire uses nearby logs, and now with the dry weather and winter winds it will only be a matter of a few days before the fire department shuts the place down. |
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| Now there are six lane motorways connecting the various prefectural cities of Yunnan, it takes but a fraction of the time it used to to get around. The old road to Dali took 14 hours on bumpy roads, now it’s four. The route to Qujing used to take four or five hours, and when the motorway is finished it will take less than two. Nice as it is not to sit on smoky creaking buses for hours on end, if you’ve got the time its worth travelling the old roads |
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| The eggs are wrapped in paper to prevent them bursting with the sudden intense heat. |
Asia Sentinel has reprinted (by arrangement with the National Geographic Society) a section from the book Dragon Rising: An Inside Look at China Today by Jasper Becker (Part 1 & Part 2). The article, The Rising Dragon’s Environmental Disaster, is a great overview of China’s environmental problems, including a (depressing) part devoted to Yunnan: Dianchi, the Tiger Leaping Gorge dam etc. Well worth reading.
I found these in an online book about Chinese superstitions. My favourite:
It is taboo for a pregnant woman to put an onion in her armpit : If this taboo is broken, the child will be born with bad body odour. (From Zhengzhou, Henan province).
Why a pregnant woman would wander around with onions under her arms is not clear. Some of the superstitions were not all bad, such as the mother should be given whatever she wants to eat, the reason given that her craving is actually the baby’s craving, fulfilling the baby’s needs. However, the result of denying her that food was that the deprived child would be born with “red eyes” (红眼病), this means literally bloodshot eyes, but also the Chinese belief that red eyes is synonymous with jealousy / covetousness (corresponding to green eyes, green-eyed monster in the West).
Other pregnancy taboos about foods that are forbidden for the expectant mother to eat include:
Fish: (Also from Henan) If the pregnant mother eats fish, her child will be born with scales. In ancient times, it was believed that pregnant mothers who ate dried carp would give birth to a child suffering from bad skin.
Dog: Dog meat is believed to be a good food for warming the body, so is eaten in winter and is especially popular in northern China. However, in Heilongjiang, it is taboo for pregnant women to eat dog meat in case their children are born wanting to bite people, which will cause the mother trouble when feeding the baby (ow). Henan also has this taboo – in Yucheng county in the east of the province it is black dog meat (the finest dog flesh) should be avoided, as it can cause birth defects and miscarriage. In times past, Han Chinese also held the same taboo believing it would lead to a difficult labour.
Crab: (Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Taiwan) Eating crab will cause a difficult labour in which the baby is born sideways, a belief said to have been recorded as far back as the Song Dynasty (食螃蟹，令子横生). It is also said that the child will drool, with bubbles coming out of its mouth just like a crab. In Taiwan they say the child will claw at peoples hands and feet (an ankle biter?)
Soft-shelled Turtle: An old superstition that says the child will be born short necked (短项), connected with the way the turtle withdraws its head back into its shell.
Plum and pear: Another ancient superstition, that eating these fruit will make the child blind . The pear is already a “cold” (寒) foodstuff according to traditional Chinese medicine, so the expecting mother shouldn’t eat it anyway.
Rabbit: The child will be born with a cleft lip (looking like a rabbit’s mouth).
Donkey: The child will be stubborn and misbehave, not listening to his parents (just like a donkey).
Cockerel: The baby will cry at night.
Ginger: To prevent the child having six fingers.
(Chinese) Soft-shelled turtle 鳖 bie1 Other official names: 甲鱼, 团鱼, in English it also known by its Japanese name, Suppon. Their most distinguishing feature is the long pointed snout that allows them to snorkel with just their nostrils above the water surface. Their soft shells are actually soft, being made up mostly of thickened skin. For more see www.answers.com/topic/chinese-softshell-turtle and a very detailed description www.anapsid.org The soft-shelled turtle is used in Chinese traditional medicine, and apart from being good for lowering fever, night sweats and “steaming bones”*, it is also valued for increasing male potency (壮阳 ). I’m guessing the phallic connection is why the colloquial name for the turtle – 王八 wang2 ba1 – is also a term of abuse, as 王八 or 王八蛋 (literally “turtle egg”) equivalent to bastard or son-of-a-bitch.
Here is a Soft-shelled Turtle with Cream Sauce, from the Suzhou Government Website |
And a Common Soft-shelled Turtle from Blue Ridge Biological |
And an (American) Eastern Spiny Soft-Shell from Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre |
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Image source: Prunus salicina fruit, flower
Prunus mume fruit, flower
Several fun Yunnan dialect expressions for noisy and grimy:
Yi li wa la – [adv.] Cacophony of people speaking
莫在这点咿哩哇拉呢啦，某看见我在打电话改？
Mau4 zai4 zhe4 diar4 yi1 li1 wa1 la1 ne la, mou3 kan4 jian4 wo3 zai4 da3 dier4hua4 gya?
Mandarin: 不要在这里吵吵闹闹，没看到我在打电话吗？
Pinyin: Bu2 yao4 zai4 zhe4 li chao3 chao nao4 nao, mei2 kan4 dao4 wo3 zai4 da3 dian4 hua4 ma?
Will you keep it down, can’t you see I’m on the phone?
Ji li gua la [adv.] to speak incomprehensibly, for example in a foreign language
[Seeing two laowai nattering away in English]
唛，他俩个在叽里呱啦些哪？我一样都听不懂。
Me4, ta1 lia2 ge4 zai4 ji1 li1 gua1 la1 xie1 na3? Wo3 yi4 yan4 dou1 ting1 bu4 dong3.
Mandarin: 哎呀，他们两个在讲些什么呀？我一点都听不懂。
Pinyin: Aiya, ta1men liang3 ge4 zai4 jiang3 xie1 shen2me ya? Wo3 yi1 dian3 dou1 ting1 bu4 dong3.
Jeez, what are they on about? I can’t understand a word of it…
Zan ba la shi [adj.] dirty (for emphasis, there is repetition: zan ba la shi shi ne)
这个鏖糟馆咋个看得起脏巴拉施施呢。怕是吃不成。
Zhe4ge4 ou1-zou1 guan3 za3ge4 kan4 de qi zan1 ba1 la1 shi1 shi1 ne. Pa4 shi4 chi1 bu4 chen2.
Mandarin: 这个小饭馆儿怎么看起来那么脏。恐怕不能在这儿吃。
Pinyin: Zhe4 ge4 xiao3 fan4 guanr3 zen3 me kan4 qi lai na4 me zang1. kong3 pa4 bu4 neng2 zai4 zher4 chi1.
This noodle restaurant is nasty, I’m afraid I can’t eat here….
