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At Lunar New Year, certain foods are particularly lucky to eat. Why? Because in Chinese, their names are puns on fortunate things. Damn, maybe noodles are all it takes to get me into puns after all...
Professor Miranda Brown, cultural historian of China specialising in food and drink, explains the wordplay foods of new year, and why names are so resonant in Chinese.
EXTRA MATERIALS:
Miranda writes in Atlas Obscura about some of the lunar new year foods.
“Perhaps my favourite character, for the absurdity of his English name, is Intelligent Fragrant Chicken, which is one tone off from dǎ fēi jī, slang for masturbation.”
‘The head and tail of the fish also represent a saying, you tou you wei (有头有尾), which means “for the things you have started, you must end it well and not do things half-heartedly”.’
Quite a different kind of food pun but you can vote in Babbel’s 2024 shop pun competition.
Otherlusionists: I mentioned Jing Tsu talking about homophones to defy censors in Bonus 2022, and she also talked about Chinese and writing systems in In Character. Lacuna is about another food-related way to get around censors. Yes, As In is not only very entertaining, it also nudges at names with ambition and nominative determinism. And Name Therapy considers people’s relationships with their own names.
How often do you get a movie with some major linguistic plots? Not often enough! We’re going to watch the 2016 science fiction conlang hit Arrival together in the Allusioverse Discord, on Saturday 17 February 12.30pm PT/3.30pm ET/8.30pm UTC/check your timezone. This is for members of the Allusioverse, and you can become one via theallusionist.org/donate (no payment will be taken till the 1st of the month, so you can try it out for free). And you also get behind-the-scenes glimpses about every episode, fortnightly livestreams with me and my dictionaries, and the Allusioverse Discord community - AND your contributions help keep this independent podcast going. It’s rocky times!
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
whim-wham, noun, archaic:
1. a quaint and decorative object; a trinket.
2. a whim.
Origin 16th century: fanciful reduplication
CREDITS:
Miranda Brown is a professor at the University of Michigan, in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, specialising in food and drink. Read some of her posts about foods at chinesefoodhistory.org.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, on the unceded ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
The original Allusionist music is by Martin Austwick. Download his songs at palebirdmusic.com and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.
Thanks to MiMi Aye, food writer and alumsionist of the Food Into Words episode.
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