‘A man may build a complicated piece of mechanism, or pilot a steamboat, but not more than five out of ten know how the apple got into the dumpling.’
– Edwardv A Boyden, American neuroscientist
LIKE all Chinese festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival, which was celebrated by Chinese all over the world on Thursday, June 22, has undergone some changes.
The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Dumpling Festival or Bak Chang Festival, is one of the four top traditional Chinese festivals, along with the Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.
Chinese people celebrate the festival to remember Qu Yuan, who was also a minister of the State of Chu during the Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC) in China.
The poet drowned himself in the Miluo River after he was accused of treason and banished for his well-intended advices to the king.
Legend has it that after learning of his death, locals took to boats to search for his body. They dropped rice into the water to prevent the fish from eating him.
Since then, the legend and the festival have been passed down through generations.
The activities during the Dragon Boat Festival include dragon boat races and eating glutinous rice dumplings.
In the olden days, every family would make sticky rice dumplings and pass them out as gifts or receive them as gifts.
The dumplings are made of glutinous rice filled with meats, beans, and other fillings. They are wrapped in triangle or rectangle shapes within bamboo or reed leaves and tied with soaked stalks or colourful silky cords.
The flavours of the dumplings are different from one region to another across China. In Sarawak, they are different from one Chinese dialect to another.
In the olden days, one or two days before the festival which fell on the fifth day of the fifth lunar months, housewives would be busy making the rice dumplings for their families to eat and to share with relatives and friends.
Nowadays, many housewives don’t make the dumplings anymore. It’s either they don’t know or don’t want to make them anymore. Most prefer to buy them from traders or other people who make them.
Because the rice dumplings are now very expensive when you buy them, family members cannot gorge on them like in the old days. Then, you could perhaps eat them for breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner because there was a lot of the homemade delicacies in the house.
This year, during the festival, I only got to savour four rice dumplings. My daughter-in-law bought two while the other two were given by a good friend who made them herself.
My youngest sister, Ah Lan, who lives and works in Johor Bahru, lamented none of her colleagues shared the dumplings their families made with her.
However, before the festival, she managed to buy a medium size special Bak Chang (rice dumpling with pork filling, salted egg and mushrooms) for RM6.50.
My niece, Ah Hong, shared that she bought a normal Bak Chang without the salted egg for S$4.50 in Singapore on the day of the festival itself.
This year, I did not shop for Bak Chang or other types of rice dumplings either at the Stutong Community Market or at a popular coffeeshop in Tabuan Jaya. So I don’t know the prices. But I think a medium size dumpling will cost at least RM5 or RM6.
My best friend in Sibu says that a special, big size rice dumpling with all kinds of fillings there is being sold for around RM18.
My friends, do you know that nowadays, in Kuching, you don’t have to wait for the Dragon Boat Festival to eat rice dumplings? You can buy them at certain stalls or markets throughout the year.
There are some people who insist homemade rice dumplings are tastier because they contain more pork or chicken as well as other ingredients.
That could be true because the sellers might put in less ingredients because they have to make profits. Now, who wants to be in business if he or she does not make any money?
And with the prices of everything including bamboo leaves, pork, chicken, mushrooms, etc, spiralling, we should not be surprised if the dumplings this year are more expensive than in previous years.
Personally, I think we should be grateful we can still buy rice dumplings and eat them this Dragon Boat Festival.
Yesterday, I saw a nice picture of a woman selling lots of dumplings at a market in one of my WhatsApp groups.
When I shared it with Ah Hong, she commented, “Miss the times when we used to make bundles of dumplings at home.”
Yes, when she was younger, I used to make lots of dumplings for the festival.
I learnt to make the delicacies from YouTube and my friends who were women members of the Kuching Hainan Association.
When I was young, I saw some Hainanese women who were neighbours making Bak Chang (rice dumplings with pork filling). But I did not learn to make the rice dumplings because they did not teach me.
One thing I have learnt in life is the importance of hands-on skills. You acquire hands-on skills through active engagement and practical learning. You enforce these skills by practising what you’re learning immediately.
For example, if you want to learn to make rice dumplings, you must practise preparing the ingredients and the rice as well as cooking them. You must practise wrapping the dumplings with the bamboo leaves or what leaves you decide to use.
For years, I watched the Hainanese women in my neighbourhood make rice dumplings but I could not make any until I experimented with the rice, bamboo leaves or banana leaves myself.
Now, I advise my friends to share the art of making rice dumplings with either their children, grandchildren or anyone who’s interested.
My friends, if you are interested to make the dumplings, it is never too late to learn. You can learn from your friends, any old folk, cooking centre or even YouTube. Remember when there is a will, there is a way.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
