These foods have special meaning to the Chinese culture. For example fish sounds like “surplus”, so they believe that when they eat the catfish they will be receiving surplus for that entire year. Along with the fish, dumplings are widely popular throughout China. They have been a New Years dish for at least one thousand eight hundred years. Dumplings mainly consist of cabbage or radishes on New Years. Along with the cabbage/radish, various types of meats, such as beef, shrimp, pork, and even some types of vegetables are included within the dumplings. In similarity with the fish, dumplings, they also have a meaning in the Chinese language. Dumplings mainly stand for your future. It depends on what is in dumpling, if you want to know exactly what it means. In addition to the dumplings, fish spring rolls are passed around the table during the New Year. Now, spring rolls are made of meat, vegetables, or maybe even something sweet. Now when eating the spring rolls at the dinner table, the people who eat them believe that it means “a ton of gold” will …show more content…
Even from the very fist page, you could tell that the story was about Amy Tan when she was little. Amy spoke of the love she felt for her neighbor named Robert. Robert wasn’t a Chinese immigrant, but he was white and had no ties to any Chinese culture. So, Amy grew ashamed of her culture and where her ancestors came from. She even began to wish for a slimmer American Nose for Christmas. As Amy tried to hide her Chinese background, she found out that her parents have invited Robert and his family over for there Christmas dinner. Amy was overwhelmed with horror with this news. “What would Robert think of our shabby Chinese Christmas? What would he think about their familys noisy Chinese relatives who lacked proper American manners? What terrible disappointment would he feel upon seeing not a roasted turkey and sweet potatoes, but Chinese food”(Tan 184)? Over the coarse of this dinner it’s safe to say that Amy becomes even more embarrassed as her relatives lick the end of their chopsticks and even more embarrassed as her dad belched loudly. All she wished she could do was craw in a whole and just disappear. From that point on Amy didn’t speak until her relatives and Robert went home. That night she learned an important lessen from her mom. Her mother exclaimed to her that there is no shame in being different from the others around you. The only shame she had is the shame she