How British Chinese restaurants’ Chinese names can hide witty messages and clever wordplay

Most of the time, understanding dish names requires some level of fluency in Chinese, though not always. But what happens when names get lost in translation on their way to English? Chinese restaurant Chow in Glasgow, Scotland, has a colloquial phrase as a Chinese name that means “be there or be square”, or “see you … Read more

Millennials widen the appeal of Chinese dumplings in the West by experimenting with new fillings

Several speciality brands have popped up recently. These three, based in the UK capital London, Vancouver in Canada, and Seattle in the United States, are making dumplings more accessible. Love Sum Dumplings, London Love Sum Dumpling’s multicultural product range, from Nepalese momos to Chinese shrimp dumplings. Photo: Love Sum Dumplings After she was named runner-up … Read more

Chinese-Indian chef Katherine Lim on why spreading the Hakka cuisine of her childhood in India and beyond is ‘very personal’

After the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, he moved to Amritsar and started a shoe business. Lim is a third-generation Chinese Indian; her grandfather moved from China when he was 13. Photo: Katherine Lim Today, Lim is known in India for her role in popularising Hakka cuisine, which is rich in pickled, cured … Read more

Opinion | Why for some Chinese, ninth day of Lunar New Year is the most important: it’s the day they worship the Jade Emperor – and sugar cane is involved

This Sunday, February 18, is the ninth day of the Chinese New Year, a day when many of us will frankly be quite sick of the festive cheer and rich foods. But for people from Fujian province and some of its neighbouring regions in China’s southeast, or those whose ancestries can be traced back to … Read more

Opinion | On a slow boat to China: when coastal shipping, not direct flights, connected Hong Kong to mainland China and Southeast Asia

Swift, efficient transport connections between Hong Kong’s various hinterlands are now taken for granted; air travel and high-speed railway networks link locations along the China coast – including both sides of the Taiwan Strait. But until the widespread advent of direct air services from Southeast Asia throughout the 1980s, relatively small-scale passenger vessel services enabled … Read more