• Genre: Material Lore – food, Customary Lore – celebration, ancestor worship ritual
• Language: English
• Country of Origin: China/US
• Informant: K.C.
• Date Collected: November 7, 2020

Informant Data:

• K.C. was born in New York in 1997 and grew up in Long Island with his parents and younger brother. His father is a doctor while his mother was a homemaker that would often prepare meals for the family. K.C.’s background is Asian; while his parents are both originally from Myanmar, he is of Chinese descent. In terms of religion, his family follows Theravada Buddhism. He always lived with his parents until he moved to attend Dartmouth College in 2015. After graduating from Dartmouth, he enrolled in SUNY Downstate Medical School in Brooklyn, New York in 2019 where he currently studies medicine. Prior to attending college and medical school, he would always celebrate Chinese New Year with his family.

Contextual Data:

• Cultural Context: In the past, the leaders of Chinese villages were heavily praised for providing protection to the people, and so the people would offer many gifts. Since the leaders typically enjoyed drinking alcohol, offering alcohol was an important part of large gatherings and ceremonies. With these roots, serving alcohol represents a manner of honoring others, even in the present.
• Social Context: Alcohol represents a symbol of status. In large gatherings, members often have to bring some form of alcohol, and the quality of alcohol you bring correlates to your place in the social hierarchy. One who brings an expensive wine is higher than one who brings common beer.

Item:

• Beer is an important drink involved in Chinese New Year and it is very unique in that its primary purpose isn’t to be drunk. Instead, beer is used as an item to pay respects to ancestors. In a household, a table with all of the festival’s foods is set up in front of the shrine, and on the table, a row of teacups are set up. Beer is poured into each cup, and this beer is meant for the ancestors to drink while the celebrating family prays at the shrine. After the praying is finished, indicating that the ancestors finished the beer, the celebrating family is allowed to drink the beer, but it is not required.

Image File:

Audio Clip:

 

Transcript:

C.C. (collector): So when you celebrate Chinese New Year, is there any particular dish that stands out?

K.C. (informant): Well this isn’t a food, but in Chinese New Year, beer is an important beverage. It is unique because we use it as a form of offering to our ancestors rather than using it to drink. Since I always celebrated Chinese New Year with my family before I was 21, I couldn’t even drink it except for small sips that my parents allowed. Anyways, this is how beer is used. We have set up this table in front of our shrine where we put all the food my mom prepared. With the food, we set up a row of teacups across the table and pour some beer in each cup. This beer is for our ancestors to drink as we pray at the shrine. After all this, I mean it is allowed to drink the beer, but my brother and I were too young to drink and my parents don’t drink in general, so we end up just throwing it out. Beer is used instead of like water or tea or other drinks because beer is the preferred drink for them, and yeah.

C.C.: Alright, thank you.

Informant’s Comments:

• Since his parents generally do not drink, and he and his brother were too young to drink, his family would just throw out the beer after offering it to ancestors. However, he and his brother would take small sips of the beer with their parents permission just to see what alcohol would taste like.

Collector’s Comments:

• What is interesting is that my parents do not drink partly due to religious reasons, and assuming that my ancestors were Buddhist, as well, it would be fair to say they decided not to drink. With this, offering alcohol to non-drinkers seems contradictory, yet we continue to offer it.

Collector’s Name: Chris Chao

Tags/Keywords:

• Chinese New Year
• Material Lore
• Customary Lore
• Food
• Beverage

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