Tag Archives: Chinese Superstition

Entrée/Dessert: Glutinous Rice Cake

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General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish; Customary Lore – celebration, superstition, family tradition; Verbal Lore – saying
  • Language: English with some Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: W.W.
  • Date Collected: November 15, 2020

Informant Data:

  • W.W. is a 22-year-old senior studying Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth. He was born in Boulder, Colorado, but his family moved to Shanghai, China when he was 9 years old. Every summer vacation and Chinese New Year while in China, W.W. would visit his maternal relatives in Beijing with his parents and little sister. To celebrate the reunion of the extended family, his grandma would host a large dinner celebration at home with all the relatives invited, including all the uncles, aunts, cousins, and even the family pets.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context

  • “Nián gāo” (年糕) refers to Glutinous Rice Cake, but it can also be translated literally as “New Year Cake.” The name is auspicious because it sounds similar to the popular Chinese New Year’s saying “nián nián gāo” (年年高), which means “higher every year.” It is often used as a toast at the dinner table to wish good health for elders, successful careers for working adults, and stellar grades for children.

Social Context

  • Glutinous Rice Cake is always served for the traditional feast on Chinese New Year’s Eve. The extended family reunites to celebrate this special occasion. After the feast, the family watches fireworks and a special show on TV called “chūn wǎn” (春晚), which features singing, dancing, and traditional performances.

Item:

  • “Nián gāo” (年糕), or Glutinous Rice Cake, comes in two varieties: savory and sweet. The preparation process is straightforward but time consuming. First, boiled sticky rice is pounded into a paste and molded into dough. The dough is then cooked again, usually by steaming. Savory Glutinous Rice Cake dishes are usually served as entrées. The rice dough is cooked plain, typically in the shape of cylinders or flat slices, and subsequently stir fried with other ingredients or used in hotpot. For example, in Shanghai, Glutinous Rice Cake is often stir fried with cabbage and shredded pork. Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake dishes, on the other hand, are served as desserts. Sugar, assorted nuts, and dried fruits are added to the dough before cooking or mixed in afterwards. When purchased at the store, sweet Glutinous Rice Cake dishes are often packed in more elaborate shapes such as fish, which symbolizes surplus and unity.

Image Files:

Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake in elaborate packaging (Photo was taken by W.W.’s family members on November 7, 2020; it was ordered online.)

Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake being steamed (Photo was taken by W.W.’s family members on November 7, 2020; unfortunately the end product is not as beautiful as the packaging.)

Transcript of Interview Clip:

W.W. (collector and informant): When I was a child, um, I remember that my favorite dessert for Chinese New Year was sweet Glutinous Rice Cake shaped like koi. Since I was allergic to tree nuts, my parents and grandparents always bought it plain. The packaging was super elaborate, so I was always, um, a little, very disappointed actually, to discover that the rice cake itself was plain white. My family would steam the plain rice cake and serve it with nuts and other toppings placed separately on the side. I always struggled to eat it because it was very sticky. Apparently, the right technique is to stick your chopsticks into the rice cake and swirl them around until a decent sized blob forms. After eating the rice cake, we would cast lots to see who would clean the dishes because it was always a tedious chore to clean off the sticky remains.

Collector’s Comments:

  • Talking about Glutinous Rice Cake brings back happy childhood memories and evokes a strong feeling of nostalgia. I always preferred the sweet type instead of the savory type. My parents did not have the time to make rice dough themselves, so they bought it pre-packaged from the store, usually weeks in advance. I would always beg them to let me eat it before Chinese New Year, but my efforts were never successful.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Entrée: Braised Pork and Gold Ingot Egg

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General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish, recipe; Customary Lore – celebration, family tradition, superstition, historical story
  • Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: Y.Z.
  • Date Collected: November 7, 2020

Informant Data:

  • Y.Z. is about ~50 years old, and she currently resides in Shanghai, China. She was born in Beijing, China during the Cultural Revolution and grew up in relative poverty, as was the case with most Chinese families back then. After attending university in Beijing, she pursued her graduate studies in the US. She learned many traditional Chinese dishes from her mother and enjoys cooking for her family.

Contextual Data:

Historical & Cultural Context

  • During the Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368) in China, the main currency was gold and silver ingots shaped like tiny boats called “yuán bǎo” (元宝). Many traditional Chinese New Year dishes such as dumplings are prepared in the shape of these ingots as a symbol for wealth and prosperity.
  • In the 1960s and 1970s, China’s economy was in a terrible state. Meat, eggs, and sugar were heavily rationed. As a result, most families could not prepare meat dishes and desserts for their daily meals. During Chinese New Year, the rations were temporarily increased, so families would celebrate by making large meat dishes and fancy desserts.

Social Context

  • Chinese New Year meals are always eaten as family. Most of the dishes have auspicious names, colors, or shapes that symbolize longevity, wealth, or good fortune. By eating these dishes, families express their hope for more prosperity and blessings in the coming year.

Item:

  • Braised Pork and Gold Ingot Egg, or “hóng shāo ròu yuán bǎo dàn” (红烧肉元宝蛋) in Chinese, is a popular meat dish eaten for Chinese New Year, both in the northern and southern provinces. Diced pork belly is braised in a broth consisting of soy sauce, sugar, star anise, ginger, and garlic. Boiled eggs are then flavored using the remaining meat stock. Afterwards, the top half of the egg whites are removed to give the eggs a distinctive “yuán bǎo” (元宝) shape. Finally, the eggs are plated on top of the pork belly, and the family shares the dish together to express their wishes for the new year. There are several variations of this dish according to regional preferences. For example, in Shanghai, families tend to add much more sugar to the dish to give it a sweeter taste.

Image File:

image file

The completed dish (Photo was taken by Y.Z. on November 7, 2020; she prepared the dish using a recipe from her mother.)

Translation of Interview Clip:

Y.Z. (informant): The dish I’m introducing is called “hóng shāo ròu yuán bǎo dàn” (红烧肉元宝蛋). Um, this dish, we always had it for Chinese New Year when I was a child. So, when I grew up in the 60s and 70s, China’s economy was pretty behind. Ingredients like pork and eggs were scarce resources, rationed every month by the government. For each person, every month, um, there was about one pound of meat and eggs in total. So, usually, we rarely had a chance to eat meat. That’s why during Chinese New Year, when the rations are slightly increased, we would use, um, pork and eggs to make the dish. One reason why this dish is so popular is because the meat is braised in soy sauce and other condiments, including star anise, scallion, ginger, and garlic… uh, the remaining meat stock is used to flavor the eggs and can also be saved for other dishes. The reason why the eggs are called ” yuán bǎo dàn ” (元宝蛋), is like this. “Yuán bǎo” (元宝), they are Chinese ingots, the shape is like a boat. During the Yuan Dynasty, gold and silver were used as currency, and they were molded into such a shape. ” Yuán” (元) refers to the Yuan Dynasty, and ” bǎo” (宝) means treasure. So in this dish, you can make the eggs resemble “yuán bǎo” (元宝) by removing part of the egg white. I guess this is a nice wish, the hope that, next year, life will be bountiful, the family income will increase, so people make this dish “hóng shāo ròu yuán bǎo dàn” (红烧肉元宝蛋). That’s about it. Are there any parts that you are not clear about?

W.W. (collector): Great, thanks for sharing. So I wanted to ask, is this dish a Beijing specialty or eaten widely across China?

Y.Z.: Uh, this is great question. This dish, I think it is eaten in many places, by many people. For Chinese New Year, both in the north and in the south, it is one of the most common dishes on the dinner table, suitable for young and old alike. Everyone likes it very much and eats the dish to show their wishes. Even though, the standards of living are higher now, and the dish can be made any time of the year, but as a tradition, many families still prepare it as a festival dish for Chinese New Year.

Collector’s Comments:

  • I remember eating “hóng shāo ròu” (红烧肉), or braised pork, as a child, but this is my first time hearing about “yuán bǎo dàn” (元宝蛋). I am impressed by the level of creativity in the preparation of the eggs.
  • Homeopathic magic is present in the superstitions related to the informant’s dish: eating the ingot-shaped eggs brings wealth and good fortune.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Topping: Osmanthus Honey

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General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish; Customary Lore – celebration, family tradition, superstition, cooking technique
  • Language: English with some Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: V.Y.
  • Date Collected: November 7, 2020

Informant Data:

  • V.Y. is a 21-year-old senior studying Physics at UCLA. He is from Shanghai, China, though his family lived in Beijing for eight years before settling down in Shanghai. While in China, he celebrated traditional Chinese festivals with his family. He has especially fond memories of his grandma’s cooking.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context

  • Chinese cuisine varies greatly from province to province in terms of style, but Chinese chefs have classified eight regional cuisines, the most prominent ones being Cantonese cuisine, Shandong cuisine, Jiangsu cuisine, and Sichuan cuisine. In the modern age, it is not uncommon for Chinese families to combine ingredients and cooking techniques from two or more regional cuisines or modify existing dishes to better suit their tastes.
  • Chinese culture places heavy emphasis on the symbolic meaning of flowers: chrysanthemums symbolize longevity, plum blossoms symbolize perseverance, magnolias symbolize beauty, osmanthus flowers symbolize wealth and royalty, etc. Many types of flowers are used in teas and dessert dishes to infuse them with the corresponding symbolic attributes.

Social Context

  • In China, there is a stereotype that all grandmas are good chefs. Children always look forward to visiting their grandma’s house on special occasions like Chinese New Year to eat delicious home-cooked meals. Grandparents often spoil their grandchildren by feeding them an extravagant amount of food, much to the chagrin of their parents.

Item:

  • Osmanthus Honey, or “guì huā mì” (桂花蜜) is a special jam-like topping that the informant’s family uses for traditional desserts such as “tāng yuán” (汤圆), glutinous rice balls, and “guì huā gāo” (桂花糕), osmanthus cake. The technique of preserving flowers in honey is native to Haiyang (海阳), the hometown of the informant’s grandma; however, osmanthus flowers are more commonly used in Shanghainese and Hangzhou cuisine. While fresh osmanthus flowers are often preferred for dishes, Osmanthus Honey allows the distinctive fragrance of osmanthus flowers to be used in winter festival dishes, even when the flowers themselves are not in bloom. The preparation of Osmanthus Honey is quite simple: fresh osmanthus flowers are dried and submerged in honey; the resulting mixture is then stored in a glass jar for future use. Osmanthus Honey can be directly applied to the top of a dessert or mixed into dessert doughs.

Audio Clip:

 

Transcript:

V.Y. (informant): Sure. So um, my grandmother, who is from Shandong (山东) used to make this honey infused with “guì huā” (桂花), which is a kind of flower that’s common in China, especially in Shanghai. And it smells very nice, and it doesn’t really taste like anything, but it makes whatever you put it in smell like the flower. And we used to put it in honey and then put the honey into various doughs that we use for desserts, and we used to sprinkle it on top of “tāng yuán” (汤圆) and put it in “guì huā gāo” (桂花糕), which I believe is kind of like Shanghai specialty, which is a kind of, I guess… I guess custard isn’t the right word. It’s a desert made of dough, I guess. Uh, yeah. And I always feel like it’s it’s kind of a unique thing to our family, because I don’t think it’s a very common thing in China doing this. And I was really like how… this is, I believe, this is like a technique people do in my grandmother’s hometown, which is not Shanghai. And this is a flower from Shanghai. And we is always just thought it was nice that, you know, it’s kind of customs of different parts of China that we combine in our family. And yeah, yeah, there are other dishes that we, but this is just something that came to mind.

W.W. (collector): Um, yeah, also do you mind telling me where your grandma’s from?

V.Y.: Uh, from Shandong from a small city by the sea, called Haiyang (海阳). And, yeah, I visited there once. And it’s kind of interesting. It’s sort of an isolated city. I mean, obviously, now, there’s roads and airports and everything. But historically, it’s somewhat isolated. So their cuisine is kind of not represented. It’s kind of different from general Chinese cuisine. Like it’s almost a little similar to Japanese cuisine, because they’re next to the sea, and they eat like octopus raw and everything. And, yeah, then this is the this putting flowers in honey is apparently one, something they do there is, as I can recall.

W.W.: It’s very interesting. And, um, so do you know, whether this has any significance for like, Chinese New Year in general, or how this tradition started within your family?

V.Y.: Um, I’m not… I suppose it started, I guess, when my grandmother moved to Shanghai, because that was she, you know, she didn’t grow up here. That, I think is something like 40, 50 years ago. And, um, I mean, I guess back then, it’s having you know, any kind of sugar at all is kind of a luxury. And, you know, certainly you couldn’t really preserve “guì huā” (桂花), is definitely a seasonal things back then. So I think putting it in honey, you know, it’s a it’s a nice and tasty thing, but I guess also preserves the seasonal, seasonal delicacy. And I guess it’s kind of a nice thing to have.

Informant’s Comments:

  • Talking about Osmanthus Honey, I kind of miss it now…

Collector’s Comments:

  • I also have fond memories of my grandma’s cooking. Every time my family went to visit her in Beijing, she would cook for an entire day and prepare a grand feast.
  • One of my favorite Shanghainese dishes is “nuò mǐ ǒu” (糯米藕), or lotus root with sticky rice. It is often topped with honey and osmanthus flowers, though they are added separated.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Entrée: Steamed Whole Fish

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General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – food, Customary Lore – celebration, superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country of Origin: US
  • Informant: M.W.
  • Date Collected: November 13, 2020

Informant Data:

  • M.W. was born in New York in 2001. He grew up in Long Island with his parents and older brother. Currently, he attends University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he studies microbiology. He is fully Chinese as his parents are both from Fuzhou, China. He would celebrate Chinese New Year each year with his family. However, regarding the family feast, his family would typically go to a restaurant for the meal rather than prepare the food themselves. 

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Fish is a commonly eaten food in Chinese culture as the fishing industry in China is among the largest in the world. There is a large emphasis on sharing food in Chinese culture as meals are often eaten “family style.” While fish can be prepared in many ways, a whole fish serves as a great family style dish as its large size allows all members of the meal to have some.
  • Social Context: While Chinese New Year feasts are typically prepared and enjoyed at home, it is also common for families that celebrate to have a meal at a Chinese restaurant, instead.

Item:

  • A whole fish is a very common dish in a Chinese New Year dinner. This whole fish, which includes the skin, bones, head and tail, is usually steamed with ginger, scallions, soy sauce and other herbs. As for the type of fish, there’s no specific fish that must be used. The reason why all parts of the fish are included in the dish is because the whole fish represents the whole family being together to enjoy a big feast for the new year. It symbolizes unity, connectedness and the strength of familial bonds, which are all important features of Chinese culture.

Audio Clip:

 

Transcript:

C.C. (collector): What’s one dish that you and your family typically eat for Chinese New Year?

M.W. (informant): What we eat for Chinese New Year is a whole fish. This fish is prepared by steaming it with gingers scallions, soy sauce and other assorted herbs. The reason we eat the whole fish, including the head and tail is because it represents the whole family being together on new years. by having the whole fish it shows how it brings the whole family together to enjoy a big feast.

Informant Comments:

  • This is his favorite way fish can be prepared because of how simple the ingredients are and how clean the dish tastes.

Collector Comments:

  • A steamed whole fish is a part of my family’s Chinese New Year meal as well, and since it is one of the main dishes of the meal, we have a certain tradition with it. The younger members of the family must serve pieces of the fish to the adults first before eating themselves, and this demonstrates the idea of respecting elders in Chinese culture.

Collector’s Name: Chris Chao

Tags/Keywords:

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

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Entrée: Catfish

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General Information about Item:

  • Genre: Material Lore – dish; Customary Lore – celebration, belief, superstition
  • Language: English with some Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: R.J.
  • Date Collected: November 4, 2020

Informant Data:

  • R.J. is a 21-year-old senior studying Economics at UC Berkeley. He was born in Houston, Texas but grew up in Shanghai, China. While living in China, he celebrated Chinese New Year every year with his family, participating in a variety of traditional festivities.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: Fish is an essential dish for Chinese New Year across most, if not all, regions in China due to its association with wealth and prosperity. Although fish can be cooked in many ways, it is usually steamed with a mixture of traditional ingredients like ginger, scallion, and soy sauce. Certain types of fish, like catfish, are sometimes chosen over others because their names have additional symbolic meaning. Many households impose their own rules regarding how the fish is served, e.g., the fish head must be oriented towards guests or elders.
  • Social Context: During Chinese New Year’s Eve, it is customary for an extended family to hold a large dinner gathering either at home or at a fancy restaurant, to share an assortment of traditional dishes including fish. Usually, the dinner gathering also features other activities such as toasting to the elders’ health and giving red envelopes which contain allowance money to the children.

Item:

  • Catfish is commonly eaten for Chinese New Year because of its auspicious name “nián yú” (鲶鱼), which is a homophone for the characters that mean “surplus year over year” (年余). Typically, catfish is cooked with the body, head, and bones intact as a symbol for the preservation of wealth. After all, people want to receive the entirety of next year’s surplus rather than just a fraction.

Audio Clip:

 

Transcript:

W.W. (collector): Right. Thank you so much. Um, so as I told you earlier, for this project, we’ll be talking about Chinese New Year, specifically, a special festival dish that’s eaten during Chinese New Year. Uh, yeah so, can you describe the name of your item?

R.J. (informant): Yeah, absolutely. So the dish I’ll be talking about today would be catfish. Um, yeah.

W.W.: Cool. Yeah. So um, go ahead and tell us about catfish.

R.J.: Yeah, sure. Um, so before I dive into, like catfish, specifically, I would first like to talk about why Chinese people like to eat fish in general. And the reason is because the word fish in Chinese sounds a lot like the word surplus in Chinese. So in Chinese, fish is pronounced “yú” (鱼). And in, um, the … yeah basically, surplus is also pronounced “yú” (余). So, Chinese people really like surplus because they believe that if you’re able to save up a lot of money, um, in the current year, then in the next year, uh, it’s a pretty good sign, and you’ll have more to work around with because he had that savings from the previous year, right. So at the end of the year, during Chinese New Year, when people eat fish in general, they’re basically praying that this year, they got surplus, and that that surplus will carry forward to, um, the next year. So specifically, with regards to catfish, people eat catfish, because catfish in Chinese is pronounced as “nián yú” (鲶鱼). Now “nián” (年) in Chinese means year. So basically, when you combine those two terms, it means, uh, yearly fish. So basically, going back to what I said earlier of how, like, fish means surplus, it basically means having surplus year over year. So that’s the particular reason for why Chinese people like to eat catfish. Um, and specifically with regards to how they make it, I think one common thing, I’m not too sure about it, is that they always ensure that the fish is whole, so they never cut up the fish into parts. And the main reason is because they want to like have all of the surplus and not have like just parts of it right? When you divide it up, it becomes less than the whole, so that’s why they tend to, um, you know, cook it whole, like head, body all in one, uh, for … yeah.

W.W.: Cool. Um, thanks for sharing. Um, so, catfish, is this something that you eat with your family members or your friends during Chinese New Year?

R.J.: Yeah, definitely. So, um, pretty much every single year, we try to get at least one fish dish, um, on the table, basically the day before the New Year’s. Um, so yeah, catfish is probably the most common one that I eat. Um, we’ve also had like, other fishes, um, just sort of like, depending on what we’re feeling like. But I’ll say that catfish is probably the most common fish I’ve had on Chinese New Year’s Eve for like the past, say 20 years of my life.

Informant’s Comments:

  • An additional tradition that may be unique to my family is that we always try to go for the fish eye. Because apparently, from my parents, they’ve told me that eating the fish eye is a good symbol of prosperity in the next year because the fish eye is kind of like the core part of the fish. It represents the spirit and the heart of the fish, I guess, so they’ve always told me that if you’re able to get the fish eye really quickly, then, uh, next year, you’ll have good fortune. So, you know, one thing that we would do at the dinner table would be to fight over the fish eye. Uh, sometimes it gets pretty ugly, but other times, it’s usually pretty fun. Yep.

Collector’s Comments:

  • For Chinese New Year, my family also eats fish but not catfish specifically. In my family, the fish eye is viewed as the most nutritious part of the fish and a symbol of wisdom. It is usually given to one of the younger children to help them grow smart and strong. This is an example of homeopathic magic.

Collector’s Name: Winston Wang

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Tianyu (Ray) Li – Chinese New Year Belief

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Chinese New Year Belief (Ray Li)

Title: Chinese ‘Nian’

General Information about Item:

  • Material Folklore: Chinese Supersition – Evil Spirit
  • Language: Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Country of Origin: China
  • Informant: Ray Li
  • Date Collected: May 25, 2019

Informant Data:

  • Ray is a male student at Dartmouth College in the Class of 2020. He was born in Beijing, China and lived there all of his life. He came to the U.S. for school. Currently, he plans to major in Computer Science. Ray travels between New Hampshire and China for major holidays, such as Chinese New Year.

Contextual Data:

  • Cultural Context: In Chinese folklore, the ‘Nian’ was a sea-monster who would rise each year, devouring livestock and any people. People would hide until it was found that the ‘Nian’ was afraid of the color red and loud noises. On Chinese New Year, communities are decorated in red and fireworks are set off, in addition to loud sounds made by playing drums.
  • Social Context: The superstition was relayed through an in-person interview with the informant at Dartmouth College. The Lunar New Year is one of the most important celebrations in China, and the focus is on family. Ray celebrated Chinese New Year with his family when he was in Beijing. However, since it occurs in mid-January, he cannot fly home since he is in school.

Text and Texture

  • Nian

年

Nian

knee-an

Sea Beast

Zodiac (There is not really an English equivalent for this word.)

  • Fu

福

fú

foo

Blessing, happiness

Item:

In order to prevent the ‘Nian’ from bringing evil to a family, the family will hang an inverted ‘fu’ on the door. This symbolizes the ‘Nian’ has already been there, so the ‘Nian’ will not come.

Image result for chinese inverted fu

(Source: https://www.tripsavvy.com/what-chinese-characters-on-door-mean-1494980)

Audio File:

Transcript:

A: Alex Leibowitz

R: Ray

A: Okay, so, why don’t you introduce yourself, where from, your year…

R: Okay. So, my name is Ray Li. I’m a ’20 from Beijing, China. Yeah, that’s a little bit about myself.

A: So, yeah, I guess were curious to hear if you have any folklore about evil spirits, evil eyes, that kinda stuff that comes from Chinese culture.

R: Oh for sure. For our Lunar New Year, we have this tradition. We have a monster called ‘Nian,’ which comes here and eats the children and make the village all empty and destroy the harvest for next year and all that stuff. So, to prevent that, we hang this thing called ‘fu,’ which is the Chinese character for, you know, like happiness, prosperity, and all that. And we reverse hang it so we like hang the character but in reverse, like upside down, so it looks like, like nian but in reverse. So when ‘Nian’ arrived, so when we hang it, it means the monster has already arrived so when the Lunar New Year came the monster would not show up. That’s the whole spirit, the whole idea.

A: So is this still something you do today? Is it something that’s very traditional?

R: Yeah, I think it’s the most wide, most ubiquitous thing in China. You see people hang this red picture with the black character with that fu in an upside down manner. It’s still a tradition people still do nowadays.

A: So, what happens, for example, lets say you don’t hang the character upside down?

R: It has a very bad connotation that you have bad luck in the next year.

A: Okay and does this thing have a name? Does this tradition have a name, or…?

R: I think it’s just one of those Lunar New Year traditions, but it’s one of the most important ones. It’s one of the most ubiquitious, most common, and it’s still well perceived, still a tradition that every family have to do.

A: Okay. Awesome. Thank you very much.

Informant’s Comments:

“So when ‘Nian’ arrived, so when we hang it, it means the monster has already arrived so when the Lunar New Year came the monster would not show up.”

Collector’s Comments:

The inversion of ‘fu’ reverses the concept of blessings and happiness, signifying that the family has already incurred the evil spirit of the ‘Nian.’ The material folklore has symbolic significance for the community, where the celebration can occur only if the evil spirit is proteted against.

Collector’s Name: Alex Leibowitz

Tags/Keywords:

  • Material Folklore
  • Chinese Superstition
  • Lunar New Year