February marks an important time for Malaysian Chinese culture, as it is the start of the Chinese calendar. To celebrate the beginning of the lunar calendar, we Malaysian Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year. While this marks the 5th year I was unable to celebrate it at home, I was able to celebrate it with close friends. As such, I thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about the process of making a traditional CNY dish, one that originated from Malaysia (and hence, I believe is a good representation of Malaysian culture, despite it being a Chinese celebration), the making of yee sang.
Cooking is an important part of Malaysian culture; the process of preparation brings people together from family to friends. In many Malaysian households, cooking is a shared activity and a way to pass down traditions, including language. Instead of abiding by strict measurements, Malaysians typically estimate, using terms like agak-agak (to estimate) to communicate. Typically, recipes are communicated verbally instead of being written, which makes for a more intimate bonding.
In an effort to replicate the community aspect of cooking, I decided to make this dish as part of my language learning journey.
Yee Sang has many names. While Yusheng is the technical Malay word for the dish, it is based on the Mandarin pronunciation of the Cantonese word. It is a colorful fruit/vegetable salad with plum sauce that is typically enjoyed among Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese communities. Similar to rojak, there is much flexibility in the choice of ingredients, but each ingredient has its metaphorical meaning. For example, many families add raw salmon as a representation of prosperity.
Apart from various shredded vegetables, which represent youth/vitality, another key ingredient is a specific type of cracker, used to symbolise wealth. Given the typical college student budget, I was unable to afford certain key ingredients (specifically the fish). Hence, we used cheap alternatives that were readily available in grocery stores and at the dining hall.
With the help of Doro (my language learning partner) and Yue Kin (the third Malaysian on campus), we made a version of the dish that was true to the college experience. In an attempt to combine this with my language learning journey, I challenged myself and all those in the room to communicate only in Malay. In the irony of creating a Chinese dish in an English-speaking country while only communicating in Malay, I believe we truly represented a key aspect of Malaysian culture: the ability to cross cultural barriers through the power of food.
Despite the metaphorical representations of wealth expressed through ingredients, the most important part of yee sang is the community. The dish is meant to be tossed together by families and friends while shouting auspicious phrases, with the belief that the higher you toss, the greater your fortune in the year ahead. Hence, while I wasn’t able to authentically replicate the dish, I was able to replicate the spirit of the dish, specifically through the people around me.
Here are two images of times I had yee sang, one with my family back home right before I left, and the other one with the “college” version. While the ingredients are inherently different, one thing remains: the community stays strong so long as the will to celebrate is fostered.
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