world meets rosie

By: rosie

Jan 24 2012

Category: Uncategorized

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(My tower of celebration / after dinner poses – Ellie was very full, as you can see: Glasgow, Scotland)

WELCOME TO THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON!

I woke up yesterday morning so excited at the prospect of CNY (Chinese New Year) that I was veritably skipping about the flat with glee. I wasn’t particularly productive after completing my daily drawing (of a dragon) except in making advance preparations for a sumptuous Chinese repast. CNY has always been present in my life, attributed to my Chinese aunt. Yes, I actually have a Chinese aunt – adopted in a roundabout way by my grandmother. Anyway, I have always been aware of it, but while I was Ying’s partner in crime, it became much more of a celebratory event. Two years ago I was even in Singapore to celebrate and last year I was blessed with double luckiness and ended up back in Singapore again. This year, being in Glasgow by no means diminished my day, as I spent much of it buying food in order to celebrate. A fine pastime for any festival.

At the ready, there were bamboo shoots (not quite a success), pok choi, Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, sliced pork, knotted noodles, fried tofu, home made satay sauce, prawn, wontons, and thinly sliced rolls of lamb. There were also ‘glass’ (vermicelli) noodles at the very end, as well as a round of steamed pumpkin buns which were a huge hit. You can see a video of the setup if you like.

All in all, we produced a moderately authentic experience due in part to my over zealous preparation. I insisted on red being worn, I had erected a paper dragon decoration, sellotaping it to a huge red pagoda-esque cake stand, stacked with oranges in an attempt to ‘Chinesify’ my kitchen. In my head, it was very effective. Despite some attendees lack of faith in the whole experience, and their mistrust of raw food at the dining table, the greatest fear turned out to be tiny hot splashes from the rice cooker as more food was shoveled in. We rounded the entire meal off with lashings of chrysanthemum tea and slices of (not particularly traditional) chocolate cake.

I have realised that although I might feel from my associations that I am part Asian, I am indeed not. I am merely an Asian wannabe. I felt this acutely on my way to buy my very first, very own rice cooker from a well known catalogue based high street retailer. Along the way, I popped into my local Chinese one-stop-cornershop to scout out any unmissable items I had so far forgotten to buy. I clocked the paper dragons festooning the window display immediately. One of those would replace the two card bunnies from the year of the rabbit that I had actually only removed from the kitchen door that morning. I asked the shop assistant if he could hand me a paper dragon, but the look he gave me was quizzical. From that one look, I deduced that;

a) They don’t sell many of those at £1.25 a pop.

b) They sell even less to white people.

c) They sell even less to white twenty somethings wearing a red coat (for luck) and an expression of idiotic enthusiasm for foreign festivals.

It was only after exiting the establishment with the dragon in my hand that I made the further discovery that I couldn’t carry the dragon in any way but to hold it in my hand. To put it in a bag would crush at least one pounds worth of coloured paper, rendering the dragon a sorry sight. Imagine me in a bright red coat, carrying a neon paper dragon, heading to buy a rice cooker. I must have looked like a Chinaphile as I left the shop, dragon and rice cooker in hand. I may as well have been wearing an ‘I heart China’ tee shirt.

– Today Rosie is teaching, drawing and going for her first swim in possibly a year in Glasgow, Scotland –