Reflections | So Chinese New Year prosperity toss salad is unchristian? Is singing Happy Birthday too?
A pastor has called the Chinese New Year ritual of shouting good wishes while tossing salad ingredients high in the air ‘superstitious’
The Chinese communities in Malaysia and Singapore have our own way of celebrating Chinese New Year, and one particular tradition that has taken root is the partaking of yusheng, or prosperity toss salad, a colourful dish eaten for good luck.
The main ingredient, the raw fish (the yu in yusheng), is homonymous with the word for “surplus”, and who does not want that for the coming year? As each of the dozen or so ingredients is added, those standing around the table call out a felicitous phrase associated with it.
When the final ingredient is thrown into the mix, everyone tosses the salad with their chopsticks – unused ones because we remember Sars and Covid.
