Eating Tofu
Everyone knows that food is an important part of culture, and nowhere is it so evident than in China. Whereas food in nearly all cultures is important for physical and social reasons, food in China has a stunning variety of importance attached to it. Banquets are frequently used as a lubricant to butter up government officials and wheedle business deals; “Have you eaten?” has been and still is a common expression of greeting in China instead of a plain “hello”.
Everyone knows that food is an important part of culture, and nowhere is it so evident than in China. Whereas food in nearly all cultures is important for physical and social reasons, food in China has a stunning variety of importance attached to it. Banquets are frequently used as a lubricant to butter up government officials and wheedle business deals; “Have you eaten?” has been and still is a common expression of greeting in China instead of a plain “hello”; Traditional medicine lays great emphasis on holistically altering your body’s chemistry by advocating and prohibiting the ingestion of certain foods and herbs; Plenty of symbolism and superstition are attached to certain types of foods (I’ve eaten a deep-fried fish eye because it would ‘bring me luck’); and even physical beauty is associated with things that you can chew, swallow and digest.
Peter Hessler offers amusing insight on this last subject when he shares what his Chinese students of English envision “Shakespeare’s woman through Chinese eyes” to be like. Apparently this beauty would have fingers as “slim as the root of an onion….so slender that scallions can’t compare with them,” her skin would be “soft and white, like cooked fat,” and her waist would be soft as “water grass”.
Food and physical beauty seem to have quite the connection in Chinese culture. Kao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, did after all say “Appetite for food and sex is nature.” This being the case, some Chinese expressions link food and female anatomy more scandulously, and a seemingly innocent phrase about eating something may not be as innocent as one might think, as Andy found at recently.
There are a lot of phrases in the Chinese language that use the word “to eat” in a non-scandoulous way: 吃苦 chi ku is a commonly used phrase that means “eat bitter,” in other words, suffer/endure hardship. 吃醋 Chi Cu literally means “eat vinegar,” in other words be jealous ( primarily in a love affair).
After his coworker invited his usual Starbucks buddy to go downstairs for coffee and they both forgot to invite him, Andy playfully pretended to be jealous when they got back. His Chinese coworker told him that he loved to Chi Cu (be jealous). Andy, jokingly says he just loves to Chi Doufu.
吃豆腐 Chi Doufu – literally means to “eat tofu,” and according to my Chinese dictionary means “1) to tease; flirt; 2) engage in minor sexual harrassment.” Aside from the fact that flirting and sexual harrassment, even “minor” sexual harrassment, are verrrry different things, neither of these meanings are correct.
Upon utterance of these words, the Chinese coworker gasps in horror. Andy of course doesn’t understand her reaction, until after much coaxing he finally gets her to reveal the real meaning of this phrase. Apparently it means, in the words of the Chinese coworker, to “lick breasts.”
