LINE

Text:AAAPrint

Hot pot or malatang?

1
2017-07-07 15:11The World of Chinese Editor: Yao Lan ECNS App Download

It's hard to imagine that any organization called the China Standardization Administration and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine could manage to stir the (hot) pot of a years-old culinary controversy.

But like a bumbling yet well-meaning Chinese grandparent, the, uh, CSAGASIQ issued a policy to standardize the use of English on public signage (effective December 1)鈥"eradicating poor translations that damage the country's image," according to People.cn鈥攁nd mentioned that malatang (楹昏荆鐑 m谩l脿t脿ng), the Sichuan snack of skewered meat and vegetables cooked in spicy broth, shall henceforth be known as "spicy hot pot."

Meanwhile, "hot pot" will still refer to 鐏攨 (hu菕gu艒), that dish where you use chopsticks to cook meat and vegetables in spicy and/or non-spicy broth.

Rather than reducing confusion, the new classification merely fuels the fire among netizens on the difference between malatang and regular hot pot.

Questions on the topic are mainstays on Q&A platform Zhihu, often attracting peppery responses from Sichuan users who deplore ignorance of the subtle differences between their many reddish regional concoctions. Several news outlets led with news of the new malatang definition鈥"in the future when you see 'spicy hot pot' you'll know right away that it's malatang," enthused Xinhua.

Hot pot is the grandfather of all of these dishes; maocai and malatang are distinguished from hot pot in that you get your own pot and someone else cooks it for you; malatang is further distinguished in that traditionally, the food is prepared on a skewer before being dropped in the broth.

While hot pot has been well-known across China for decades (and northerners have their own version, 娑緤鑲 or "Manchu hot pot"), malatang only became popular outside Sichuan within the last decade or so. Vendors in other provinces are also not very consistent with how they name their dish: At many malatang restaurants today, the food doesn't come on skewers but simply a plastic dishes for the customers to choose from. Crucially, roadside stalls calling themselves malatang have a set-up that actually adheres more to the diagram's notion of "chuan chuan xiang."

So far the name changes have made only slight reverberations on social media, with netizens voicing mild disapproval after People's Daily released the definitive list on their Weibo account. Instead, everyone has gotten incensed by a bigger controversy鈥攁s Xinhua states, "translating 璞嗚厫 into English, it should be 'doufu' or 'bean curd.' The pinyin 'doufu' is already widely accepted internationally; remember not to write 'tofu.'"

The ensuing outrage on Weibo is hotter than any malatang.

銆銆

Related news

MorePhoto

Most popular in 24h

MoreTop news

MoreVideo

News
Politics
Business
Society
Culture
Military
Sci-tech
Entertainment
Sports
Odd
Features
Biz
Economy
Travel
Travel News
Travel Types
Events
Food
Hotel
Bar & Club
Architecture
Gallery
Photo
CNS Photo
Video
Video
Learning Chinese
Learn About China
Social Chinese
Business Chinese
Buzz Words
Bilingual
Resources
ECNS Wire
Special Coverage
Infographics
Voices
LINE
Back to top Links | About Us | Jobs | Contact Us | Privacy Policy
Copyright ©1999-2018 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.