Zhuang dietary taboos

There is no unified dietary taboo that covers the entire Zhuang ethnic group. The existing various taboos are bound to the ancestral legends, natural beliefs, and production habits of different branches. There are great regional differences between the north and the south, and they are rapidly fading with the change of generations. There are no hard and fast rules that "must be followed" spread online.

Two years ago, I went to Chongzuo Daxin County to celebrate the Frog Po Festival. I had a festive banquet with local Zhuang friends. On the table were five-color glutinous rice, crispy river fish, lemon duck, and even the usual snail pot, but there was no frog dish. During the dinner, an out-of-town tourist asked the boss if he could add fried frog, but he declined with a smile, saying that they had a tradition for thousands of years that frogs are little gods sent by Lei Po to control rainwater. Eating frogs will anger Lei Po and cause drought. In the first month of the year, frogs are not even allowed to be touched before and after the Frog Po Festival. Then I went back to downtown Nanning to have supper with Zhuang friends from Wu Ming. On their table was a large plate of stir-fried frogs with sour bamboo shoots. As I ate them, I said that I had never heard of the saying that frogs should not be eaten since I was growing up. Both sides are full of upright Zhuang people, and their rules are so bad that they can go around half of Guangxi.

Not only frogs, dog meat is even more controversial. A colleague from the Zhuang ethnic group in Bama, Hechi, said that his grandfather lived for more than eighty years without touching a bite of dog meat. He said that when our ancestors were fleeing, it was the dogs that saved the lives of everyone in the village by holding wild vegetables in their mouths. Our ancestors taught us from generation to generation not to eat dogs. But last year he went to a county below Yulin to do business. The local Zhuang boss invited him to eat crispy dog, saying that they had never heard of this legend there. Dogs are common ingredients like pigs and sheep, and they would specially kill dogs during festivals to entertain guests. Both sides have their own reasons, and no one can convince the other. To put it bluntly, the origin legends of the branches are different, and there is no right or wrong at all.

There are also many old rules linked to production methods. For example, many Zhuang elders in the northwestern mountainous area of ​​Guangxi did not eat beef before, saying that cows have worked hard to cultivate the land all their lives, and eating it means forgetting their roots. In the past, even if the cow died of old age, it had to find a place to bury it and could not cook it. But now that agricultural mechanization has spread, there are fewer and fewer cattle on the farmland. Young people don't have this taboo. Beef in sour soup and beef offal hotpot are more delicious than anyone else. Last time I went back to my hometown with a Zhuang school girl from Baise, her grandmother specially stewed beef brisket for us, saying, "Now that cattle don't have to plow the land, it's okay to eat."

The little things you should pay attention to when eating in daily life are more overlapping. For example, in most places, it is frowned upon to stick chopsticks vertically in the rice. After all, no matter which branch of the family, chopsticks will be stuck in the rice when offering sacrifices to ancestors. Doing so in daily life is equivalent to worshiping the people at the same table as the deceased, which is somewhat offensive. But now it’s not so strict anymore. The last time I saw my friend’s Zhuang cousin who was born in the 2000s inserted chopsticks, his grandma slapped his hand and said “no rules”, turned around and gave him a piece of pork belly, and didn’t take it seriously at all. In some places, it is taboo to use chopsticks to knock bowls because it is said to attract poor people. In fact, in the past, it was only beggars who knocked bowls. The elders thought it was unlucky, and it violated many Han rules.

What is even more interesting are the taboos related to sacrifices. Many Zhuang people in mountainous areas say that children cannot touch the offerings to mountain gods and social gods first. The eldest person in the family must take a bite first before giving it to the younger ones. Otherwise, the mountain gods will blame them and the children will easily get sick. But I asked my Zhuang friends in Guiping, and they said that the offerings are blessed by the gods, and that children eat first to grow strong, which is completely the opposite. Not to mention foreign tourists who are confused, many young Zhuang people themselves cannot understand the rules of different places. If you forcefully apply the rules of place A to the Zhuang people of place B, most people will think you are confused.

If there are any general "things to note", it is better to say that when you are in a country, do as the Romans do. Before going to a local place, casually asking the host family what their customs are is more effective than reading ten folklore articles. After all, many young people nowadays don't understand the rules of their elders. If you accidentally make a mistake, no one will really blame you. Everyone eats together to have fun.