Talk:Dim sum

Yum Cha vs. Dim Sum

"Yum Cha" is not equal to "Dim Sum". In Cantonese, "Dim Sum" is a noun only, while "Yum Cha" is a verb. "Yum Cha" means to eat Dim Sum with friends or family members together, and it's a sort of family or social activity. --Eternal 11:25, 24 Sep 2003 (UTC)

I feel that many wikipedians here (especially those who are Chinese speakers not living in the USA) are very confused between English words that are used in the Western countries but originated from the Chinese language verses a translation of a Chinese word. In the US or perhaps in most western countries, Dim sum is more specific than 點心. 點心 in Chinese can be used in the North and the South to mean different kinds of food. Dim Sum in the US refers to Hong Kong Style Dim Sum which is also what you eat during Yum Cha in Hong Kong. When two groups of wikipedians write this article in two quite different definitions, the result is a mess. Many other kinds of 點心 were added to the article about Hong Kong Style Dim Sum merely because the English translation spelled the same way, and the article lost focus. The exact same thing happened to the American Chinese cuisine vs. Chop Suey article. An other example is two different kinds of Northern and Southern Chinese Lion Dances which are mixed as one homogenous blob. The Bok choy article also suffers the same confusion when Chinese wikipedians ignores the ethymology of the Cantonese origin of the English loanword and just treated the loan word "Bok choy" as just a English translation of a generic Chinese terminology.

In my opinion, en.wikipedia is targeted for English readers, it should be written with the audience's experience in mind. This article should be about the English terminology with the meaning of Yum Cha, hence it should be clearly separated from the more generic translated meaning of the Chinese terminology 點心. I suggest a disambiguation page to define the USA meaning of Dim Sum and the Chinese meaning of dim sum into two separate articles. Kowloonese June 28, 2005 21:27 (UTC)

Brilliant prose

I've nominated this article for brilliant prose. Scooter 08:18, 31 Dec 2003 (UTC)

Copy objection therefrom: Objection: It appears to have northern-China POV, with myths such as connections to the Silk Road -- unless references are produced, I am not convinced. My guess is that many Chinese far from Guangdong would not know what dim sum is. Statements such as 'Almost all Chinese know what dim sum is' should be made VERY CAREFULLY, after substantial surveying about 900 million people! Many items listed also did not give Cantonese (which would be very useful when the dim sum lady with cart comes by.) Sorry to be a killjoy. --Kaihsu Tai 12:24, 2004 Jan 2 (UTC)

Point taken. It would appear the solution would be either to restrict its reference to the northern part of China, or add information on dim sum-like dishes in the south of China and other areas in Asia. Not haveing any reference at all, and less knowledge, I'd recommend the former. Anyone want to tackle this? Scooter 05:13, 3 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Quote: My guess is that many Chinese far from Guangdong would not know what dim sum is. Kaihsu, are you insinuating that overseas chinese people have lost their connections with their culture? I think it is a fair statement to say that a big portion of chinese people whose ancestors are from Southern China would be familiar with Dim Sum. It's a cultural thing. Changed 05:13, 19:00 13 September 2005 (GMT+8)

I think he meant that non-Cantonese Chinese are likely to be less familiar with dim sum. From what I've seen, it's pretty true. When I asked a friend from Harbin whether he knew what 點心 was, he answered (in English), "Of course! It means cake! You're talking about mooncake, right?". After asking my Shanghainese friend, he said he knew 點心 as just a word for any type of small or snack-like foods that aren't consumed during one of the three main meals. Neither of them had a clue about the Cantonese-style dim sum and meal as described in this article.--Yuje 12:25, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Picture

hey hey, do anyone know how to put a picture of dim sum on the page as i think it is a very nice idea to let people to understand more on the dim sum.

Yep, read the help on images.

thx! anyway. hey hey, do the hau gua ( the Shramp Dumpling) made of meat? I have never heard of that. If so, it will be not suitable for the vegetarians then!

The image currently used has no information on its source, it looks to me like a copyvio, Can we find something to replace it, or does someone want to frame a fair use argument. — Zeimusu | Talk 06:15, 2005 Jan 31 (UTC)

Cantonese names

Since this is primarily a Cantonese cuisine, shouldn't Cantonese names for the dishes be provided at the very least? Jogloran June 28, 2005 14:55 (UTC)

Looking through the edit history, it looks like some anon decided to erase all the the Cantonese names as well as replace all the Chinese characters with simplified ones. (Cantonese writing uses traditional) The Cantonese names exist in the old versions, it shouldn't be too difficult to restore them. --Yuje June 28, 2005 15:04 (UTC)

Just curious, but in reference to the statement "Cantonese writing uses traditional"...does Cantonese writers in Mainland China use traditional script all the time too?--Huaiwei 15:11, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Written Cantonese is banned in the Mainland, as far as I know. Cantonese writers in the mainland don't write in Cantonese, but Vernacular Chinese, which has different grammar and vocabulary than Cantonese. --Yuje 16:21, 13 September 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I noticed traditional script in Guangdong, so they are actually simply Mandarin writtern in Trad script?--Huaiwei 09:34, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Mandarin or Putonghua itself is not a written language. In mainland China Putonghua is based on pronunciations in Beijing dialect, and the grammar syntax of modern written Chinese (以北京语音为标准音，以北方话为基础方言，以典范的现代白话文著作为语法规范的现代汉民族共同语) [1]. — Instantnood 09:49, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Food section

Ha kau: Don't know the Chinese characters, but surely this is one of the standard dim sum dishes? These are a kind of meat balls, and every time I've gone they were mentioned in the same breath as siu maai. --CodeGeneratR 00:03, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Of course! It's even more expensvie than siu maai in a sense. No, it's a shrimp dumpling instead of a meat ball. -- Jerry Crimson Mann 01:03, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Dang! I mixed them up... No wonder, since we always order them together. In fact I think they usually come on the same cart.--CodeGeneratR 01:35, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

Ha Kau is mentioned in the article but written as ha gao. Siew Mai is a meatball(?) wrapped in yellow coloured rice flour skin.

Also, I noticed that it is written that woo kok is made with mashed taro. I think it is made with mashed yams(wu). The thing is made (as with bao and loh mai kai) by stuff the mashed yams in the middle with BBQ pork (There was once, I ate one that came with green peas..).

And bao comes in a variety of fillings, tau sar (red bean paste), lin yong (lotus paste), choi bao (vegetarian (?) ), tai bao (literally big bao. It's about the size of a Whopper. Has got meatballs, vegetables and a hard boiled egg), kaya bao (Found only in Malaysia, kaya is a sweet coconut and egg based paste). Although, char siew bao is still famous even though a myriad of other novelty baos have been created. --Changed 18:54, 13 September 2005 (GMT+8)