Dec. 28th, 2004 12:37 pm
Seven thousand legs into Shanghai
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muckefuckWhile at my parents' place, I got to use a little Chinese. My stepmom had some mooncakes labeled only in Chinese which she set out on the cookie tray and I assured everyone they were only lotus paste and nothing grosser. (I forgot to add that they were yolk-free, which was a relief to me, but I'm not sure the rest of my family has such strong feelings on whole egg yolk in mooncakes. They didn't get touched anyway, not with competition from all that e. brought!)
She also had a really lovely paper cut hanging in the dining room, a street scene of "Old Shanghai". My stepsister's husband's eye was caught by a structure off to one side whose florid, open architectural style seemed out of keeping with the curved tiled roofs of the other structures. I noticed characters on the side of it and tried to read them, but the result seemed to senseless that I doubted myself: 七千脚店 or "Seven thousand leg shop".
Only today did I have a chance to do some web research. The only relevant link that I could make any sense of shows a "ten thousand leg shop" (十千脚店 or "ten" plus "thousand", a pairing I've never seen before, since "ten thousand" is usually expressed with a single character, 萬) and includes the pithy explanation that, in the Northern Song period, "leg shop" was a term for a restaurant that sold wine but did not make it on the premises. (Even today, 酒店 or "wine shop" is a common chinese term for "restaurant".) Because employees had to hoof it to bring back the jugs of wine? They don't elabourate.
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teapot_farm, but I didn't really learn much more about their pottery tour of China, though my stepmom did have a chance to bring out her celadon, Yixing teapots, basketweave jars, and other objects they'd brought back. (She also insisted on breaking open the Wuliangye to toast Christmas Eve.) One of the workshops they toured was in the middle of a tea plantation and she spoke briefly of ascending a hill surrounded by green tea plants and buying a wall decoration off of her host.
She also had a really lovely paper cut hanging in the dining room, a street scene of "Old Shanghai". My stepsister's husband's eye was caught by a structure off to one side whose florid, open architectural style seemed out of keeping with the curved tiled roofs of the other structures. I noticed characters on the side of it and tried to read them, but the result seemed to senseless that I doubted myself: 七千脚店 or "Seven thousand leg shop".
Only today did I have a chance to do some web research. The only relevant link that I could make any sense of shows a "ten thousand leg shop" (十千脚店 or "ten" plus "thousand", a pairing I've never seen before, since "ten thousand" is usually expressed with a single character, 萬) and includes the pithy explanation that, in the Northern Song period, "leg shop" was a term for a restaurant that sold wine but did not make it on the premises. (Even today, 酒店 or "wine shop" is a common chinese term for "restaurant".) Because employees had to hoof it to bring back the jugs of wine? They don't elabourate.
Sorry,
teapot_farm, but I didn't really learn much more about their pottery tour of China, though my stepmom did have a chance to bring out her celadon, Yixing teapots, basketweave jars, and other objects they'd brought back. (She also insisted on breaking open the Wuliangye to toast Christmas Eve.) One of the workshops they toured was in the middle of a tea plantation and she spoke briefly of ascending a hill surrounded by green tea plants and buying a wall decoration off of her host.Tags: