Elaine Huang came from Hubei, China and is
currently living in Singapore. For the past ten
years she has lived in Thailand and Japan,
and she is very interested in Asian cultures,
customs and traditions. She likes photography,
writing, cooking and gardening.ELAINE HUANG
07 Hubei is known as
China’s Province of a
Thousand LakesIn the summer, the lakes
and ponds in our village
are full of lotus flowers and
their big green leaves
fragrance and produce a light green tint on
the bottom.
There is also a unique dish that is only
available in our area (not even in other
cities of Hubei) and it’s the steamed fish
cake. We only make it for Chinese New
Year and big celebrations like weddings
and baby showers. My father used to mix
diced fish with lard and steamed the whole
thing together. The lard sticks the fish
meat together, and after that he pours a
layer of egg yolk onto the top, creating a
thin yellow skin. The steamed fish cake
symbolises the highest respect from the
host to the guest.
The social life in our village remains
unchanged; the houses are open and
people just walk in to visit each other.
Neighbours play a very important role
in our daily life. Last winter, my younger
brother got married and the wedding was
held at home. There were around 300
guests and we didn’t hire anyone to receive
and serve the guests; our neighbours
established a “servant” group and worked
for us. It was very well-organised with a
leader who is normally the most reputable
person in the village. And when other
families have celebrations, my parents will
also do the same.
There are some popular travel
destinations that are not far away from
Luzhou, for example, the Three Gorges
Dam in Yichang and Jingzhou AncientCity. And now with the bullet train it’s
also very convenient to go to the capital
city of Wuhan, connected from Shanghai
and Chengdu. But if you do visit Hubei, it
would be good to spare one day and visit
the outer villages, which have a unique
way of life. AGP07