Navigating Lunar New Year as a Vegan
Embracing Tradition and Compassion in the Year of the Rabbit
As we approach Lunar New Year, over one billion people around the world will be coming together with loved ones to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. The festivities bring with them an array of delicious, fragrant and colourful dishes, shared and enjoyed family-style at the dinner table, and offered to our late ancestors with respect.
However, for those of us who have chosen to live a plant-based lifestyle, these gatherings can be a source of stress as many traditional dishes and customs revolve around the use of animal products. But fear not — it is entirely possible to fully embrace the spirit of the festival without contributing to animal suffering or environmental destruction.
Cultural Perspectives on Veganism
Veganism is often criticized as being appropriative, expensive and even elitist. While veganism in the West is relatively new, there is a long history of plant-based eating in China, tracing back to 770 B.C. and even earlier in other Eastern societies. Meatless diets in Chinese history originated from Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, where food is closely intertwined with spirituality, medicine, and principles of moral virtue. Abstinence from animal consumption is considered purifying to both the mind and body.
However, due to famine and poverty in China, my elders and relatives often did not have enough to eat. To greet one another, we ask, “Have you eaten yet?”, which has become shorthand for “How are you?”. Animals were a source of compact nutrition in this environment of scarcity and only eaten on rare occassions. The generation before us would often raise and kill the animal themselves to eat on special holidays, such as on Lunar New Year.
Growing up in the Chinese diaspora in the colonial state of Canada, the realities of my parents’ generation and mine are vastly different. My parents’ struggle as immigrants brought us to a place of stability, where I now have access to a whole foods, plant-based diet that is nutritionally complete and delicious. As a first-generation settler on stolen Indigenous land, I have the privilege to make this choice and do so in recognition that speciesism and colonialism are interconnected.
My choice doesn’t come without challenges at the family dinner table. However, I believe that our values as Chinese-Canadians are similar and perspectives can be bridged. As Isaias Hernandez (Queer Brown Vegan) says, “veganism is an interconnected movement that seeks to fight for the liberation of non-human animals and humans.” We all want to build communities of love, belonging and justice in the diaspora, and to do so, must fight courageously for total liberation.
Tips for Veganizing Traditional Chinese Dishes
It is around food where memories are made and stories are shared. Host, or bring a dish to, your New Year gathering to invite people to experience how traditional dishes can be made with vegan ingredients. Below are some tips for veganizing your Lunar New Year feast.
1. Emphasize textures in your cooking.
It is texture and added flavours that make food taste like food. Hardly no one would find the raw, bloody flesh of a dead pig’s underside appetizing. Yet, this body part is widely eaten on Lunar New Year (“pork” belly) because of its tender flesh or crispy skin.
Creating tenderness, crispiness, chewiness, and crunchiness from plant ingredients is very easy. For example, replace the meat filling in dumplings with textured vegetable protein (TVP) and use cornstarch or a flax egg (1:3 flax meal and water) to bind. Here is a recipe for Vegan ‘Pork’ and Cabbage Dumplings by East Meets Kitchen that uses TVP. Include jicama in the filling for an added crunch.
You can also swap the animal ingredients in your family recipes with plant-based ones, keeping texture in mind. For example, I will be preparing a Cashew Chicken dish using Tofurky Chicken (which imitates the texture perfectly) and vegetarian oyster sauce. Alternatively, I could use soy curls for a healthier chicken substitute.
For those of you feeling ambitious in the kitchen, here is a Vegan ‘Pork’ Belly recipe. It uses coconut milk and tapioca starch to imitate the fatty texture and TVP for the soft flesh texture.
2. Remember that flavouring comes from plants, not animals.
Spices, sugars and fats are what make food taste good, not the animal ingredient itself. Most flavouring agents come from plants. The herbs and spices added to pig flesh can easily be added to pulled jackfruit, tofu, or seitan instead.
Seasonings used in Chinese cooking are often simple, yet powerful. Growing up, my mom would mostly season with garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and sugar, and this was enough to bring out the whole dish.
Be mindful of hidden non-vegan ingredients, such as oyster and fish sauces. You can replace these based on their flavour profile (for example, oyster/fish sauces bring an umami flavour to the dish, and so do hoisin and soy sauces).
3. Embrace whole foods over mock meats.
Mock meats can be a treat, but there is a lot more deliciousness and nutrition in whole plant foods. One of my favourite dishes is “Buddha’s Delight” — a truly delightful stir fry of mushrooms, wood ears, bean curd, carrots, glass noodles, and other vegetables. The dish accentuates the unique flavour of each ingredient and does not need to masquerade as a meat dish.
For dessert, Nian Gao is a naturally-vegan sweet rice cake eaten on Lunar New Year — usually in brown sugar, red bean, or coconut flavour. Try this recipe by the Woks of Life; steam or pan-fry to serve.
Food is connection. Ultimately, open dialogue while sharing a feast of traditional dishes — made vegan — is an inviting way to spark conversation and understanding. Through food and connection, we can celebrate Lunar New Year without contributing to the immeasurable suffering caused by speciesism and climate change.
Final Thoughts
Our actions and choices have the power to either harm or heal. They impact not only our personal health, but the well-being of the planet and all its inhabitants. We can honour our cultural traditions whilst honouring our values and the rights of all beings. With the New Year comes a new opportunity to take steps towards a brighter and more compassionate future.
