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Swallowing Clouds by A. Zee
An engaging and informative adventure through the captivating world of Chinese cuisine, with folklore and anecdotes.
Paperback
First published September 1, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 4, 2015
Swallowing Clouds is an approachable, engaging book about the evolution of Chinese language as shown through food. It's a bold concept that works well. Zee is a true storyteller. It's as though you are both sitting in comfy chairs and sipping tea as he talks. He features many common Chinese characters (he notes that a study observed if you can read 500 words in Chinese, you can read 69% of typical reading material), how they might be shown on a Chinese menu, and how the character evolved over time in both history and form. It's a shame I don't have any good Chinese places (bleh Panda Express!) nearby; this would be an awesome book to take along and translate the menu.
This is a lot more than a how-to-read Chinese book. It also delves into mythology through food, the influences of Islam and Hinduism, and how American-Chinese food is very different than the real thing. It was a slow and steady read to me, but fascinating all the way through. It's one I'll be keeping for writing research... and to bring along whenever I do get a good chance for Chinese food.
This is a lot more than a how-to-read Chinese book. It also delves into mythology through food, the influences of Islam and Hinduism, and how American-Chinese food is very different than the real thing. It was a slow and steady read to me, but fascinating all the way through. It's one I'll be keeping for writing research... and to bring along whenever I do get a good chance for Chinese food.
December 27, 2018
Absolutely phenomenal journey into the Chinese culture. It's entertaining, funny and will instantly make you feel really hungry (and craving for chinese food) even after a huge dinner. Great for those who don't even know how to say "hi" in mandarin. Chapters are compendious and give you just enough amount of information to spark your curiosity and appetite for more! Give this book a try - you won't be disappointed!
July 20, 2011
I'm regrettably unlikely to remember most of what I learned from this book, but I quite enjoyed learning it anyway.
Zee is a physicist who reads Chinese and likes food, and seems to have written this book on a lark. The tone is feather-light and rather fun. He walks you through a bunch of basic Chinese characters, explaining etymologies in a way that makes a lot of them fairly memorable. He's mostly focused on food terminology, with the assumptions that a) most Westerners are most likely to encounter Chinese characters on restaurant menus and b) food is fun and he likes it. So you learn the character for pig, enabling you to identify pork dishes, but also the character for roof and the fact that when you combine them, you get home, because apparently keeping a pig under a roof makes for a good home. Along the way, you get sprinklings of anecdotes from Chinese history and mythology, mini-treatises on bits of Chinese culture, and anecdotes about the author's own family that are usually endearing.
He attempted to teach me probably a hundred or more characters over the course of the book (fully admitting he didn't expect most of them to stick on a first read). I think I've got about twenty down. How many I'll still have in a couple months, I cannot say, but I enjoyed the attempt and I can see how it might be a good stepping stone into a more serious study of the subject.
Zee is a physicist who reads Chinese and likes food, and seems to have written this book on a lark. The tone is feather-light and rather fun. He walks you through a bunch of basic Chinese characters, explaining etymologies in a way that makes a lot of them fairly memorable. He's mostly focused on food terminology, with the assumptions that a) most Westerners are most likely to encounter Chinese characters on restaurant menus and b) food is fun and he likes it. So you learn the character for pig, enabling you to identify pork dishes, but also the character for roof and the fact that when you combine them, you get home, because apparently keeping a pig under a roof makes for a good home. Along the way, you get sprinklings of anecdotes from Chinese history and mythology, mini-treatises on bits of Chinese culture, and anecdotes about the author's own family that are usually endearing.
He attempted to teach me probably a hundred or more characters over the course of the book (fully admitting he didn't expect most of them to stick on a first read). I think I've got about twenty down. How many I'll still have in a couple months, I cannot say, but I enjoyed the attempt and I can see how it might be a good stepping stone into a more serious study of the subject.
October 22, 2025
Physicist Anthony Zee has written a number of textbooks and popular science tomes on such weighty subjects as quantum field theory and gravity. Here he was clearly having fun. He admited it right up front in the introductions.
Zee starts out with the simpler characters for fire (火) and water (水) and builds from there, showing how more complicated characters have simpler ones built into them, known as the radical or root. The characters for 'roast' and 'deep-fry' for example, both contain the 'fire' radical: 烤 and 炸. He shows how the characters for lamb (羊肉) look a bit like a four-legged creature with horns, seen from above. (The second character there means 'meat' in general.) The characters for chicken and for duck (鴨) both contain the 'bird' radical (鳥), which looks a bit like a bird with spread wings. It's much more obvious in the actual book, where not only does Zee show the older forms they developed from, but the Chinese characters look handwritten. They have that calligraphic quality to them.
For all you vegetarians out there, don't worry. The second half of the book looks at plant-based fare, as well as tea (茶) and dim sum (點心). You will also get many Chinese stories and folktales, often concerning food, little snippets of history and culture, and even a brief comparison between Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Zee reminisces throughout on fond food memories from childhood, great meals he's had, and how American Chinese restaurants are often disappointing to him. And, of course, you get a lot of etymology connected to all the above, presented with gentle humor. By the end, I was actually able to spot some familiar characters on my local Chinese restaurant's menu. Now, if I could just find a restaurant that serves some of these dishes Zee waxes on about...
See also
There's even more Chinese food history in Fuchsia Dunlop's Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food. The chapter titles each include a dish, listed in both English and Chinese. See how many characters you can recognize from Zee's lessons. My review is here.
Jing Tsu's Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern looks at the history of how China spread literacy and adapted modern innovations like typewriters, telegraphs, and computers without abandoning their writing system for an alphabet.
Everyone I know of who has read Swallowing Clouds has told me how much fun they had reading it. Well, I had even more fun writing it. ... We will digress freely and wander down all the happy byways in a discussion about food and language. I can happily indulge my interest in etymology—the study of language. ... At the same time that I am having fun with etymology, I am indulging, perhaps even more happily, in my interest in Chinese food.While you won't be literate in Chinese after reading this, it is a very gentle, and yes fun, introduction to Chinese characters and some of their origins, using some of the more basic ones related to food that one might see on Chinese restaurant menus. The title comes from the characters for 'wonton' (雲吞), which translates as 'cloud swallowing.'
Zee starts out with the simpler characters for fire (火) and water (水) and builds from there, showing how more complicated characters have simpler ones built into them, known as the radical or root. The characters for 'roast' and 'deep-fry' for example, both contain the 'fire' radical: 烤 and 炸. He shows how the characters for lamb (羊肉) look a bit like a four-legged creature with horns, seen from above. (The second character there means 'meat' in general.) The characters for chicken and for duck (鴨) both contain the 'bird' radical (鳥), which looks a bit like a bird with spread wings. It's much more obvious in the actual book, where not only does Zee show the older forms they developed from, but the Chinese characters look handwritten. They have that calligraphic quality to them.
For all you vegetarians out there, don't worry. The second half of the book looks at plant-based fare, as well as tea (茶) and dim sum (點心). You will also get many Chinese stories and folktales, often concerning food, little snippets of history and culture, and even a brief comparison between Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Zee reminisces throughout on fond food memories from childhood, great meals he's had, and how American Chinese restaurants are often disappointing to him. And, of course, you get a lot of etymology connected to all the above, presented with gentle humor. By the end, I was actually able to spot some familiar characters on my local Chinese restaurant's menu. Now, if I could just find a restaurant that serves some of these dishes Zee waxes on about...
See also
There's even more Chinese food history in Fuchsia Dunlop's Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food. The chapter titles each include a dish, listed in both English and Chinese. See how many characters you can recognize from Zee's lessons. My review is here.
Jing Tsu's Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern looks at the history of how China spread literacy and adapted modern innovations like typewriters, telegraphs, and computers without abandoning their writing system for an alphabet.
December 30, 2021
What a wonderful book. If you have ever looked at anything written in Chinese, and thought to yourself, 'I have no idea what this says', you will have some idea by the time you are done reading this. A. Zee takes you on a lighthearted journey through a menu at a Chinese restaurant, describing what seems like dozens of Chinese characters etymologically, showing you their ancestral pictographs. He also furnishes you with many anecdotes both sad and joyful, so you can impress your friends as you read. I must have entertained/bored my wife a dozen times while reading this book, describing the Chinese characters for 'sexy' ('flesh' 'feel') and flirtation ('woman' 'eye' 'eyebrow'). He achieves a fun, friendly, casual voice, while also effectively teaching you an incredibly deep, fascinating subject.
My brother lives in Taiwan, and confirmed lots of Chinese from this book for me, including some that he had never heard of before. I taught HIM!
Read this, you won't regret it.
My brother lives in Taiwan, and confirmed lots of Chinese from this book for me, including some that he had never heard of before. I taught HIM!
Read this, you won't regret it.
October 2, 2021
Not a cookbook but an interesting read on China culture and places.
April 3, 2014
An absolutely delightful gem. And as readers will discover, a fabulous and apt title. Although Zee's stated purpose is to teach you enough Chinese characters to enable you to understand a Chinese menu, I felt that he was subtly trying to express what Chinese culture is all about to a Western audience. Zee is a perfect cultural ambassador and teacher. His book made me want to immediately begin studying Chinese. His book is truly magical and he brilliantly packs in so many different dimensions into such a small package. He provides a window into understanding Chinese culture, through his explanations of how Chinese characters are formed and through personal anecdote,observations about the Eastern vs. Western way of thinking -- always with understated good humour. Remarkably, after several chapters you have learned enough characters to be able to read a classic Chinese poem from the 14th century.
As many good scientists do, Zee writes in a succinct, lucid and clear manner. I appreciated the openness and generosity of spirit which he displayed throughout the book. Read this several years ago and it still remains one of my favourite books of any kind to date. I had picked it up on a lark and was so glad I did.
As many good scientists do, Zee writes in a succinct, lucid and clear manner. I appreciated the openness and generosity of spirit which he displayed throughout the book. Read this several years ago and it still remains one of my favourite books of any kind to date. I had picked it up on a lark and was so glad I did.
August 17, 2011
This is one of the most tantalizing books I've read in quite a while. To fully enjoy Swallowing Clouds, you'll have to have a very specific and somewhat intense interest in Chinese culture, language, and cuisine (all of which I love, incidentally!). Linguistics enthusiasts would have a ball. Zee approaches it in an investigative way with an entertaining, personable tone, directly addressing the reader. The only thing that irked me was the lack of pinyin paired with the Chinese characters. As a Chinese American who can only speak/understand the language, I would have loved to have some sort of phonetic reference instead of having to bookmark things and interrogate my parents! Other than that, this book is extremely comprehensive. Zee shares etymological curiosities, Chinese folklore, and cultural connections that made me giggle aloud, at times.
May 1, 2022
'Once, when I was at a dinner with a well-known Chinese food critic and writer, someone mentioned this triad of food, fragrance, and taste.
The elderly gentleman-gourmet responded that food writers, by constantly talk ing about these three characters, often miss the single character that summarizes the basic philosophy of Chinese cuisine. Naturally, we all wanted to know what that might be. He replied, to our surprise, that it was 意 loosely translatable as "intention" or "meaning."
Seeing that we were puzzled, he went on to say, "When someone invites you to dinner, it is his intention that gives the food meaning. Only by understanding his intentions can you understand the taste you experience. This is what Chinese mean by 意味 [loosely, understanding and tasting the meaning behind the food)."
The elderly gentleman-gourmet responded that food writers, by constantly talk ing about these three characters, often miss the single character that summarizes the basic philosophy of Chinese cuisine. Naturally, we all wanted to know what that might be. He replied, to our surprise, that it was 意 loosely translatable as "intention" or "meaning."
Seeing that we were puzzled, he went on to say, "When someone invites you to dinner, it is his intention that gives the food meaning. Only by understanding his intentions can you understand the taste you experience. This is what Chinese mean by 意味 [loosely, understanding and tasting the meaning behind the food)."
July 29, 2011
Nicely written book that uses Chinese food as a way to discuss the origins and relationships among Chinese idiographs for different culinary items. Even without any ability to read Chinese (I can speak it a little), it is informative to see how the Chinese characters for different foods evolved. I don't think I will remember the material very long, but the presentation gave me more insight into the structure of the language.
January 29, 2014
Reading this makes me hungry. I also long for pronunciation guide to the Chinese characters.
August 15, 2015
Biggest problems for me: (1) The characters are hand drawn and in the traditional form; and (2) There's no pinyin to help with pronunciation.
April 6, 2017
This was so so good. The author's goal is to give you, the reader with no background at all in Chinese, a bit of an idea of how to read the characters you'd find on menus in Chinese restaurants. He tells lots of stories and bits of folklore along the way, there are recipes in the back, and the whole thing is just double-plus-good funny. He has a breezy conversational style of writing that just clips along. He is actually a theoretical physicist, and wrote this for fun in between his serious academic works. If you are a foodie, or a budding linguist, or interested in China or Chinese culture, language or food, you should give this a try.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews