The Chile Pepper in China by Brian R. Dott

Author:Brian R. Dott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Figure 5.3 Xi’an government poster Disan guai (The third oddity: chiles are a main course), 2014.

In 1995, while conducting fieldwork on pilgrimages to Mount Tai in Shandong province, I observed many pilgrims purchasing small, glass, red chile peppers as souvenirs (see figure 5.4). Although no one provided me with what I felt was a fully satisfactory explanation for the meaning of this souvenir, its popularity speaks to the complete authentication of the chile as people on pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in China found it perfectly natural to purchase these replica chiles. There are several concrete reasons that these chile souvenirs were so popular at that time. First, they were inexpensive, costing only one yuan. Second, being red and shiny, they were auspicious. Third, they could be personalized. The man in the photo, the seller, is using a brush to paint the purchaser’s name, the date, and the phrase “Mount Tai souvenir” onto the chile. A possible symbolic explanation comes from the fact that the most popular deity on the mountain, the Goddess of Mount Tai, is a fertility goddess. Many of the pilgrims were climbing the mountain in order to pray for a son or grandson at the Goddess’s main temple near the peak. The glass chiles look like an uncircumcised penis and might have served as a symbolic prayer asking for a son. However, while this sort of explicit imagery linking the chile and the penis is common in Korea, I have found no similarly explicit references to this parallel in contemporary China.30

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