Page 71 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 64

Carp, a child and a lotus: ‘May you have
something over (to keep) every year!’

Cat

mao

Mao = cat, and mao = octogenarian, are phonetically close; so a picture showing cats
and butterflies expresses the wish that the recipient should live to be 70 or 80. A cat
with a plum (mei = plum is phonetically close to mei = each, every, always) and
bamboos (zhu = bamboo is phonetically close to zhu = to wish, pray) means: ‘At all
times we wish that you may reach a ripe old age.’
If a strange cat has her kittens in one’s house this is a very bad sign: even if she only
enters the house it is an omen of poverty, because the cat knows that lots of rats are going
to come and eat the family out of house and home. Mothers warn children who won’t go
to sleep that the cat will come and get them.
Cat flesh is not eaten in North China, a prohibition which does not apply in the South.
Nor was the cult of the cat known in South China, which was practised in Gansu. North
Chinese cats catch mice, but in South China, especially in the Canton area, they are said