Fish & Shellfish

It is hard to live for years, as I did, among people from Shanghai and not become thoroughly and completely enamored of fish and shellfish. Shanghai means literally “on the sea,” and while the people of this great port metropolis have a striking love for the fruits of the oceans and rivers, Chinese in general view all swimming things as among the finest of edibles. Chinese philosophers and painters have from early times taken the fish as the symbol of freedom and pleasure, and in the Chinese language, the word for “fish” is a homonym for abundance. Thus, scholars filled their ponds with carp, fishermen became icons for painters and sculptors, and the common hungry human felt better for a bite of fish.