Talk:Yum cha

Yum Cha as a ritual?

Fellow Cantonese folk, do you find it correct that yum cha is viewed as a ritual? In Guangzhou, yum cha is often commonplace as getting a breakfast sandwich at a fast food place in America. Yum cha customers often open up their newspapers and enjoy the tea, the same way many Americans enjoy coffee and the news at an American cafe. Yum cha is no more ritualistic than brunch. (talk) 01:44, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

......Yeah ~ I kinda have to disagree with you a bit here...While Yum Cha is, as you said, very very common, I wouldn't go as far as calling it a "grab & go" process. It DOES take time and the customers were supposed to enjoy the process. You don't see working class people spend their 8am - 10am daily at a teahouse just like you don't see men / women in suits spend their 8am - 10am hanging out at their local Starbucks. While people line up to get their morning coffee here, a traditional Cantonese breakfast would include people lining up to get their morning you char kway to go. They might sit down and eat it with rice congee or soy milk, but by no mean that's a "hang out spot". PS: I don't like the word "ritual" either too. TheAsianGURU (talk) 18:58, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Odd picture

The picture of the teacup and bowl looks a bit odd. Shouldn't the cup be on the table and the rice bowl on the plate? LDHan 15:41, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Every restaurant has its very own way of how to put their cups and plates. -- Jerry Crimson Mann 16:39, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for letting me know. LDHan 18:16, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

The picture at the top is not a restaurant in Hong Kong, it's a restaurant in Chatswood, Australia. I've lived in both countries and there aren't any restaurants in Hong Kong that still use those carts. Sausageman 10:21, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Thats Hong kong city hall. I have changed it back. You can also check the image license. It is part of a HK photo set. Even the comment saids HK city hall Benjwong 16:50, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

Regarding the bow/kowtow gesture's origin, please reference to the practice of "surveying civilian life" of some great Ancient Chinese royalties. It is not an act to taste food outside a palace for curiosity as current explanation may have implied. The version I have for this legend was, the emperor somehow became a waiter for a restaurant while he was living as a civilian, and the gesture was invented by a high official (who had the privilege to see the emperor up close, and aware of the "classified" plan of the emperor) who somehow visited the restaurant, and the emperor voluntarily dispensed tea for his subjects! 24.191.52.2 (talk) 07:45, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Mandarin version

Does this term 飲茶 exist in Mandarin? If this term is unique to Cantonese, then it is meaningless to include a Hanyu pinyin transcription of it. Instead, a translation of the term used in (Mandarin) Chinese should be given.

飲茶 doesn't exist in Mandarin. Sure, it does translate as "Drinking Tea," but that's not what it's implied in Cantonese. As the article correctly pointed out --- Yum Cha, as a way of eating breakfast, is limited to the Chinese people who are mostly Cantonese speaking. In fact, the pronunciation of “Yum Cha” is strictly Cantonese, a Mandarin speaker would pronunciation it different. TheAsianGURU 20:43, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

Because dim sum is quite cantonese, yum cha would make sense as a name. The pinyin is like a translation bonus. Don't over analysize it. Benjwong 02:57, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

More and more non-southern Chinese folks are beginning to use the term 飲茶 as it is in their own dialect (yin cha). This is because Southern Chinese cuisine is now more readily available at the global level. I think many also choose to say 吃点心, or eat dim sum.robothenry 01:29 19 August 2009 —Preceding undated comment added 08:30, 19 August 2009 (UTC).

In Mandarin, 早茶 (zǎo chá) is used. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:569:7964:C00:9C48:2EAF:43C0:D553 (talk) 16:15, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Verb or noun?

I'm not sure about this, but isn't 'yum cha' more often used as a verb rather than a noun? As a native Cantonese speaker, I have to comment that I've heard people say "Let's go and drink tea (yum cha)", but I have never heard people say "Let's go and have a yum cha". Compare 'yum cha' with 'sik fan' (eat rice), "Let's go eat rice (sik fan)". In Cantonese it isn't said "Let's go have a sik fan". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.53.115.174 (talk) 07:35, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

Classification and Pricing

• The "Classification and Pricing" section is badly in need of something resembling a reference to back up that rather interesting list of prices. It's a noteworthy chart, and I'm guessing it's probably based on someone's personal experience (and may be largely correct) but "in my experience" generally isn't a valid reference for an encyclopedia article. --Astarf (talk) 08:54, 9 February 2008 (UTC)

Theres also no reason why the prices in the US are particularly more notable than the prices in any other country. 202.74.162.26 (talk) 02:58, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

I agree with 202.74.162.26--it also brings to question why we don't have prices from Guangzhou, the home of dim sum.

Washing dishes Practice?

"In the past, Hong Kong people would rinse all utensils with hot water or hot tea before they even ordered due to the relatively poor hygiene standards. The practice is no longer common in Hong Kong although it can still be observed in restauarants that are deemed 'dirty'"

I have to seriously question the credibility of this statement. Even today it is commonplace and polite, to rinse your dishes and utensils not only in Hong Kong but also in parts of Mainland China as a proper etiquette for ANY Chinese restaurant. The practice has also risen after the SARS outbreak in 2003. This is from first-hand experience. Also, there seems to be no citation or reference from any credible source for this statement. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.9.171.161 (talk) 22:53, 25 December 2010 (UTC)

As someone from Hong Kong, I don't think this practice is uncommon at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.18.170.166 (talk) 08:18, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Needs More Citations

Most of this content is merely personal opinion and we need lots of sources to cite them. Please feel free to add any additional, relevant tags to draw other editors' attention to an article to which they would otherwise not comprehend. <<< SOME GADGET GEEK >>> (talk) 20:53, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Yum cha/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

No refs. --Ideogram 06:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 06:03, 21 February 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 11:12, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

"Touch your heart" translation and allusion

"Dim sum literally means ‘touch your heart,' possibly alluding to the wide range of dim sum that can be found." This sentence is uncited. Perhaps the translation itself does not need to be cited (I don't know Wiki's policies on citing translations), but at the very least it is in no way clear to me how touching ones heart is related to the wide range of food you can have with dim sum. Further description of the allusion would be helpful, since such allusions are culturally-based. Toferdelachris (talk) 19:03, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Copy Editing

A request for copy editing was submitted to the Guild of Copy Editors as part of working towards a Good Article Nomination (GAN). --Renewableandalternativeenergy (talk) 00:59, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

The article will be further updated and the request was withdrawn. --Renewableandalternativeenergy (talk) 03:04, 14 August 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Writing Workshop

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 January 2024 and 3 May 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Lynnllll (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Lynnllll (talk) 19:02, 16 April 2024 (UTC)