Reading Chinese Menus: Characters: 點心 — diǎn xīn — dim sum

[kake]

OK, so I said I was going to replace my character posts with dish posts for the duration of August, but since I don't normally post on Tuesdays I thought I could sneak in an extra one :)

The photo above shows eight representations of the Chinese characters 點心 (diǎn xīn/dim sum), clipped from photos I've taken of dim sum menus around London. Just thought people might be interested to see the different variations. You're unlikely to see the more esoteric of these fonts used to write an entire menu, but you may well see them used on signs!

Note that the second example from the left on the bottom row uses the simplified character 点 instead of the traditional character 點. This is quite unusual in my experience; most of the dim sum menus I've seen in London are written in traditional characters. This might be at least partly because most of my dim sum menu photos were taken in London's Chinatown. I have a feeling (though no actual evidence) that many of the restaurants there were set up by immigrants from Hong Kong (where traditional characters are more common than simplified ones). Please note, though, that this is just a theory! The one that uses the simplified character was taken from a menu at the dim sum stall in Pacific Plaza in Wembley.

Related posts:

• Dim sum wrap-up

If you have any questions or corrections, please leave a comment (here's how) and let me know (or email me at kake@earth.li). See my introductory post to the Chinese menu project for what these posts are all about.

Comments

[eatlovenoodles.blogspot.com]

Your theory is pretty spot on about why traditional characters are used. Traditional characters remain in everyday use in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where you will seldom see any simplified characters.

[kake]

Cool, thanks, good to know I wasn't barking up completely the wrong tree!