Asian American Arts Zine - Volume 4

P A G E 1 0 5
S P I R I T U A L I T Y
In sino culture, which I am a part of, there
is a belief that in everyone is a “hot air” and
“cold air”. Everyone has an innate fire in
them, and when the fire is given too much
fuel, it rages through your body in the form
of acne, inflammation, cramps, distress in
the bathroom and more. Food is the main
determinant of how the fire would rage in
your body. Hot air foods include anything
that is fried, beef, and lychees. I remember
being told as a kid not to eat too many
lychees (not that it was a common problem,
they are hard to find in the US outside of
Asian grocery stores and even then are not
the best quality) as eating too much can
cause nightmares, also another element of
hot air, or “yeet hay”, as it is known in
Cantonese language.
These foods are more like guidelines,
rather than hard and fast rules. They’re
more commentary on newer, less
sustainable food sources. Beef certainly has
a large carbon footprint than chicken; fried
foods require an excess of oil in the
production with a large calorie intake and
low net nutrient count. With a sino doctor,
conversations about food are more
common than blind diagnosis
Sino medicine also warns against cold
beverages, which is almost a staple in
Western culture. Hot water with lemon to
start the day to get your digestion going.
Hot water matches your inner body
temperature which is why it’s better for
digestion overall.
My mom had a fridge full of plant
ingredients to make soup. While
Westerners may cite the restorative
properties of chicken noodle soup -
Cantonese soup making goes deeper than
that. When we had oily skin, we had
gingseng soup of Canadian and American
ginseng (not Korean, because that one is
too “yeet hay” for that purpose). Angelica
root for women’s health. Chinese barley for
all skin ailments. Dried cordyceps
mushroom for anti-aging but also better
digestion. My mom didn’t make soup to
target a singular problem though, they
were to treat the system as a whole,
primarily through digestion. On a similar
note, the Russian word for “body” is the
same word for “stomach”, which the word
“life” derives from, because many ancient
cultures agree that the stomach is where
your health is truly regulated, where your
life stems.