8" Ten Ping (HA0022A)

During the 1950’s, food in Shanghai was scarce and valuable.
Rice was not always readily available, so the Shanghai citizens were forced to look for alternate sources of food, most noticeably wheat products.
However, at that time bread was not the preferred choice of food for most Shanghainese, most of them settled for dumplings as their preferred wheat product.

One day, Ten Ping and Yu Ping were strolling around the neighborhood and came across a lady sitting beside an open window making dumplings.
Noticing this, young Yu Ping stopped abruptly and stuck her tiny head through the low-opened window to take a better look.
In the 1950s, with no air-conditioning around, most of the windows were left open so people living inside could catch occasional breezes.
Little Yu Ping, albeit short, had no problem poking her little head through the low window. Ten Ping quickly also followed her sister to take a quick look.
The sight of freshly wrapped dumplings and the smell of freshly grounded pork mixed with finely chopped vegetables were very alluring.
Ten Ping’s stomach gave a slight growl.

Yu Ping was standing beside the window with her mouth wide open. Her tongue was licking her lips; she was imagining what the dumplings would taste like in her mouth.
Suddenly, a long stream of saliva landed on the table from Yu Ping’s mouth.
“Heeeeeeey!” shouted the shocked woman in the house. Her face showed surprise but also a sign of disgust.
Ten Ping quickly pulled Yu Ping's back.

“That was unacceptable behavior,” scolded Ten Ping, “you should apologize to the nice lady right now.”
Yu Ping looked shocked, and tears started to drip from her eyes. She took a look at Ten Ping’s stern face, but it only provoked Yu Ping to cry even harder. Soon the tears came in torrents.
Ten Ping held Yu Ping close. She started to simultaneously encourage her sister to stop crying, and apologize to the woman for Yu Ping.
“Sorry. Sorry.” Ten Ping said repeatedly while making apologetic hand gestures to the woman inside. “I apologize for my little sister.”
Then she turned to Yu Ping with a stern face; “Now stop crying and apologize. It is your fault.” Ten Ping said.
The woman, upon seeing this predicament, shrugged, and then closed the windows with a lingering look of disgust. Ten Ping made a few more hand gestures of apology to the closed window before she left for home with the weeping Yu Ping.

Yu Ping did not stop crying after they reached home. Ten Ping sighed and started to see if she can do anything to make Yu Ping smile again.
Ten Ping took out some flour and dough, some water, some ground pork, and some vegetables.
“Yu Ping,” Ten Ping offered, “Look! We are going to make some dumplings ourselves too. We can have dumplings for dinner tonight!”
Momentarily Yu Ping stopped crying and pondered the proposal for a brief moment. Finally she decided that she will not let her sister off so easily, and resumed to cry again.
Ten Ping tried another method, she enticed Yu Ping with the idea of different stuffing for the dumplings, but Yu Ping did not relinquish her fight.
Finally, Ten Ping rolled out a piece of dough, and made 4 holes in it. She then put the dough on her face, and it fitted like a mask with droopy eyes and a huge banana shaped mouth.
“Boo,” taunted Ten Ping.
Upon this sight, Yu Ping couldn’t stop laughing out loud.

“Do you want to make a mask for yourself too?” asked Ten Ping. Yu Ping laughed and nodded.
“Then you will have to help me roll the dough.”
Yu Ping happily obliged.
Yu Ping and Ten Ping made various objects for fun; they made a rubber duck, which Yu Ping said she would bring with her when she bathed. They made several masks of various funny faces, which Yu Ping carved personally, to show Ten Ping what angry and happy faces looked like. Yu Ping also made a couple of fruits at the end, which she claimed she would give to grandma.
Finally, they decided to make some edible dumplings for dinner that night.

After rolling out some thin sheets of dough, Ten Ping used a cup to stamp out pieces of round dumpling wraps. To which little Yu Ping would add the stuffing, mixture of vegetables, and ground meat into the round dough wrappings. Together, Yu Ping and Ten Ping would then wrap the finished dumplings.

Finally, the prepared dumplings were deposited in a boiling water pot to cook.
That was the first time Yu Ping made dumplings together with Ten Ping, and until this day, Yu Ping remembers and savored those delicious dumplings she had made together with Ten Ping.