Ewe Paik Leong, The Wordslinger: “Babies born on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month were considered unlucky in ancient China,” says Sifu Sabrina.

Using scissors, Sifu Sabrina snips the strings of four rice dumplings, unwraps their bamboo leaves and sets them one by one on a platter between us. She spears one from the platter and transfers it to the small plate in front of me. “Eat!” Her gaze captures mine for a moment. “This is from a famous stall in Chinatown.”

Scent from Sifu Sabrina’s perfume surrounds her, almost drugging me. I cut a portion off a triangular corner of the rice dumpling with a metal spoon, shovel it into my mouth and chew. “Wow! It’s delicious.”

Sifu Sabrina starts to eat her own dumpling. “Even though the Rice Dumpling Festival is celebrated on the fifth lunar month, that month is regarded as an inauspicious month.” She takes a swallow. “Worse, babies born on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month were regarded as unlucky. They would either be killed or abandoned by their parents. That superstition originated during the period of the Warring States, around 403 to 211 B.C.” Her scarlet lips settle into a grim line. “Thank goodness, the superstition declined during the Tang dynasty.”

“Why is the fifth month considered a bad month?”

“During those times, pestilence was common during that month. People would hang pomelo leaves, mugwort, rush (pix above) and willow leaves over the doorway to repel evil and diseases.” Sifu Sabrina licks her upper lip. “Pieces of pomelo rind would also be tossed into the bathroom cistern, so that the water would wash off all bad luck when a person bathes.”

I take a swig of my Pu-er tea and release a silent exhale.

“Here’s something interesting. In north China, rice dumplings were made of millet and tortoise meat and wrapped with bamboo leaves. Tortoise meat was used as it represented Ying and the bamboo leaves represented Yang. Also, yellow dumpling or the alkaline variety was believed to have medicinal properties. This is true to a certain extent as sappanwood, one of the ingredients, has anti-bacterial action.”