Vegan and vegetarian Chinese vocabulary

[Ludens]

I'd like to start this thread as a place to compile as much vocabulary and useful phrases related to veganism and vegetarianism as possible. I'm just starting to learn Chinese, so I'll have more questions than answers, but here's a start.

When travelling through China without knowing any Chinese, I managed to get great vegetarian food everywhere just showing this "vegetarian / vegan passport" attached:

I wasn't vegan back then, so I didn't show the egg/diary part. I ate great dishes almost every time, but I'm not sure how many of these dishes were made with some kind of animal stock. As I'm studying Chinese now and became vegan in the meantime, I'd like to be able to be a bit more specific and picky when I return to China in the future.

Some questions:

• Is the term 纯素食（主义者）widely understood? Are there any other ways of saying "vegan" / "strict vegetarian"?
  
• How to ask if there's any animal fat (or powder) used in preparing a dish?
  
• Does anybody have a list (or would like to start one in this thread) of animal (derived) ingredients used on food packaging in Chinese?
  

[skylee]

I am sorry but I think that passport sounds self-centred and arrogant (sorry, sorry). When I was a teenager I was taught not to start every sentence with 我, as it sounds, well, self-centred, self-absorbed. This is why.

Is there any way to reduce the 我 in that passport?

[Ludens]

Hi Skylee,

I didn't make this 'passport', I just got it off the internet and used it. My Chinese is nowhere near good enough to be able to be aware of such nuances of politeness, but if the these phrases are indeed impolite, maybe someone would like rewrite them?

I'd be very interested.

[Xiao Kui]

Virginia is for lovers . . . and China is for omnivores. I often ask for no lajiao (hot peppers) and they use it any way or they re-use lajiao saturated oil. I have a friend who's seriously allergic to MSG (it can be fatal to her) and lived in China for years and she had to explain to the wait staff that if they put it in her food she would die right in their restaurant because otherwise they tended to ignore her request. So though it would be a lie to say that meat and dairy products will kill you if you're really hardcore you might want to take that approach. Otherwise stick to vegetarian restaurants when you can find them. Good luck!

[Kenny同志]

I am more than glad that the first sentence on your passport was not translated as 我是一个素食主义者, as the dictionary would do.

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• Is the term 纯素食（主义者）widely understood? Are there any other ways of saying "vegan" / "strict vegetarian"?

• How to ask if there's any animal fat (or powder) used in preparing a dish?

• Does anybody have a list (or would like to start one in this thread) of animal (derived) ingredients used on food packaging in Chinese?

To tell people you are a strict vegetarian, you could say 我只吃素(食).

When you need to ask if there’s any animal fat used in a dish, you could say （菜）里面没有放荤油吧？

Or if you need to instruct the cook not to use any animal fat in preparing a dish, say 不要放荤油.

As for your third question, the only one I can think of is 鸡精.

[imron]

Or if you need to instruct the cook not to use any animal fat in preparing a dish,

And they will nod and smile, and then use it anyway

[rezaf]

don't forget to tell them about not adding 鸡精（ji1jing1)

And they will nod and smile, and then use it anyway

at least he will know that he has tried

[frank the tank]

There's a huge misconception about the difficulties of being a vegetarian in china, it usually comes from meat eaters though.

It really comes down to how strict you are though and being a Vegan might be a little difficult but for a vegetarian life is easy.

I find that half the items on the menu are vegetarian and if I mention I dont eat meat they always check about eggs, oil etc too.

I'll be happy to add to any list you want to make as well as give you a list of what I think are the best dishes ( can't now sorry as I'm writing from a mobile).

[langxia]

Beeing Vegetarian is no problem at all in China. But you might have a harder time living on a strict vegan diet. Avoiding Milk products won't be a problem. But avoding eggs (or products with egg inside) might be a problem. I had a vegan friend living in china and he went off his strict vegan diet for the time living in china. But never the less good luck with it

[jaded samurai]

Hahahah I can tell you, being a vegetarian in China ISN'T easy if you're eating at restaurants.

Waiters/waitresses don't respond well to special orders of any sort, let alone requesting not to add meat. Asking if a dish has meat or not also generally doesn't go well.

You can tell a waiter in VERY clear Chinese: I don't want meat, fish, egg, or any animal product. NO PORK. NO FISH. NO EGG. NO BEEF. NO MUTTON. NO MEAT PERIOD. OK? And they'll say OK, and then they'll bring you a dish with meat. We've even had our Chinese friends tell them the exact same thing. Same result.

If you really don't want meat at a restaurant, you have to slowly learn which dishes don't have meat. Even that's not flawless, they'll still stick in meat sometimes to spice vegetarian dishes up. Aside from that, you don't know if they're adding animal fat to the dish, either.

Best off making your own food... and making sure you're not inadvertently buying stuff with animal product in it yourself. There's quite a few chemicals used in packaged food which have animal product in them. Generally can't go wrong getting nothing but real food directly from the markets.

[Ludens]

Sorry for not replying sooner, soon after posting I got a fever, of which I'm still recovering.

Kenny2006woo, thanks for your contribution! So, 纯素食（主义者）is not widely understood? I've added 鸡精 and 荤油 to my vocabulary.

Frank the tank, it would be great if you could post those lists you were talking about!

I'm not sure if the people saying being vegan in China will be much harder than being vegetarian are right. Sure, there are lot's of things that contain eggs, but on the whole, I think Chinese restaurants offer much more (potentially) vegan dishes than western restaurants (which rarely offer any without some kind of milk/cheese ingredient). Of the vegetarian meals I had when I was in China, almost all of them were vegan (as far as I could tell, so that means at least without egg, in addition to the absence of meat).

Jaded samurai, I have to disagree with you. I've travelled around China for a pretty long time and using the "vegetarian passport" I've posted above, I've almost never experienced anything like you say. Of course, I can't be sure about animal fat, but the times there were actual pieces of meat in a dish were few and far between.

[anonymoose]

Usually they don't wash their pans between cooking different dishes, so even if they don't put any animal products into your dish, you're still likely to get the residues from the previous one.

[Ludens]

Usually they don't wash their pans between cooking different dishes, so even if they don't put any animal products into your dish, you're still likely to get the residues from the previous one.

This is probably true, but may be equally true for restaurants in the west. Anyway, what I'm interested in is trying to get the message (of me wanting vegan food) across as clear as possible.

So, some basic words I recently added to my vocabulary useful to vegetarians and vegans:

明胶 - gelatin

奶粉 - milk powder

（蜂）蜜 - honey

It would be great if someone could help translate these terms (my dictionary is failing me on these...):

casein

rennet

whey

[xiaocai]

casein: 酪蛋白

rennet: 凝乳酶

whey: 乳清

These are mainland translation so I'm not really very sure how they will work out if you travel to Taiwan or Hong Kong (but they probably will just use English in HK). And if you tell the waiters/waitresses these words in China I am quite sure most of them will have no idea what you are talking about.

Usually buddhist restaurants are safe choice if you are very strict about animal fat or any other residues. You only have to tell them you don't take any milk product either, because I think they do use milk product occasionally.

[jaded samurai]

Eh, well using something like that might do the trick. I was referring to simply talking to them. I imagine if they go through the bother with your card, it would actually make it to the chef.

In general special orders seem to often get immediately discarded. Again, that's taking into account when I've seen Chinese people order too, so I'm sure it's not just a hole in communication. Then again, that kind of thing happens a lot in the West too...

[Kenny同志]

Telling the waiter 我只吃素食 is a clear instruction that you don’t want ANY animal-based food/ingredient, so theoretically that will be enough. But in case the waiter has only a minimal grasp of nutrition and considers such stuff as鸡精 素, you might as well try 我只吃素食。麻烦您告诉下厨师师傅，用植物油；鸡精、蜂蜜、肉末什么的都不要放。(when saying this, emphasize your point by drawling the word “素” )

casein: 酪蛋白

rennet: 凝乳酶

whey: 乳清

I agree with xiaocai. These are technical jargon unintelligible to restaurant guys. They will be used in vain.

[Kenny同志]

Kenny2006woo, thanks for your contribution! So, 纯素食（主义者）is not widely understood?

No, I think it’s understandable, but the word sounds extremely awkward, if not absurd, especially in daily life. We’ve got 马列主义 and I think that’s enough. I am not willing to see the word 主义 imposed on a vegan. Horrible thing it is.

PS: I don’t think 完美主义 is a good word either.

Some translations I can think of for “I am a vegan”

我吃素。

我吃素食。

我吃斋。(don’t use this unless you’re a religious vegan)

[imron]

Kenny, in Chinese, how would you differentiate between a vegetarian and vegan?

In English, to me vegan would definitely be worthy of 主义 as it goes beyond just a diet. Note however that I am not vegan, or even vegetarian, so I might not be the best person to judge.

[wushijiao]

I've tried using 纯素食（主义者) or 全素主義, and neither of them are widely known at all at this point (yet). (Although with that said, some HKers recognize 全素主義).

It's better to focus on the contents of the dishes, and how you would like them prepared, while of course being as polite as possible and mindful of the fast that you maybe the first customer a particular wait staff has encountered that has had these issues. Kenny2006woo's suggestions are very helpful in that regard.

[Kenny同志]

Seems like I should have said "I am a vegatarian" rather than "I am a vegan".

The difference between a vegan and a vegetarian is that a vegan eliminates all animal products from his or her diet, including dairy. Those following a vegan lifestyle generally do not wear leather and avoid products made from animals such as wool, silk and down. Vegans’ tremendous humanity for animals is an abiding, overriding conviction in their lives.

Imron, given the differences listed above between the two terms, I am afraid there’s no exact Chinese term for either of them. To differentiate them, I would say:

我基本上只吃素食。(I am a vegetarian.)

我不沾荤，也不用任何动物制品。(I am a vegan. But the second part sounds too technical)

Btw, I am afraid even the term 我是一个素食主义者 still can’t cover all the implications of the expression “I am a vegan”.