Okay, so I’ve been seeing these “fortune cookies” all over my social media feeds, and you know, the messages inside? Some are kinda lame, but others are surprisingly insightful, sometimes even funny. Then it hit me – why not try making my own, but with a twist? I wanted to do Chinese cookie sayings, something with a little more… authenticity, you know?
So, I started by, well, Googling. Lots of Googling. I looked up traditional Chinese proverbs, idioms, even bits of poetry. I wanted phrases that were short, memorable, and, ideally, had a bit of wisdom or humor to them. That was the first hurdle, finding stuff that worked.
Next, I needed to actually translate them. My Mandarin is, uh, rusty at best. So, I used a couple of online translators, cross-referencing them to make sure I wasn’t accidentally writing something totally ridiculous. Some of the phrases, when translated literally, made absolutely no sense in English, so I had to tweak them, find different wording, all that fun stuff.
- First try: Some translations were WAY too literal.
- Second try: Finding the right wording was key.
- Third Try: Checked with a friend.
Once I had a decent list of sayings – maybe 20 or so – I typed them up, formatted them to be nice and small, and printed them out. Then came the tedious part: cutting them into little strips. Scissors, paper, my kitchen table – it was a whole operation.
The Final Product
The final product? Well, I haven’t actually made the cookies yet. I’m thinking of baking some plain sugar cookies and tucking these little messages inside. It’s a bit of a weekend project, and to be honest, I’m more excited about the sayings than the baking part! But I think it’ll be a fun little surprise for friends and family. Maybe it’ll even spark some interesting conversations. Or, at the very least, a few good laughs. I am going to bake them next!
