How about some morning dim sum?

Young people, both now and in the past, never lack excuses to hang out and have fun together. Making plans to eat is an easy way to socialize in any era. Lunch with colleagues or close friends. Dinner with easygoing female friends or childhood buddies. Late-night snacks with bonded male friends or family. But sharing breakfast is usually a privilege reserved for families. Opportunities to have breakfast with others are rare. But in Guangzhou, where I live, it's different. Among young people steeped in Cantonese dim sum culture, weekend morning dim sum invitations are starting to become a bit of a trend.

Businesspeople, who are said to "never get up early unless there's money to be made," form the main clientele for weekday morning dim sum. The young people are the new weekend customers. They go for morning dim sum with family or invite friends of the opposite sex, seeking relaxation or a way to pass the time. It's a moment of respite carved out of hectic daily life. Here, you can sit around a table with close friends, engage in aimless chatter, and forget the rush of everyday life. Sunlight filters through the tea sets and your fingers. Your own time passes slowly.
In modern Chinese society, restlessness is a societal ailment. Everyone fears falling behind and pushes forward relentlessly. This rush to get ahead trivializes thought and robs us of imagination. Yet thought and imagination are precisely the most vital elements for maintaining human creativity.
An old saying goes: "Leisure breeds art; daily life breeds creativity." Young people, stepping into an endless competitive society and placed in an environment where anxiety runs rampant, invite each other to come to quiet, charming teahouses.

A cup of tea, steamed shrimp dumplings, char siu buns, rice noodle rolls (a rice flour dim sum), custard buns. For extra orders, pineapple buns (resembling Japanese melon bread in shape) or durian pastries. Watching them leisurely savor dim sum and enjoy their morning moments, I can't help but think: Morning dim sum teaches the difference between merely making a living and truly enjoying life. It nurtures a positive sense within young people, generating creativity for the future.
The young people themselves might be indifferent to a society that praises and panders to their desire to live authentically. Authenticity isn't something you have to search for; it's something you're born with. They just want to send a message to their friends on WeChat (China's version of LINE) early on a weekend morning: "Hey, wanna go for morning dim sum?"

 

(Supervised by: Dentsu Inc. Aegis Network Business Bureau)