T H E N AT I O N | F E A T U R E
The Fishy Chinese Origin of Ketchup By Joshua Cawthorpe
10 |OCTOBER 2021
F
ujian province in southeast China is famous for tea, and was one of the busiest ports for tea exports in the 19th century. The very word tea, originally te, is derived from the Fujianese dialect. Aside from the leafy beverage, Fujian is also often attributed with the invention of ketchup. The word ketchup or ke-tchup (tchup being pronounced like zhi in mandarin) is derived from the
Hokkien dialect traditionally spoken in Fujian and Taiwan. However, the Hokkien word ketchup describes a fermented fish sauce that, albeit a condiment, bears no resemblance to the tomato ketchup that is beloved around the globe today. While the name has roots in Fujian, can we really assert that the sauce is Fujianese?
