Pincer movement

First we had the moon cake craze before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now, another popular food is being consumed by the tons on China's autumn dining tables - river crabs. The fact the Chinese choose autumn as the best season to eat the crustacean shows how much they care about good food, for this is the season when river crabs are ready to lay eggs, and when both males and females are at their fattest.

The Chinese use the phrase "the first to eat crab" to describe brave people who do something before anyone else. The idiom "heng xing ba dao" (to move sideways and hold the road, meaning to do things forcibly to other people) originates from the fact crabs can only move sideways, and reflects an amusing Chinese way of looking at the crustacean.

Legend has it that Da Yu, father of the 1st emperor of China's first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty (around 2100-1600 BC), was assigned by his king to control floods in the country. While they were building dams, a "human-nipping" crustacean hurt many people and became a real hindrance. A man named Ba Jie hatched the of having people dig ditches and pouring boiling hot water into them. As the crustaceans were scalded to red, Ba Jie found their meat to be particularly tasty. The fearsome crustacean became a household delicacy and the crab expression is named after the hero of the tale.