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The Bei Fong Mansion - Layout
Ever wondered how Toph managed to sneak out at night without her parents noticing?
The layout of the Bei Fong mansion follows the Siheyuan i.e. the traditional Chinese courtyard house.Take a look at the other layouts. Siheyuan come in all sizes —according to the owners’ wealth and status— the basic layout stays the same, it just gets multiplied if the place gets bigger and additional parts get added if there’s more family or money.
The siheyuan dates back as early as the Western Zhou period, and has a history of over 2,000 years.They exhibit outstanding and fundamental characteristics of Chinese architecture. They exist all across China and are the template for most Chinese architectural styles. The layout of a simple courtyard represents traditional Chinese morality and Confucian ethics. In Beijing, four buildings in a single courtyard receive different amounts of sunlight. The northern main building receives the most, thus serving as the living room and bedroom of the owner or head of the family. The eastern and western side buildings receive less, and serve as the rooms for children or less important members of the family. The southern building receives the least sunlight, and usually functions as a reception room and the servants’ dwelling, or where the family would gather to relax, eat or study. The backside building is for unmarried daughters and female servants: because unmarried girls were not allowed direct exposure to the public, they occupied the most secluded building in the siheyuan.
What does that mean for Toph and her family?
Take a look at the layout of their house(ses) and garden. Her parents live in the biggest house in back (since there seem to be no older/higher ranking members of the Bei Fongs present or living there). Toph herself would not live in the same house with them but in the smaller one next to it.
Ever wondered how she was able to sneak out? Much easier to do when you do not sleep next to your parent’s or your nanny’s bedroom.
The house at the garden gate is for receptions and potentially also where dinner was served.
Aang, Katara and Sokka most likely got given a room in one of the houses on the left or right.
Dinner at the Bei Fongs: Honey, who the f*ck invited the Avatar?
The Bei Fongs are making it very clear how NOT welcome Aang and his friends are.
For one, the food seems to be terrible. Sokka is not eating the meat. … … Sokka - Mr meat and sarcasm - is eating plain rice, while there are untouched dishes of shrimp, pork, fish and cakes on the table. Those have to be pretty damn bad for Sokka, of all people, to not want to eat them considering that he ate the unfried festival food dough.
Note, also, how there are barely any dishes that do not contain meat. Avatar Aang is the guest of honor. Wouldn’t you make sure that there’s plenty of vegetarian dishes there, unless you are actively trying to insult him?
Those small cups in front of Mrs Bei Fong and Xin Fu are for bai jiu, a kind of hard liquor. Just for reference, while it may look like sake or soju, it has nothing in common with either, and you’d be doing those drinks an injustice comparing them to baijiu :P The wiki has a most apt description of what most people think baijiu tastes like.
Toph, and later Aang, being served soup means that the dinner is almost over.
The order of courses in a Chinese banquet is as follows:
- Appetizer / starter: Chinese starters are normally cold dishes.
- Dishes: In Chinese food culture, many dishes can be ordered if a group of people sit around one table.
- Soup Chinese soup are served after main dishes.
- Fruits The most typical dessert in Chinese dinner are fruits.
Image source: One
