Auspicious apples

We have been in Singapore for a little over a week now and the time so far has been, rather predictably, filled with visits and gatherings with family and friends. And lots of food, of course. I will get on to the food in another post. For now, I just want to highlight some funky apples that I saw at my aunt's house during the first day of Chinese new year.



When visiting family and friends during Chinese new year, one must greet each other with auspicious sayings such as 'xin nian kuai le' (happy new year), 'gong xi fa cai' (blessings of wealth and prosperity), and 'shen ti jian kang' (may you have good health). Such phrases are also placed on the walls in the form scrolls and other new year decorations. This is the first time that I have seen it on apples!

Reading from the top right in a clockwise manner, the words on the apples read 'zhao cai jin bao' (welcoming wealth and prosperity) (You might have noticed that the Chinese is rather obsessed with wealth and fortune...).



No one was quite sure how the words were created on the surface of the apples, not even my aunt who bought them. My guess would be that paper cut outs of the Chinese characters were pasted on the apples just before they ripen, so that when the apples turn red, the parts covered by the cut outs would remain yellow/green. What do you think?