“Adam and Eve weren’t Chinese. They would have sold the apple and eaten the snake”
A saying has it that Chinese people eat many things. This has been expressed in a riddle:
Q: How do we know that Adam and Eve were not Chinese?
A: Because they would have thrown away the apple and eaten the snake.
“A Sunday magazine article sets forth the view that Adam and Eve were Chinese—in which even, however, they would have eaten the snake instead of the apple” was printed in The Klamath News (Klamath Falls, OR) on October 1, 1930. “If Adam and Eve had been Chinese, they never would have been expelled from the garden of Eden because they would have eaten the serpent” was printed in Hartford (CT) Courant on July 15, 1981.
“They eat anything with legs except a table and anything with wings except an airplane” is another Chinese food joke.
Wikipedia: Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. It also provides the basis for the doctrines of the fall of man and original sin that are important beliefs in Christianity, although not held in Judaism or Islam.
In the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, chapters one through five, there are two creation narratives with two distinct perspectives. In the first, Adam and Eve are not named. Instead, God created humankind in God’s image and instructed them to multiply and to be stewards over everything else that God had made. In the second narrative, God fashions Adam from dust and places him in the Garden of Eden. Adam is told that he can eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Subsequently, Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs to be Adam’s companion. They are innocent and unembarrassed about their nakedness. However, a serpent deceives Eve into eating fruit from the forbidden tree, and she gives some of the fruit to Adam.
Newspapers.com
1 October 1930, The Klamath News (Klamath Falls, OR), “Slants of Wisdom” by Clark Wood, pg. 4, col. 2:
A Sunday magazine article sets forth the view that Adam and Eve were Chinese—in which even, however, they would have eaten the snake instead of the apple.
Google Books
Organic Gardening
Volume 28, Issues 5-8
1981
Pg. 135:
“There is a saying that if Adam and Eve had been Cantonese, there would be no sin in the world because they’d have left the forbidden apple and eaten the snake.”
—Ann O. Shreve
Butler, Maryland
Newspapers.com
15 July 1981, Hartford (CT) Courant, “Odd Couple: French Wine, Chinese Food” by Julie Brossy (UPI), pg. E14, cols. 1-2:
The Hungarian-born (Gyula—ed.) Cey-Bert heads the Institute of Alimentary Research in Geneva.
(...)
The French savor frogs legs, he said, adding, “If Adam and Eve had been Chinese, they never would have been expelled from the garden of Eden because they would have eaten the serpent.”
22 September 1984, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), “Adam and Eve would have eaten the snake….” by Sheri Tillman, pg. 11, col. 2:
If Adam and Eve had been Chinese, we would still be in the Garden of Eden, according to Dr Gyula Cey-Bert.
“After eating the apple,” he explains, “they would undoubtedly have gone on to eat the serpent!”
Google Books
Getting Along with the Chinese:
For Fun and Profit
By Fred Schneiter
Hong Kong: Asia 2000
1992
Pg. 96:
Going back further, it’s been suggested if Adam and Eve had been Chinese we’d still be in the Garden of Eden as they’d have eaten the snake.
9 May 1993, South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), “Best lesson in life is to ignore rules” by Gloria Wu, pg. 12, col. 6:
But then, if Adam and Eve were Chinese, they probably would have eaten the snake.
Google Groups: rec.humor
adam and eve
Yeo Eng Hee
3/2/94
Just got this from the graffiti corner in our co-op:
Q: How do you know that Adam and Eve are not Chinese ?
A: Becos’ if they are, they would have eaten the snake and sold the apple.
Google Groups: soc.culture.jewish
ADAM AND EVE!!!
Bacher
3/21/95
QUESTION:
HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT ADAM AND EVE WERE NOT CHINESE??
ANSWER:
THEY WOULD HAVE LEFT THE FRUIT AND EATEN THE SNAKE!!!!
Reddit—Showerthoughts
Posted by u/impervious_to_funk March 6, 2015
If Adam and Eve had been Chinese they would have eaten the snake
Google Books
Contemporary Religions in China
By Shawn Arthur
New York, NY: Routledge
2019
Pg. ?:
Chinese food humor
While talking about the importance of foods and their meanings, one middle-aged lady jokingly, but somewhat seriously, told me: “Likely, if Adam and Eve were Chinese, they would have eaten the snake and not the fruit!” (personal interview, 5/31/ 2013).
The Navhind Times (Goa, India)
Hot pots
December 21, 2019
Vir Sanghvi
(...)
The Chinese, on the other hand, not only eat everything that moves but they also eat every last bit of it.
This is true of all of China. In Shanghai, they will tell you that old joke.
Q: How do we know that Adam and Eve were not Chinese?
A: Because they would have thrown away the apple and eaten the snake.