<p>It is just a name, whoever named this fruit deemed it mythically good.</p>
<p>Put exaggerated words in commercial goods' names is a common practice. There's a Toronto car repairman nicknamed himself 車神 (god of cars) to brag about his godly car repairing skill, you can't take names like these literally</p>
<p>The funny thing is, just like 地瓜 (sweet potato) is not a 瓜 (melon), canistel fruit (aka. eggfruit) is not a peach. It is a fruit imported from South America. Because it looked like a peach, to tell it apart from the real peach (桃子), they gave it a catchy name 仙桃 (celestial peach).</p>
<p>canistel/eggfruit</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/U3ppc.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/U3ppc.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>peach</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/2TDmt.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/2TDmt.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>The 仙桃 (canistel/eggfruit) we referring to here is not the 仙桃 (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaches_of_Immortality" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Peaches of Immortality</a>) in Chinese myth</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-02T06:46:34.997Z
2021-07-02T06:46:34.997Z
Tang Ho
<p>Wikipedia has an entire page entitled, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaches_of_Immortality" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Peaches of Immortality</a>, where it gives an explanation to the term:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Chinese mythology, Peaches of Immortality (Chinese: 仙桃; pinyin: xiāntáo; Cantonese Yale: sīn tòuh or Chinese: 蟠桃; pinyin: pántáo; Cantonese Yale: pùhn tòuh) are consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who eat them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It then goes on to give some further details:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Peaches symbolizing immortality (or the wish for a long and healthy life) are a common symbol in Chinese art, appearing in depictions or descriptions in a number of fables, paintings, and other forms of art, often in association with thematically similar iconography, such as certain deities or immortals or other symbols of longevity, such as deer or cranes.</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-07-02T06:39:11.890Z
2021-07-02T06:39:11.890Z
Mou某
<p>I read on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_campechiana" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_campechiana</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Taiwanese also call this fruit <em>xiantao</em> (仙桃), &quot;peach of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian_(Taoism)" rel="nofollow noreferrer" title="Xian (Taoism)">immortals</a>&quot;.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Why do Taiwanese refer to canistels as peaches of the immortals?</p>

<etymology><food><taiwan>
Why do Taiwanese refer to canistels as peaches of the immortals (仙桃)?
# Why do Taiwanese refer to canistels as peaches of the immortals (仙桃)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-07-02)

I read on <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pouteria_campechiana>:

> The Taiwanese also call this fruit *xiantao* (仙桃), "peach of the [immortals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xian_(Taoism) "Xian (Taoism)")".

Why do Taiwanese refer to canistels as peaches of the immortals?

**Tags:** etymology, food, taiwan


---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-07-02. Score: 2

It is just a name, whoever named this fruit deemed it mythically good.

Put exaggerated words in commercial goods' names is a common practice. There's a Toronto car repairman nicknamed himself 車神 (god of cars) to brag about his godly car repairing skill, you can't take names like these literally

The funny thing is, just like 地瓜 (sweet potato) is not a 瓜 (melon), canistel fruit (aka. eggfruit) is not a peach. It is a fruit imported from South America. Because it looked like a peach, to tell it apart from the real peach (桃子), they gave it a catchy name 仙桃 (celestial peach).

canistel/eggfruit

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/U3ppc.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/U3ppc.png)

peach

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/2TDmt.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/2TDmt.png)

The 仙桃 (canistel/eggfruit) we referring to here is not the 仙桃 ([Peaches of Immortality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaches_of_Immortality)) in Chinese myth


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-07-02. Score: 2

Wikipedia has an entire page entitled, [Peaches of Immortality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaches_of_Immortality), where it gives an explanation to the term:

> In Chinese mythology, Peaches of Immortality (Chinese: 仙桃; pinyin: xiāntáo; Cantonese Yale: sīn tòuh or Chinese: 蟠桃; pinyin: pántáo; Cantonese Yale: pùhn tòuh) are consumed by the immortals due to their mystic virtue of conferring longevity on all who eat them.

It then goes on to give some further details:

> Peaches symbolizing immortality (or the wish for a long and healthy life) are a common symbol in Chinese art, appearing in depictions or descriptions in a number of fables, paintings, and other forms of art, often in association with thematically similar iconography, such as certain deities or immortals or other symbols of longevity, such as deer or cranes.


---

