The word "chun cai" in Chaoshan refers to mustard greens. Mustard is a very common vegetable in China, but in Europe and the United States is rare to plant, while the origin of mustard is also in Asia. Mustard leaves can be salted and eaten; while the seeds and the whole plant can be used for medicinal purposes, with the phlegm, asthma, swelling and pain; at the same time, the seeds can also be powdered and called mustard, is a common seasoning; the seeds of the oil squeezed out of the oil is also known as mustard seed oil.

Mustard is mostly distributed in the provinces south of the Yangtze River in China, in addition to alpine and arid areas, there is no distribution boundary in China, east of the coastal provinces, west of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, south of Sanya, Hainan Province, north of Heilongjiang Province, Mohe City, from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plains to the Tibetan Plateau are mustard cultivation.