Spring FestivalSpring Festival Cuisine

• Category: Grain-based staple
• Popular Regions: Primarily northern China, now widespread nationwide
• Main Ingredients: Wheat flour; fillings such as pork, mutton, chives, Chinese cabbage, celery and others
• Alternative Names: shuijiao (水饺), bianshi (扁食), zhu bobo (煮饽饽), jiao’er (角儿), jiao’er (娇耳), shuidianxin (水点心)

Dumplings have an extremely long history. In 1978, archaeologists excavating the ancient city site of the State of Xue in Tengzhou, Shandong, discovered neatly arranged triangular foods inside a bronze fu vessel from the tomb of a ruler of Xue dating to approximately 2,500 years ago. They closely resembled boiled dumplings, measured around five to six centimeters along the longest side, and contained crumb-like filling material. These are currently regarded as the earliest known physical remains resembling dumplings and suggest that dumplings may very possibly have originated in Shandong.

One of the earliest literary references associated with dumplings comes from Yan Zhitui, a writer of the Northern and Southern Dynasties: “The wontons of today are shaped like a reclining crescent and are eaten throughout the realm.” According to his description, these crescent-shaped wontons were essentially dumplings. In southwestern China during the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms periods, dumplings were already a popular table food. The Sichuan Museum holds a kitchen figurine excavated from a cliff tomb at Tujing in Zhongxian, Chongqing, dating from the Eastern Han to the Three Kingdoms period, on whose cutting board a dumpling can be clearly identified. More than ten kitchen figurines featuring dumplings have been found in Chongqing alone. Well-preserved Tang-dynasty dumplings have also been excavated from Astana tombs in Turpan, Xinjiang, nearly identical in size and shape to modern dumplings.

According to historians, dumplings were called “water pastries” (水点心) or “bianshi” (扁食) in the Ming imperial court, where there was also a custom of hiding silver money inside them as an auspicious sign for the New Year. By the Qing dynasty, eating dumplings during the Spring Festival had become widespread. The Qing work Yanjing Suishiji (《燕京岁时记》) records that on the first day of the year, “regardless of rich or poor, noble or lowly, everyone makes jiao from white flour and eats them, calling them zhu bobo. The entire country does so without exception.”

In folk custom, because the old and new years meet at midnight during the zi hour, families eat dumplings at the moment New Year’s Eve passes into New Year’s Day, corresponding to the expression “gengsui jiaozi” (更岁交子) and symbolizing farewell to the old and welcome to the new. Their shape resembles ancient yuanbao ingots, so eating dumplings during the Spring Festival also carries the meaning of “attracting wealth and bringing in treasure.”

Traditionally, three kinds of dumpling filling were often prepared for the Spring Festival: meat filling for eating at night, vegetarian filling for offerings to the gods, and “year-testing dumplings” containing peanuts, red dates and other ingredients to be eaten on the morning of the first day. Dumplings were generally prepared before midnight on New Year’s Eve and then eaten at the zi hour.

In old Beijing, the “dumplings for receiving the gods” on New Year’s Eve were supposed to be vegetarian and were eaten at daybreak on the first day of the first lunar month, symbolizing a year of vegetarian abstinence. In old Tianjin, people ate vegetarian dumplings at New Year so that the coming year would be peaceful, clean, and free of trouble. In many parts of Shandong, vegetarian dumplings were used in offerings to ancestors and to deities such as the gods of Heaven, Earth and the Kitchen. Around Qufu, dumplings eaten on the first day were usually vegetarian, also drawing on the idea of “quiet purity.” Dumplings offered in ritual sacrifice were generally vegetarian, relatively small, and shaped like yuanbao.

The “Breaking the Fifth Dumplings” of the fifth day of the first lunar month are another important part of Spring Festival dumpling custom. In old Beijing, people pinched bianshi on this day, colloquially called “pinching the break,” meaning to close up what had been broken, symbolizing a life without gaps or deficiencies, peaceful and prosperous. Jilin, Liaoning and other parts of the northeast also had the custom of “pinching the break,” interpreted as filling the “holes” of the previous year, repaying shortages and hoping for a good harvest in the year ahead. In parts of Hebei, dumplings were said to fill “poverty holes.” Around Tianjin, making dumplings on the fifth day was called “pinching petty people,” while chopping the filling was called “chopping petty people,” meaning that troublesome people would be prevented from speaking ill.

Other regions have their own distinctive dumpling customs. In some northeastern areas, people formerly ate dumplings on the second day of the first lunar month to worship the God of Wealth and bid farewell to the gods and ancestors who had returned home for the New Year, hence the expression “dumplings for seeing off the gods.” Around Huangling in Shaanxi, every household eats dumplings on Renri, the seventh day of the first lunar month. In Shanghai, people traditionally eat wontons during the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day; folk belief holds that doing so brings blessings and wealth, and they are known as “Caiting Wontons.” In Liaoning, boiled dumplings eaten together by the whole family in the morning are called “yuanbao soup,” while in Heilongjiang they are often described as “tucking in yuanbao.”

Spring Festival dumpling fillings are chosen with great care, and different fillings carry different auspicious meanings:

• Celery filling — associated with “diligent wealth” (勤财), symbolizing becoming prosperous through hard work
• Chive filling — associated with “lasting wealth” (久财), symbolizing long-lasting fortune
• Chinese cabbage filling — associated with “hundredfold wealth” (百财), symbolizing wealth in many forms
• Shiitake mushroom filling — associated with “swelling wealth” (鼓财), symbolizing a bulging purse
• Pickled cabbage filling — associated with “calculating wealth” (算财), symbolizing skill in managing money
• Fish filling — associated with “surplus wealth” (余财), expressing surplus year after year
• Red-date filling — associated with “attracting wealth” (招财), symbolizing bringing in wealth and treasure
• Beef filling — associated with “niu wealth” (牛财)
• Mutton filling — associated with “foreign / expansive wealth” (洋财)

In addition, many regions place coins, red dates, peanuts, chestnuts and other items inside dumplings. Finding a coin predicts strong financial fortune, finding a red date symbolizes a sweet life, and finding a peanut predicts health and longevity.

Although dumplings originated in the north, they are now eaten throughout China. Northern dumplings commonly use fillings such as pork and Chinese cabbage, pork and chives, or mutton and carrot. They are generally larger, with slightly thicker wrappers. Southern dumplings, such as Cantonese shrimp dumplings or Shanghai potstickers, tend to have thinner wrappers, more refined fillings, and smaller forms. Northeastern pickled-cabbage dumplings, Shandong Spanish-mackerel dumplings, and Sichuan red-oil dumplings each display strong regional characteristics.

• Ingredients: 500 g all-purpose flour, about 250 g water; filling of 300 g minced pork, Chinese cabbage or chives as needed, minced scallion and ginger, light soy sauce, salt, sesame oil
• Steps:

1. Make the dough: Add water to the flour gradually and knead into a smooth dough. Rest for 30 minutes.
2. Prepare the filling: Mix the minced meat with seasonings until sticky and elastic, then add chopped vegetables and combine.
3. Roll the wrappers: Roll the dough into a long cylinder, cut into small pieces and roll into round wrappers thicker in the center and thinner at the edges.
4. Wrap: Place filling on each wrapper, fold in half and pinch closed; decorative pleats may be added.
5. Boil: Add dumplings once the water boils. Cook until they float and the wrappers become translucent, then remove.

Tip: A small amount of salt added to the dough increases elasticity. Use plenty of boiling water and add cold water three times during cooking; once the dumplings rise to the surface, they are done.

• Category: Grain-based pastry
• Popular Regions: Primarily southern China, though also found in the north
• Main Ingredients: Glutinous-rice flour or non-glutinous rice flour, red dates, red bean paste, osmanthus and others
• Alternative Names: nianniangao (粘粘糕), nianniangao (年年糕)

The prototype of niangao can be found in the er (饵) recorded in the Western Zhou Zhou Li (《周礼》), while the Han work Fangyan (《方言》) used the term gao (糕). The Northern Wei agricultural text Qimin Yaoshu (《齐民要术》) gives a detailed account of techniques for making cakes from glutinous rice. The sixth-century recipe text Shici (《食次》) records the preparation of baijian tang (白茧糖). Foods resembling niangao already existed in the state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods.

According to legend, niangao became established around Suzhou and spread as a way of commemorating Wu Zixu (伍子胥). When Wu Zixu was building the city walls of Suzhou, he is said to have steamed glutinous rice, pressed it into brick-shaped blocks and buried them beneath the walls. Later, when Suzhou was besieged, the people dug up these “rice bricks” and survived the crisis. From then on, the custom of eating niangao during the New Year arose. Suzhou residents subsequently made brick-shaped rice cakes every New Year in memory of Wu Zixu.

The word gao (糕, “cake”) sounds like gao (高, “high”), conveying the wish that each year will surpass the last and that the harvest will be abundant. Niangao traditionally appears in red, yellow and white, symbolizing gold and silver. The Ming writer Liu Tong recorded in Dijing Jingwulüe (《帝京景物略》): “On the first morning of the first lunar month, rise early, wash, and eat millet cake, calling it nianniangao.” The term niangao first appears in the Ming Gusu Zhi (《姑苏志》). Its sticky texture also symbolizes family unity and harmony, with the family sticking closely together like niangao.

The core symbolism of niangao is “higher year after year.” The sound of gao (糕) echoes gao (高, “high”), expressing the wish that each year will surpass the last and that the harvest will be abundant. Its sticky quality also represents family unity and harmony, with relatives clinging closely together like niangao. In old Wenzhou, the first dish placed at the center of the New Year’s Eve table was always stir-fried niangao, symbolizing “higher year after year.”

China has a great variety of niangao. Shandong red-date niangao is sweet, sticky and rich in date fragrance; Fujian taro niangao is soft, glutinous and sweet; Ningbo water-milled niangao is jade-white, supple and smooth; Suzhou osmanthus sugar niangao is soft, sticky, sweet and intensely fragrant; Beijing mixed-fruit niangao is elastic and pleasantly fruity. In addition, farmers north of the Great Wall make golden yellow-millet niangao, while ethnic communities in southwestern China have their own distinctive ciba.

Yiyang niangao in Jiangxi uses the technique of “three steamings and two hundred poundings.” It began to be produced in the Tang dynasty and is now a National Geographical Indication product. Mengzi niangao in Yunnan has a history of more than 300 years, using brown sugar and rose or ham and sesame, and is shaped like a half-spherical bowl; it is recognized as a provincial-level intangible cultural heritage item. Ningbo water-milled niangao is made from japonica rice through nine production stages. Hainan brown-sugar niangao incorporates newer ingredients such as coconut milk and pandan juice. In some parts of Hunan, niangao is eaten as the first meal of the Spring Festival, meaning “each year better than the last.” In rural Wenzhou, Zhejiang, making brown-sugar niangao for the New Year expresses hopes for a sweet future and steady advancement.

Niangao is usually made primarily from glutinous rice. Traditional Chinese medicine considers glutinous rice sweet in flavor and warm in nature, with the function of replenishing the center and strengthening qi.

• Ingredients: 300 g glutinous-rice flour, 150 g brown sugar, 250 ml water, red dates as needed
• Steps:

1. Dissolve the brown sugar in warm water and let cool.
2. Gradually add the brown-sugar water to the glutinous-rice flour, mixing into a thick batter.
3. Oil the inside of a mold, pour in the batter, and arrange red dates on the surface.
4. Once the steamer is producing steam, steam over high heat for 40–50 minutes.
5. Remove, cool completely, unmold and slice. It may be reheated by steaming or pan-fried.

Tip: Niangao should cool completely before slicing or it will easily stick. Slices may be dipped in beaten egg and fried until golden on both sides for a crisp exterior and soft interior.

• Category: Meat dish
• Popular Regions: Nationwide
• Main Ingredients: Carp, silver carp, crucian carp, mandarin fish, yellow croaker and others
• Alternative Name: “Surplus Year After Year” (年年有余)

From ancient times to the present, fish has been inseparably associated with the Spring Festival. Folk tradition holds that “a banquet is not complete without fish.” Because fish (鱼, yu) sounds like surplus (余, yu), it expresses the wish for “surplus year after year.” The custom of this symbolism is said here to have originated in the Eastern Jin. During the New Year’s Eve dinner, the fish dish should not be completely eaten, ensuring that there is surplus year after year.

The fish served on New Year’s Eve is expected to be a whole fish and is usually brought to the table last. “Fish year after year” not only represents material abundance but is also said to symbolize subduing demons and expelling evil spirits: on the table it attracts wealth; beyond the table it suppresses malign forces. If a household had no fish, even the extremely poor were said to find a way to make a wooden fish resembling a carp, place it in the center of the table, and pour glossy sauce over it in the hope of achieving “surplus year after year.”

Modern practice has adapted the custom: the fish may be eaten, but only the middle portion, leaving the head and tail until New Year’s Day to express “having a beginning and an end.” In some places, the New Year fish is kept until the third day of the first lunar month, implying that “the longer it remains, the wealthier one becomes.”

Different species carry different auspicious meanings:

• Carp (鲤鱼) — li (鲤) echoes li (利, “profit”), expressing great advantage and abundant gain, and also evokes “the carp leaping over the Dragon Gate”
• Silver carp (鲢鱼) — lian (鲢) echoes lian (连, “continuous”), expressing continuous surplus year after year
• Crucian carp (鲫鱼) — ji (鲫) echoes ji (吉, “auspicious”), expressing auspicious surplus
• Mandarin fish (鳜鱼) — gui (鳜) echoes gui (贵, “noble / valuable”), expressing wealth and honor with surplus
• Yellow croaker (黄花鱼) — in old Fuzhou, people removed its otoliths, wrapped them in red paper and placed them in red envelopes, symbolizing “real gold and silver growing legs and running into one’s home.”

New Year’s Eve fish dishes differ across China. Suzhou in Jiangsu is known for Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish, an essential banquet dish; Zhejiang combines yellow croaker with niangao, joining the wishes for “surplus year after year” and “higher year after year”; Henan serves Yellow River carp as a substantial New Year’s Eve centerpiece; Heilongjiang has Demoli stewed fish, Liaoning has sauced datoubao, and the Hezhen people have whole-fish banquets.

In Sichuan, people eating red-braised fish observe an old custom: only half of the fish is eaten when it is served, and the remainder is kept until New Year’s Day. The fish head faces the elders as a sign of respect, while the meat is shared among the whole family to symbolize family reunion.

• Ingredients: 1 sea bass, about 500 g; shredded ginger, shredded scallion, 2 tablespoons steamed-fish soy sauce, cooking oil
• Steps:

1. Clean the fish, make several cuts on both sides, rub with a little salt and cooking wine, and marinate for 10 minutes.
2. Place ginger slices beneath the fish and shredded ginger on top. Once the steamer is producing steam, steam for 8–10 minutes.
3. Remove, pour away the liquid in the plate, top with shredded scallion and drizzle with steamed-fish soy sauce.
4. Heat cooking oil until hot and pour over the scallions.

Tip: Do not steam the fish too long, so the flesh remains tender. A New Year’s Eve fish should retain both head and tail, symbolizing “a beginning and an end.”

• Category: Grain-based pastry
• Popular Regions: Nationwide; called tangyuan in southern China and yuanxiao in northern China
• Main Ingredients: Glutinous-rice flour and fillings such as sesame, peanuts, red bean paste and fresh meat
• Alternative Names: fuyuanzi (浮圆子), yuanzi (元子), yuanzi (圆子), tangtuan (汤团), tuanzi (团子)

The earliest records of eating yuanxiao during the Lantern Festival date to the Song dynasty. At the time they were called fuyuanzi (浮圆子), yuanzi (圆子), rutang yuanzi (乳糖元子) and tangyuan (糖元). The earliest tangyuan are said here to have originated in Mingzhou, present-day Ningbo in Zhejiang. A filling of white sugar, black sesame and lard was wrapped in water-milled glutinous-rice dough and boiled. Because the balls first sank and then floated to the surface, resembling a bright moon hanging in the clouds, they were also known as fuyuanzi (浮元子).

The Southern Song writer Zhou Bida wrote in his poem Cooking Fuyuanzi at the Lantern Festival: “What night is tonight? Everything is united in reunion.” He was among the earliest to connect this food with the theme of reunion. By the Ming dynasty, the name “yuanxiao” gradually replaced “fuyuanzi.” Liu Ruoyu’s Zhuozhong Zhi records: “The method uses fine glutinous-rice flour, with walnuts, white sugar and rose as filling. Sprinkle with water and roll until the size of a walnut; this is what Jiangnan calls tangyuan.” This shows that by the Ming dynasty the pattern of northern rolled yuanxiao and southern wrapped tangyuan had already formed.

In the early Republican period, after Yuan Shikai became the Hongxian Emperor, he reportedly became deeply alarmed because yuanxiao (元宵) sounded like Yuan xiao (袁消, “Yuan disappears”) and ordered the term changed to tangyuan before the Lantern Festival of 1913. The prohibition disappeared with Yuan Shikai’s fall from power.

The most obvious difference lies in production technique:

• Northern yuanxiao use the “rolling method”, or “shaking method.” Pieces of filling are dipped in water and repeatedly shaken in a container filled with glutinous-rice flour, growing larger like snowballs. Yuanxiao have a grainier outer surface and, once cooked, a distinctive firm and somewhat crisp texture with considerable chew.
• Southern tangyuan use the “wrapping method.” Glutinous-rice flour is mixed with water into dough, flattened, wrapped around filling, and rolled into balls. Tangyuan have a smooth, sticky exterior and a softer, more delicate texture.

Yuanxiao fillings are mostly sweet, especially black sesame, five-nut mixture and red bean paste. Tangyuan fillings are much more diverse, ranging across sweet, savory, meat-based and vegetarian varieties.

In terms of when they are eaten, northerners mainly eat yuanxiao on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, while in southern China tangyuan may first be eaten on the morning of New Year’s Day. In Sichuan, tangyuan are eaten for breakfast on the first day of the year and are called “yuanbao”; eating them is described as “obtaining yuanbao.” In Yangzhou, people eat Four-Happiness Tangyuan on the first day of the New Year, symbolizing that everything goes as wished and the whole family reunites.

The central meaning of tangyuan and yuanxiao is “reunion.” The sounds of tangyuan (汤圆) and tuanyuan (团圆, “reunion”) are similar, symbolizing harmonious reunion and complete happiness. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, there is a bright moon in the sky, tangyuan in the bowl, and families reunited in their homes. “Roundness” therefore connects the full moon in the sky, tangyuan in the bowl, and family reunion.

Tangyuan vary greatly by region. Ningbo’s black-sesame-and-lard tangyuan have molten filling that bursts out in one bite; Shanghai has fresh-pork tangyuan, shepherd’s-purse-and-pork tangyuan and small fermented-rice dumplings; Chaoshan Yamunian (鸭母捻) are known for four fillings—mung bean, red bean paste, taro paste and sesame sugar; Sichuan’s Lai tangyuan mainly use sesame filling and have thin wrappers with generous filling; Bijie in Guizhou has tangyuan with chicken fat and hemp-seed filling; Guangdong’s flowing custard filling and Yunnan’s fresh-flower filling also have devoted followings.

• Category: Grain-based pastry
• Popular Regions: Nationwide
• Main Ingredients: Wheat flour, spring-roll wrappers, vegetables, meat
• Alternative Names: Spring pancakes, spring platter, Five-Pungent Platter, thin pancakes

The prototype of the spring roll was the Five-Pungent Platter (五辛盘), which first appeared in the Western Jin. Zhou Chu of the Jin wrote in Fengtu Ji (《风土记》): “On New Year’s Day, prepare the Five-Pungent Platter.” The platter contained five pungent vegetables: small garlic, garlic, chives, rapeseed greens and coriander. These were eaten in spring to stimulate the qi of the five internal organs. The word xin (辛) carried both the meanings of “welcoming the new” and “pungent.” Eating stimulating foods to welcome the New Year expressed the idea of spring qi bursting forth. Zong Lin’s Liang-dynasty Jingchu Suishiji likewise records: “On the first day of the first lunar month… offer Tusu wine and sticky malt candy; then bring down the Five-Pungent Platter.”

By the Tang dynasty, the spring platter had developed into a combination of spring pancakes and fresh vegetables, as reflected in Du Fu’s line “On a spring day, the spring platter holds finely cut fresh greens.” Spring rolls appeared in the Northern Song. Farmers praying for a prosperous silkworm harvest in the new year made flour wrappers at the Beginning of Spring, filled them with jun filling, shaped them like silkworm cocoons and pan-fried them, calling them “Tanchun Eggs.” By the Southern Song, they had developed into a local snack in the capital Lin’an, present-day Hangzhou. Wu Zimu’s Mengliang Lu mentions both “thin-skin spring rolls” and “mother-and-child spring rolls.” The term “spring roll” began to appear in the Yuan dynasty. By the Qing, the spring-welcoming custom became even more widespread, and Pan Rongbi’s Dijing Suishi Jisheng records the custom of “biting spring.”

Spring rolls resemble gold bars and are therefore regarded as symbols of wealth and good fortune. Their golden color after frying also carries the festive wish of “ten thousand taels of gold.”

• Northern China: Spring pancakes predominate, usually steamed or griddled thin pancakes wrapped around various stir-fried dishes
• Southern China: Spring rolls predominate, with wrappers enclosing fillings and then being fried
• Shanghai: Three-shred spring rolls, shaped like “little gold bars”
• Fujian: Spring pancakes are a representative food of the Beginning of Spring and symbolize abundant harvests

• Ingredients: 20 spring-roll wrappers, 100 g shredded pork, shredded Chinese cabbage and/or carrot, shredded mushrooms, light soy sauce, salt
• Steps:

1. Stir-fry the shredded pork and vegetables, season, and allow to cool.
2. Place filling near the lower edge of a wrapper, roll upward, fold in both sides, continue rolling and seal with flour paste.
3. Fry at medium heat when the oil reaches about 60% of full frying temperature, until golden and crisp.
4. Remove, drain and serve hot.

Tip: The filling should be fried until relatively dry, otherwise the spring rolls may burst during frying. The oil should not be excessively hot or the outside may burn before the inside is heated through.

• Category: Meat dish
• Popular Regions: Southern China
• Main Ingredients: Pork, chicken, duck, fish
• Alternative Names: Cured pork, cured sausage, sausage, cured fish

The technique of stuffing sausage has existed since ancient times. The Northern Wei Qimin Yaoshu records: “Take sheep intestines and wash them clean. Finely chop mutton. Finely cut scallion whites, then season with salt, fermented-bean juice, ginger and ground pepper until the saltiness suits the taste, and use this to fill the intestines.” After this technique entered Sichuan with migrants from Huguang, Guangdong and Fujian, it combined with Sichuan pepper and chili from Bashu to create Sichuan-style cured sausage; smoking techniques likewise took root there.

As an important New Year ingredient, cured pork symbolizes the harvest and achievements of the year just passed. Smoking and curing meat often requires participation by the whole family, from choosing the pork and salting it to smoking it, and every stage is filled with strong family feeling. The custom has been passed down from generation to generation, carrying family memory and cultural tradition.

A Sichuan cured-meat platter is a central highlight of the New Year’s Eve dinner, with sausage, cured pork, cured pig’s head and cured pig’s tail arranged in layers, glossy and red. The platter traditionally includes both pig’s head and tail, expressing the wish that “the year’s affairs have a beginning and an end, and the household remains complete and harmonious.” Eating pig’s head on New Year’s Eve means “making a good start,” while eating pig’s tail on the fourteenth day of the first lunar month symbolizes “ending as well as one began.”

Sichuan sausage is known for numbing spice and heat. Cured pork is traditionally smoked using cypress and oak branches, together with wild chrysanthemum, peanut shells and citrus peel. Cantonese cured meats are known for sweet fragrance, with cured sausage, cured pork and cured duck forming essential New Year’s Eve foods. Western Hunan cured pork is famous for its smoky flavor. Yunnan Xuanwei ham is a prized Spring Festival table delicacy.

• Ingredients: 200 g cured pork, 200 g cured sausage, garlic shoots as needed, ginger slices
• Steps:

1. Wash the cured pork and sausage in warm water, steam until cooked, then slice.
2. Heat oil in a wok, fry ginger until fragrant, then add the cured pork and sausage and stir-fry until some fat renders out.
3. Add garlic shoots and stir-fry quickly, season lightly and serve.

Tip: Cured meats are already salty, so use very little additional salt. Steaming before stir-frying gives them a softer texture.

• Category: Dessert / staple
• Popular Regions: Primarily Jiangnan
• Main Ingredients: Glutinous rice, red dates, longan, lotus seeds, candied fruits, red bean paste
• Alternative Names: Sweet rice, glutinous-rice dish

There are many legends about the origin of Eight-Treasure Rice (八宝饭). One says it was a celebratory dish after King Wu defeated King Zhou, with the “Eight Treasures” representing eight worthy ministers who assisted King Wu. Folk tradition also connects Eight-Treasure Rice with the ancient Eight Treasures motifs, namely the jade fish, harmony figures, clapper drum, stone chime, Dragon Gate, lingzhi, pine and crane—eight auspicious objects used to pray for good fortune and peace. A more plausible explanation given in the source is that Eight-Treasure Rice originated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang and later spread north when Jiangnan cooks entered the imperial kitchens.

Another legend links its origin to the victory banquet following King Wu’s campaign against King Zhou: a master cook used eight precious ingredients to prepare a dish rewarding the army, creating the prototype of Eight-Treasure Rice. It later spread among ordinary people and became an essential dish for the New Year and other festive occasions.

Every ingredient in Eight-Treasure Rice carries an auspicious meaning. Red dates symbolize flourishing prosperity; lotus seeds symbolize successive births of noble sons; longan represents reunion and wealth; kumquat symbolizes good fortune; candied winter melon symbolizes sweetness in life; and Job’s tears are said to have transformed from cranes, symbolizing longevity, elegance and purity.

Eight-Treasure Rice is generous in quantity and sweet in flavor, making it especially suitable for sharing with the whole family. It symbolizes complete reunion and resembles a “treasure basin.”

• Ingredients: 500 g glutinous rice, lard, red bean paste, red dates, longan, lotus seeds, candied fruits, white sugar
• Steps:

1. Soak glutinous rice for at least 4 hours. Steam until cooked, then mix with white sugar and lard.
2. Grease the inside of a bowl with lard. Arrange red dates, longan, lotus seeds and candied fruit at the bottom in a decorative pattern.
3. Add a layer of glutinous rice and press firmly, place red bean paste in the center, then cover with another layer of rice and flatten.
4. Once the steamer is producing steam, steam for 20 minutes. Remove and invert onto a plate.

Tip: Greasing the bowl with lard prevents sticking and adds fragrance. Running a knife around the edge before inverting helps release the rice cleanly.

• Category: Porridge
• Popular Regions: Nationwide
• Main Ingredients: Glutinous rice, red beans, mung beans, peanuts, red dates, lotus seeds, longan and others
• Alternative Names: Buddha Porridge, Seven-Treasure Five-Flavor Porridge

The earliest documentary record of Laba porridge appears in the Song writer Meng Yuanlao’s Dongjing Menghua Lu (《东京梦华录》): “The major monasteries all hold bathing-the-Buddha assemblies and distribute Seven-Treasure Five-Flavor Porridge to their disciples, calling it ‘Laba porridge.’ On this day, households throughout the capital also cook porridge with fruits and assorted ingredients and eat it.” The custom of cooking porridge on Laba probably began around the Song dynasty, flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and continues to the present.

The most influential legend explaining Laba porridge commemorates the Buddha’s attainment of enlightenment. According to the story, Shakyamuni Buddha collapsed from extreme exhaustion, and a shepherd girl cooked a porridge from the mixed grains she carried and spring water for him to eat. Buddhist disciples later cooked Laba porridge on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month and distributed it to the poor to relieve hunger and protect them from the cold, expressing great compassion. Laba porridge therefore also became known as “Buddha Porridge.” The source also traces Laba porridge to ancient bean porridge used in winter-solstice sacrifices, making it a festival food shared by both religious and secular communities.

“When Laba arrives, the fragrance of porridge fills the air.” Drinking Laba porridge on this day is a custom shared across northern and southern China. In older conceptions, the Spring Festival effectively began with Laba. Folk tradition speaks of “Laba porridge that sends the message”: once Laba arrived, merchants began issuing account notices and preparing to collect debts, reminding people that the end of the year was approaching.

• Ingredients: 50 g glutinous rice, 30 g red beans, 30 g mung beans, 30 g peanuts, 10 red dates, 20 g lotus seeds, 10 longan, rock sugar as needed
• Steps:

1. Soak beans for at least 4 hours and glutinous rice for 2 hours.
2. Put all ingredients except rock sugar into a pot and add about 1.5 liters water.
3. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat for 1.5–2 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
4. Once the porridge thickens, add rock sugar and cook until dissolved.

Tip: Ingredients may be adjusted according to personal preference, but there should be at least eight kinds. Slow cooking in a clay pot gives the best result.

• Category: Grain-based staple
• Popular Regions: Northern China, especially Shanxi, Shaanxi, Shandong and Henan
• Main Ingredients: Wheat flour, red dates, beans
• Alternative Names: mianhua (面花), ceremonial buns, huabobo (花饽饽)

According to textual research, decorative steamed buns have a history of more than 1,000 years, beginning in the Tang and Song dynasties and flourishing during the Ming and Qing. They are regarded as a treasure of ingenuity within traditional Chinese flour-based food culture. As a form of folk dough sculpture, they are especially widespread throughout the Yellow River basin.

Steaming decorative buns is an important Spring Festival custom in northern China. A folk saying states: “On the twenty-eighth, steam date flowers.” People use techniques such as kneading, pinching, rolling, cutting and pressing to shape dough into vivid forms. Combs, scissors and other tools are used to press patterns into the dough, while red beans and red dates serve as decoration.

Decorative steamed buns carry a rich range of auspicious meanings. Shapes such as gold ingots, red blessing bags and koi fish not only heighten the festive atmosphere but also express hopes for the New Year. Buns made with dates and peanuts symbolize having noble children early; pomegranate forms symbolize many children and abundant blessings; persimmons symbolize “everything going as wished”; gourds symbolize “both fortune and official emolument.”

New Year buns are generally divided into three major categories: buns for visiting relatives and entertaining guests, such as zhuiwang baozi and date mountains; ritual buns for honoring gods and ancestors, such as gujuan and xiantie; and ordinary steamed buns for the household itself.

• Date Mountain — by homophonic association, expresses early prosperity and steady advancement
• Cloth-Bag Shape — symbolizes full granaries and harvests year after year
• Treasure-Basin Shape — symbolizes wealth flowing in from all directions
• Gourd Shape — hulu echoes fortune and emolument (福禄)
• Persimmon-Tree Shape — associated by homophone with “everything goes as wished” (事事如意)
• Fish Bun — symbolizes “surplus year after year”
• Zodiac Bun — corresponds to the year’s zodiac sign and expresses wishes for peace and health
• Reunion Bun — symbolizes complete family reunion

• Shanxi: Pingyang dough sculpture, including Spring Festival date mountains and Qingming Zhitui swallow buns
• Shandong: Jiaodong decorative buns, with date buns, shengchong, yuanbao and lion-dance gift boxes popular during the Spring Festival
• Shaanxi: Guanzhong decorative buns; during the Spring Festival, flour buns shaped like stacks of wheat straw symbolize a good harvest in the coming year
• Henan: Lingbao decorative buns, with every household making characteristic forms during the Spring Festival

Snacks served to guests during the Spring Festival are varied and colorful. Before Western-style candies became common, people ate zaban’er (杂拌儿), mixtures of sweet dried fruits, sesame candies and other confections, including candied melon strips, green plums, honeyed dates, hawthorn cake, sugar-coated peanuts, sugar-coated walnuts, sesame slices and cunjin candy. In ancient times, the principal New Year candy was dragon-beard candy. These sweets were also called “yasui fruits”, and auspicious meanings were attached to the sounds of words such as ju (橘, mandarin) and li (荔, lychee).

Each Spring Festival snack has an auspicious meaning:

• Sunflower seeds — symbolize many children and abundant blessings, as well as a flourishing life. In older times, seeds also symbolized silver coins; grabbing seeds meant grabbing silver, expressing hopes for strong financial luck in the coming year
• Peanuts — also called longevity fruit, symbolizing long life, blessings, good fortune, peace and happiness. Peanuts also express hopes for early childbirth and many children; by sound association, they suggest that “good things will happen”
• Candy — symbolizes sweetness and expresses the wish that life in the New Year will be as sweet as sugar
• Pistachios — symbolize happiness and cheerfulness
• Mandarins — ju (橘) echoes ji (吉, “auspicious”), symbolizing good fortune
• Lychees — li (荔) echoes li (利, “smooth advantage / benefit”), symbolizing that things will go smoothly

• Beijing: Zaban’er mixtures of candied melon strips, green plums, honeyed dates, hawthorn cake and sugar-coated peanuts; migong; tanggua
• Tianjin: Mahua, tanggua, roasted beans
• Nationwide: Crisp candy that melts in the mouth, gold-coin chocolates, candied lotus seeds, sesame candy made from glutinous rice, sesame, sugar and peanuts

• Category: Alcoholic beverages
• Popular Regions: Historically nationwide; preserved today in some areas
• Main Ingredients: Tusu wine with medicinal ingredients such as rhubarb, atractylodes, cinnamon twig and fangfeng; Jiaobai wine with Sichuan pepper and cypress leaves

The earliest New Year wine drunk by Chinese people was pepper wine, later combined with cypress wine and generally known as Jiaobai wine (椒柏酒). Jiaobai wine is infused with cypress leaves and Sichuan pepper. Before drinking, people offered New Year blessings known as “Jiaohua Songs.” Because cypress leaves remain green late into the season and endure for a long time, people drank Jiaobai wine together on New Year’s Day to wish for longevity. It was also said that wine infused with pepper could make the body light and resistant to aging, while cypress leaves remained hardy after other plants withered; drinking Jiaobai wine therefore came to symbolize long life.

In addition to Jiaobai wine, Tusu wine (屠苏酒) was also drunk during the Spring Festival. According to legend, Tusu wine was a medicinal wine created by the famous Three Kingdoms physician Hua Tuo, who infused various ingredients including tusu herb. It was said to dispel evil influences, prevent epidemics and prolong life.

The term Tusu originally referred to a thatched hermitage. According to legend, a person once lived in a Tusu hut and, every New Year’s Eve, placed a medicine pouch in a well. On New Year’s Day, the household drew water from the well, mixed it with wine and drank together so that no one in the family would contract epidemic disease during the year. Tusu wine gradually became popular and functioned somewhat like a modern health tonic.

The Tang poet Bai Juyi wrote in a Spring Festival family-banquet poem: “After the year’s cup comes the final wine; before the spring platter comes the sticky malt candy.” Drinking wine during the Tang Spring Festival was intended as a wish for health and longevity.

A Song verse contains the line “Only when the sun is high does it reach the old man.” The idea is that Tusu wine was passed through so many descendants that the elderly person did not drink until the sun had risen high, indicating numerous descendants and a flourishing family line. Drinking Tusu wine together was a form of communal preventive medicine whose purpose was “not to fall ill with epidemic disease.”