January 24, 2025
BEIJING – Qu Dajun, a famous scholar of the late Ming (1368-1644) and early Qing (1644-1911) dynasties once wrote that before Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, “the sound of families in Guangzhou making cakes and pounding clothes is alike, and it rings out clearly in the air”.
This traditional scene, once common across Guangdong province, remains today in the Liwan district of Guangzhou where Xie Yingchun and her family continue to honor a culinary ritual that stretches back generations.
As a child, Xie would join her mother and grandmother to prepare a medley of Chinese New Year snacks — oil dumplings, fried cakes and sugar rings. The kitchen, a hive of activity, was filled with laughter and chatter, creating a vibrant, communal atmosphere. “Back then, whenever someone in the family made holiday snacks, everyone would pitch in to help,” Xie recalls.
Now 52, Xie is passing the tradition down to her children, particularly her eldest daughter. Each year, after performing a sacrificial ritual to the zao shen (kitchen god) at the stove in the 12th month of the Chinese calendar, the family begins the labor-intensive task of frying oil dumplings shaped like gold ingots.
As the oil sizzles, they chant auspicious phrases — “Oil dumplings bending, family wealth in abundance” and “Fried cakes rolling, gold and silver filling the house” — hoping to usher in prosperity and good fortune for the upcoming year.
Yet, this once-ubiquitous tradition is slowly fading. Many in Guangzhou no longer prepare these iconic holiday treats at home. Xie has run a popular cake shop chain in Liwan for more than two decades and every December it begins preparations for Spring Festival. Ensuring that neighbors and customers can experience the familiar seasonal tastes is her mission.
Crafting Xiguan gift cakes, a signature delicacy in the region, requires precision. Using flour, lard and syrup, the dough is painstakingly shaped, filled and baked — an intricate process passed down through generations. As an inheritor of this intangible cultural heritage, Xie began learning the art from her grandmother before she was 7, a legacy she continues to uphold.
In the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, gift cakes are an essential part of celebratory customs, given to friends and family during holidays, weddings and birthdays. The Xiguan variety, famous for its craftsmanship and distinct flavor, is especially prized.
During Spring Festival, the must-have treats of Guangzhou — oil dumplings, fried cakes and egg crisps — are more than representative of Xiguan gift cakes. They are symbols of luck, prosperity and the enduring ties of family, offering a taste of tradition and hope for the future.
Guangzhou folk expert Rao Yuansheng explains that fried cakes symbolize wealth and prosperity. Made from corn, sesame and peanuts, they also reflect hope for a bountiful harvest, especially during difficult times when food scarcity was a concern.
Rao also discusses oil dumplings, which have two meanings. Their pouch-like shape symbolizes prosperity, while another interpretation links them to ancestor worship. Originally a northern tradition, migrants brought the custom of making dumplings for the Chinese New Year to Guangdong, adapting it with oil as a local twist.
Spring Festival is China’s most important traditional holiday. It serves as an invisible thread connecting people from all corners of the country to their hometowns, who head home for family reunions.
Central to this reunion are foods that carry memories and blessings, each region offering its own unique “food story”. These foods are more than just holiday staples; they are a living expression of Chinese culture.
Whether it’s Guangzhou’s Poon Choi (“basin feast” containing up to 20 luxury ingredients served in a big wooden bowl or clay pot, originally served in a washbasin) or Northeast China’s fried pork in a scoop, each dish tells a story of tradition, family and the universal longing for reunion and happiness.
Xiao Fang, professor and director of the department of anthropology and folklore at the School of Sociology, Beijing Normal University, notes that the culinary traditions of Spring Festival are an integral part of China’s intangible cultural heritage.
“New Year foods are among the most eagerly anticipated parts of the holiday,” he says. “These regional dishes reflect the wisdom, emotions and values of the people, showcasing the diversity of Chinese culture from north to south.”
Chang Longshan, head chef of Zhiguan Courtyard, a Michelin-star restaurant in Beijing specializing in northeastern Chinese cuisine, hails from Benxi, Liaoning province.
Chang’s most vivid memories of Spring Festival foods are the hearty noodle-based snacks like sticky fried cake and fried noodle fish that evoke the flavors of his hometown.
“In the south, people make crispy pastries for the Chinese New Year; in the northeast, we also have the tradition to make crispy foods, but in a different way,” Chang, 47, says.
Fried cakes are popular in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. PHOTO: CHINA DAILY
His version of crispy foods is simpler than Southern varieties: Dough is mixed with hot oil before frying, creating a crunchier texture. Among his favorite dishes is fried noodle fish, made from cornmeal and flour fried in hot oil. “We shape the dough into thumb-width strips and fry them. The shape resembles small fish found in our rivers, so we call it noodle fish,” he says. “It symbolizes prosperity and abundance.”
Chang also highlights the tradition of sticky fried cake, a glutinous rice treat filled with red sugar or red bean paste and pan-fried. Unlike other northeastern regions where similar treats are steamed, his hometown prefers to pan-fry them. “Making sticky fried cake at Chinese New Year symbolizes health and good fortune. In winter, families make and share this dish, bringing people closer together,” Chang notes.
Chang’s culinary roots also trace back to his family’s tradition of making saqima, a Manchu snack. “My great-grandfather was a chef. I grew up eating his food,” he recalls.
At Zhiguan Courtyard, Chang offers this Manchu snack on the menu, alongside a selection of classic northeastern dishes for this year’s Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner.
“Northeast China offers both mountain delicacies and seafood. We aim to showcase the finest ingredients from Northeast China to our guests this Spring Festival,” he adds.
In Hengyang, Hunan province, two dishes are indispensable on the Chinese New Year’s Eve table — Tutouwan (a layered savory dish) and stir-fried pork with chili. Gu Qinghai, 44, product development manager for the Chef Fei (Feidachu stir-fried pork with chili) restaurant chain, recalls that these dishes were once only enjoyed during the holidays.
After more than 20 years in the culinary industry, Gu notes that stir-fried pork with chili is available every day in over 160 Chef Fei’s locations nationwide. However, each time he eats it, he is reminded of his hometown and the memories of Spring Festival celebrations.
“Hengyang is famous for its stir-fry dishes and stir-fried pork with chili is one of our signatures. I hope it becomes widely recognized,” Gu says.
Unlike the pork dish, Tutouwan is still welcomed within Hengyang. For Gu, it’s a dish his mother would make exclusively for the Spring Festival holiday. “It’s a complex dish with many layers of ingredients, including fish balls made from grass carp, symbolizing abundance and prosperity,” he explains.
Tutouwan is believed to have over a century of history, with its origins traced back to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) general Peng Yulin, whose hometown was Hengyang. Legend has it that the dish was created by a family chef from Hengyang, who first served it to Peng when he invited an important guest to dinner.
The dish is crafted from ingredients like sweet potato balls, egg strips and red dates, all layered into a bowl. The seven layers form a delicate tower, symbolizing progress, wealth and family unity. Its preparation involves many techniques, including steaming, boiling and frying, along with intricate steps like kneading and mixing.
Locals believe a Chinese New Year feast isn’t complete without the dish. It is traditionally the first dish served at any banquet, symbolizing the importance of the meal and ushering in a year of fortune and family togetherness.
In the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region of the two provinces, the first hint of Spring Festival flavors often emerges from the rich aroma of marinated delicacies. From the rafters of old homes to drying racks in alleyways, rows of marinated duck, dried fish and cured meats create a striking, fragrant scene.
He Xiaohua, 33, head chef of the Shan Ju Man Long chain, which has branches in Beijing and Shanghai, grew up in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. For him, the flavors of Spring Festival are closely tied to cured meats, such as bacon and marinated duck.
As winter sets in, families hang their homemade cured delicacies on balconies to air-dry. When it’s time to eat, the meats are brought inside and sliced.
“Unlike northern China, where meats are cooked before marinating, we marinate ingredients raw and then dry them outdoors in Hangzhou,” He explains. “Before refrigerators, this method helped preserve food. It’s a tradition that has endured.”
In Chinese culinary culture, sauces serve as a seasoning and a method of preserving. In the humid climate of the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, marinating and drying foods in sauces are key techniques for preserving flavors, reflecting the region’s culinary expertise.
This Spring Festival, He prepared a gift box with his own marinated dishes, including sausages and duck, each crafted with carefully blended sauces and dried to perfection.
“My mother relied on years of experience to perfect these recipes, but I’ve fine-tuned the proportions to ensure consistency,” He says.