Made in Macao | Rice dumplings for all festivals

Jenny Lao-Phillips

The Eastern world has a very strong rice culture. In fact, an event I attended a few years ago opened with young representatives from various Asian countries – including Macao, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines – holding handfuls of rice to be put into a large bowl as a symbol of solidarity among all participating Asian countries. The symbolism of rice in Asian culture is strong, with almost all Asians having rice as a daily sustenance, while the Chinese culture is especially represented by rice dumplings.

Anyone living in Macao would know that almost every Chinese festival is celebrated with rice dumplings. However, the term rice dumpling has been used to refer to different types of Chinese food, all of which are made from glutinous rice and pressed into dumplings, with variances in taste, size, and origin. The more widely known kind of rice dumpling is zongzi 粽子, although it is not necessarily the most widely eaten.

As a festive food, zongzi is mostly only eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival. Zongzi is a type of rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves, usually made with savory ingredients such as pork, mushrooms and salted eggs within sticky glutinous rice. Zongzi originated from the Warring States period when the patriotic minister Qu Yuan 屈原 was believed to have committed suicide by jumping into the river in devastation at the fall of the Chu empire. To prevent the fish in the river feeding on Qu Yuan’s body, people threw zongzi into the river to feed the fish instead. Therefore, year after year, we make and eat zongzi on the day believed to be the anniversary of Qu Yuan’s death, now remembered as the Dragon Boat Festival in memory of his patriotism.

The less widely known but more widely eaten kind of rice dumpling is tangyuan 湯圓. These are small round balls of glutinous rice with sweet fillings, usually black sesame, or red bean or peanut pastes, boiled in sweet soup, and are a very important Chinese festive food. Tangyuan is eaten at different festivals, from Chinese New Year to the Mid-Autumn Festival. In fact, the main festivals celebrated by eating tangyuan is the Lantern Festival – Yuan Siu 元宵 – which falls on the 15th day of the Lunar Year to celebrate the beginning of Spring, and the Winter Solstice – Dong Zhi 冬至 – which occurred last week to celebrate the beginning of Winter. So, why is tangyuan eaten at all these festivals?

Unlike zongzi which has its own story of how it was invented, Tangyuan is a traditional Chinese snack believed to date back to the Song Dynasty when it was first recorded in Poems from Song. But some believed that as far as the Warring States period people already ate tangyuan. The reason why they are eaten on the different festivals is what they represents. Because these small dumplings are round (yuan in Chinese) and sweet, they represent Tuan Yuan 團圓 – reunion or togetherness.  So, the reason why tangyuan are eaten at different Chinese festivals is that all Chinese festivals have the element of reunion of the family or friends.

This is true no matter whether the festival is for the celebration of the new year, the coming of spring, Chinese valentine’s day, mid-autumn, or the coming of winter. Tangyuan is a delicious festive food to symbolize love and togetherness. But don’t forget that they are made from glutinous rice and sweet fillings, so beware of the calories and sugar before digging in the sweet, hot bowl of delicious rice dumplings.