Wang Chunhua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Wang Chunhua, Female, Han, from Zibo, Shandong, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of Zhoucunshaobing Making Craftsmanship (Ⅷ-162). The tradition is documented in Zibo, Shandong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Zhoucunshaobing Making Craftsmanship in Zibo, Shandong: Zhoucun sesame seed cake is rooted in Zhoucun, Shandong, and its name spread outward along trade routes and markets: by the mid-Ming dynasty Zhoucun was already a famous local market in Shandong, with merchants concentrated and prosperous for a time, where roasting-cake stalls stood side by side with shops of northern and southern goods, and the sesame cake was the one item on this market most able to keep. As for its spread, within Shandong it is mostly named Zhoucun sesame seed cake, while in the Northwest and North China regions it is called Zhoucun cake or old Zhoucun cake; in the late Qing, Zhoucun sesame seed cake was presented as tribute to the imperial court, and thereafter the Zhoucun cakes produced everywhere largely continued this paper-packaging style. When this craft went out the door, it took only two things with it: a paper wrapper and a single word, "roasting." Zhoucun sesame seed cake is a local specialty of Zhoucun, Shandong Province, and was presented as a tribute to the imperial court in the late Qing dynasty. In the mid-Ming dynasty, Zhoucun had already become a famous local market in Shandong, with merchants concentrated there and a period of great prosperity. After the sixth year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1880), the old "Juhezhai" sesame cake shop adopted paper packaging that caused no environmental pollution, a form that has continued to this day. In the 1950s, the old "Juhezhai" shop was merged into the Zhoucun Food Factory, which became the predecessor of today's Zhoucun Sesame Seed Cake Co., Ltd.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, Han ethnicity, born in March 1973 in Zibo, Shandong Province. She is a representative bearer of the fifth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects in Zhoucun Shaobing Making Craftsmanship. She is a technician of Zhoucun shaobing making. From her teens she worked in the workshop of Zhoucun Shaobing Co., Ltd., training hard at shaobing making under veteran masters. While mastering the traditional process she innovated boldly, developing more than ten new varieties of Zhoucun shaobing suited to market demand, which brought sound economic and social benefits. At the same time she continually combined modern management theory with the traditional craft, establishing a series of production and process management systems suited to the characteristics of Zhoucun shaobing and laying a solid foundation for its long-term development. Within the documented technical tradition of Zhoucunshaobing Making Craftsmanship in Zibo, Shandong: In the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, Zhoucun belonged to the State of Qi, with developed commerce and a profound cultural heritage. Zhoucun sesame seed cake uses simple ingredients, requiring only flour, sesame seeds, and sugar or salt to be made. It is renowned for being thin, crisp, fragrant, and brittle. "Thin" means the cake is as thin as a sheet of paper, and when picked up and folded it makes a "swish-swish" sound; "crisp" means the cake shatters at a single bite, and if dropped by accident it breaks into fragments; "fragrant" means the cake, chewed long in the mouth, never cloys, growing more fragrant the more it is chewed, with an endless aftertaste; "brittle" complements crispness, giving an excellent mouthfeel. The unique traditional manual craft, ingredient formula, stretching-and-shaping, and baking are the keys to the success or failure of Zhoucun sesame seed cake, whose core lies in a single word: "roasting." Roasting mainly depends on the skill of heat control, in the saying "three parts on the board, seven parts in the fire." Unless one is a master, the roasting skill cannot be well managed, and the cake's quality cannot be guaranteed superior. As the inheritor of a century-old brand, Zhoucun Sesame Seed Cake Co., Ltd. has carried on the Zhoucun sesame seed cake making craft and further promoted it, winning an excellent social reputation. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Flour, sesame and sweet or salty": Only flour, sesame and sugar or salt are needed; the layers come from the dough and the fire alone. "Extending the thin sheet": Extending, shaping and baking decide the cake; a properly thin sheet makes a soft brushing sound when lifted and folded. "Three parts on the board, seven parts on the fire": Baking is mostly fire: only three parts of the craft happen on the board, seven at the oven mouth. "Thin, crisp, fragrant and brittle": Thin as paper, crumbly at a bite, fragrant the longer it is chewed, and brittle — the four virtues of the cake.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

For many years she has consistently emphasized the cultivation of talent, passing her skills to young people without reservation, and has trained more than two hundred key technical staff.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Wang Chunhua · National Representative Bearer Archive