Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
Born in the early 20th century, the Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making craft was originally created by Liu Laoba, an artisan in Tianjin who made a living selling mahua at the time; because his shop was located on Shibajie (Eighteenth Street) in Donglou, it came to be called "Shibajie mahua."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making craft is a traditional food-making craft that blends traditional skill with innovative elements and contains multiple process steps; it originated in Hexi District, Tianjin, spread throughout Tianjin, and radiated across the country. Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua comes in many varieties, including loose mahua in flavors such as mung bean, soybean, and corn, as well as gift-box editions suited to giving as presents, and is known for being sweet, fragrant, crisp, and crunchy and for staying non-stale even after long storage. The Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making craft has the tradition of fine material selection and meticulous craft; masters with rich experience choose main ingredients such as flour, vegetable oil, and white sugar, and add a dozen-odd minor ingredients such as osmanthus, sesame kernels, green-and-red shreds, Fujian ginger, and peanut kernels; through means of hand-feeling, eye-observation, and nose-smelling, they apply traditional processes such as leaven-based fermentation, sugar-simmering to draw syrup, hot-oil scalding for crispness, and sugar-grain filling, and refine into mahua of different flavors through more than 20 key process steps including raising the leaven, simmering sugar, preparing ingredients, making the filling and dough, pressing the strips, cutting the strips, pairing the strips, twisting and shaping, and frying. During production, the size of the oil pastry must be adjusted according to the flour quality, and the amounts of leaven and alkali must be increased or decreased to suit changes in temperature, so as to ensure the input ratio. The distinctive feature of the Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making craft lies in its twisting-and-shaping process, always adhering to manual operation; each mahua is composed of several fine dough strands, with a crisp filling containing osmanthus, Fujian ginger, and other minor ingredients sandwiched between the white dough strands and the sesame dough strands, then twisted into mahua of beautiful form and bright color in different specifications and sizes. Later, through the efforts of several generations of Guifaxiang people, the mahua-making skill became ever more refined and meticulous, and "Guifaxiang" became even more famous. Tianjin has a long food culture and rich folk culture, giving birth to a rich variety of local specialties; the Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua is one of their representatives and is affectionately hailed by Tianjin's people as one of the "Three Wonders of Tianjin."
Archival Record of Process Steps
The Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making craft is a traditional food-making craft that blends traditional skill with innovative elements and contains multiple process steps; it originated in Hexi District, Tianjin, spread throughout Tianjin, and radiated across the country.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
As a local specialty of Tianjin and a classic food of the Chinese nation, the Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua traditional manual craft is integrated with regional culture, both strengthening the sense of identity with local culture and serving as a bond of cultural exchange.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship · Chuantongmianshi Making Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
This craft has been transmitted to the present through the master-apprentice method, having gone through three generations. Li Huizhong (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): male, Han ethnicity, born in December 1950, from Shanghe County, Shandong Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the traditional pasta-making craft (Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making craft), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item. Guifaxiang Shibajie mahua making technician. After being demobilized from the army in March 1971, he rooted himself at Guifaxiang; through work practice he gradually became familiar with and proficient in the craft, mastering the operational essentials of every mahua-making process step; he applied professional knowledge to improve and upgrade the mahua-making craft, promoted the upgrading of the mahua industry, and carried forward the time-honored small mahua-making craft; he led Guifaxiang's staff to carry forward this traditional craft and Chinese culinary culture through inheritance and innovation, optimized enterprise management, renewed equipment, and enriched product varieties.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Qingai 04-1907
- Li Huizhong 05-2858
- Li Jiangang 05-2859
- Jia Zhiliang
- Rexiti Yimiti
- Hatamusha Nuer
- Yu Zhenling
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。