Chadian Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Fuchun Teahouse in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, was founded in the eleventh year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1885), and became renowned throughout China for its uniquely invented tea-snack making craft. In December 2006, the Fuchun Teahouse was recognized by the Ministry of Commerce as one of the first batch of "China Time-Honored Brands."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
It combines flowers, the art of tea, pastries, and dishes, allowing people to savor delicacies excellent in color, aroma, taste, and shape within a leisurely, elegant setting. The Fuchun "Kuilongzhu" tea was exclusively created by the Fuchun Teahouse. It takes the flavor of Zhejiang Longjing tea, the color of Anhui Kuizhen (Taiping Houkui green tea), and the fragrance of Fujian zhulan (chloranthus), brewed with water from the Yangtze River, hence the saying "one pot of water brews teas from three provinces." This tea is clear and fragrant, mellow and mild, quenching thirst and cutting grease, and can be called a treasure among teas. Fuchun pastries are handmade using traditional methods, with exquisite craftsmanship, elegant shapes, and a great variety, each with its own flavor. They were recognized by the Ministry of Commerce as "China Famous Pastries" and "China Famous Snacks," and once won a national gold award. The Fuchun tea-snack making craft, which combines the art of tea with pastry making, has set a model for the catering industry.
The Kui Long Zhu blend
The house blend combines Longjing taste, Kui needle colour and Zhulan fragrance, brewed with Yangtze water to brew three provinces in one pot.
Water dough and oil-flour dough
Apprenticed to Zhu Wanbao, she mastered rolling, pinching, chopping and steaming, and works fluently with both water and oil-flour doughs.
Judging the leavened dough
The dough is tested by pressing it less than half an inch and letting go: if it springs back it is ready.
Purse-mouth and water-chestnut gourd buns
Buns are shaped like a carp's mouth and a water chestnut, with more than thirty pleats that must stand even to hold the filling.
Filling formulae and heat control
Every filling has its own ingredients, knife work, processing, heat and seasoning, which is how three hundred-plus pastries stay distinct.
Xu Yongzhen's tea-pastry craft
Third-batch national inheritor and Chinese pastry chef, able to make more than three hundred Huaiyang pastries and a prizewinner on several national occasions.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
In Yangzhou, the Fuchun tea-snack trade was mostly gathered in old teahouses of the Fuchun type, serving both dine-in customers and banquet pastries. Yangzhou noodles and pastries originally had a Huaiyang foundation; on top of this, Fuchun bound the art of tea together with pastries: first drink tea, then eat pastries, and the tea and the pastry must be paired in eating—a set of rules seldom found in other teahouses. As for its spread, Fuchun tea snacks traveled outward with the teahouses, restaurants, and banquets of Yangzhou city, and also reached Nanjing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and various ports south of the Yangtze along with the wanderings of Huaiyang cuisine. Since modern times, Fuchun has excelled through its Shanxi guildhall-style banquet pastries and shapes, especially the handmade pleats of buns and dumpling-style pastries, stressing that both form and flavor arrive at once—which makes them best suited as banquet pieces rather than everyday fast food.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Xu Yongzhen (per records of the associated officially documented inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in June 1944, from Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province. Representative inheritor of the third batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage item, tea-snack making craft (Fuchun tea-snack making craft). Chinese-style pastry chef. She apprenticed under Zhu Wanbao and proficiently mastered the basic pastry skills of rolling, pinching, chopping, and steaming. She is adept in traditional techniques such as water-adjusted dough and oil-shortened dough, excels at making banquet pastries, draws on the strengths of many, and can make more than three hundred kinds of famous Huaiyang pastries. The pastries she makes are particular in shape, full in color, fine in workmanship, varied in filling, and superb in flavor. She stresses the use of leaven, making the fermented dough "sink less than half an inch under the press of the hand, yet spring upright and tall when released," soft, loose, and resilient, exactly right. The fillings of her pastries have specific formulas and techniques for everything from selection of ingredients, knife work, and processing methods to heat control and seasoning. The buns she makes are shaped like a crucian carp's mouth and a water chestnut's bulge, with more than thirty pleats. She has carried forward the pastry-making craft and won awards many times in national competitions.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Xu Yongzhen 03-1426
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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