Zhoucunshaobing Making Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
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 · Core Techniques & Process
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.
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.
The Juhezhai paper wrapping
From 1880 the Juhezhai shop wrapped its cakes in clean paper, and in the 1950s the shop merged into the factory that became today's company.
Wang Chunhua's new varieties
National inheritor Wang Chunhua developed more than ten new varieties on the basis of the traditional method and trained over two hundred skilled workers.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
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."
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Wang Chunhua (per records of the associated officially documented inheritor): Female, Han ethnicity, born in March 1973, from Zibo City, Shandong Province. Representative inheritor of the fifth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage item, Zhoucun sesame seed cake making craft. Zhoucun sesame seed cake making technician. Since her teens she worked in the workshop of Zhoucun Sesame Seed Cake Co., Ltd., following veteran masters to diligently practice the cake-making craft. While mastering the traditional craft, she boldly innovated, newly developing more than ten varieties of Zhoucun sesame seed cake suited to market demand, achieving good economic and social benefits. At the same time, she continuously combined modern management theory with the traditional craft, formulating a series of production and process management systems conforming to the characteristics of the Zhoucun sesame seed cake craft, laying a solid foundation for the long-term development of Zhoucun sesame seed cake. Over many years she has consistently emphasized talent cultivation, selflessly passing the craft on to young people, having trained more than two hundred key technicians.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Wang Chunhua 05-2860
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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