User:Guochunhua/sandbox

Guochunhua/sandbox
Guochunhua/sandbox
	"籺"in Chinese calligraphy
Simplified Chinese	籺
Traditional Chinese	麧
Hanyu Pinyin	hé
Literal meaning	the clastic of wheat
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	hé

Maoming

茂名市
Maoming 茂名市
Prefecture-level city
	Nickname: 南方油城 (Oil City of the South)
	Location of Maoming City jurisdiction in Guangdong
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Guangdong
Municipal seat	Maonan District
Government
• CPC Committee Secretary	Liang Yimin (梁毅民)
• Mayor	Li Hongjun (李红军)
Area
• Prefecture-level city	11,424.8 km2 (4,411.1 sq mi)
• Urban	2,714 km2 (1,048 sq mi)
• Metro	487 km2 (188 sq mi)

籺(hé), means the clastics of wheat or rice originally and Generally, which refers to coarse cereals. Yet, here, it is a specifically traditional pastry in the west area of Guangdong province. In traditional festival such as Spring festival)( also called Chinese New Year) Spirit festival (July 14th) and winter solstice, and wedding. ceremony, birthday feast and housewarming party, 籺(hé) is an inevitable pastry in the west area of Guangdong province. People regard 籺(hé) as an symbol of jubilance and share them with their relatives and friends, which can truly strengthen kinship and friendship.

Meaning of 籺(hé)

籺(hé)

basic meaning

The clastics of wheat or rice, usually used for course grain ^[1]
In general, it always refers to grain of rice and wheat ^[1]

Input method

Input method of 籺(hé)
Unicode	Wubihua method	Zhengma method	Stroke order Method	Cangjie input method
U+7C7A	OTNN	UFMY	丶ノ一丨ノ丶ノ一フ	FDON

Origin

It is believed that people in Gaozhou County, Maoming City, Guangdong Province firstly made the 籺(hé) and kept ongoing reshaping. Long ago, Gaozhou County was a wasteland grown with weeds. A war broken out, a group of refugees made their way here and decided to live here. At the beginning, the first-generation settlers here could only plant tuber crops and other coarse cereals (e.g. maize, sorghum, millet, etc ) because of the barren land. In order to make good use of the crops, settlers used mallet to pound the grain into flour, and then the flour was mixed with water and cooked with the purpose of increasing overall size. This is the fundamental method of making 籺(hé) a smooth paste.^[2]

Afterward, people successfully planted rice and gained harvest. To celebrate the harvest, or, to a certain degree, to improve their life, they followed the basic method to pound the rice into flour, and add the vegetables filling inside, knead then into specific shape. This was the original 籺(hé). ^[2] Also, they used the polished round-grained rice flour to make 籺(hé) but found glutinous rice flour was more suitable to make 籺(hé) with its strengthening viscosity and taste. From then on, people gradually made 籺(hé) with glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour “he” gained widespread popularity in the west area of Guangdong province and became a shared custom.

Stuffing

The stuffing of 籺(hé)can be various according to everyone’s taste and flavor. Yet, in general, the stuffing is mainly divided into two type: sweet stuffing and salty stuffing. ^[3]

Sweeting stuffing mainly contains sesame, peanut, desiccated coconut, lotus root, etc.
Salty stuffing mainly contains green been, peanut, bacon, shrimps, etc.
Dressing and sauces (调料和酱料) are also significant in the process of making 籺(hé). Roughly, in West area of Guangdong Province, people tend to use ginger, peanut oil, soy sauce and other traditional seasoner.

Making process

Taking salty peach-shaped 籺(hé) for instance^[4]

Preparing related material: glutinous rice flour, clean jackfruit leaves, skinless green bean^[3], peach-shaped mould
Making stuffing: put shrimps into fried oil, and fry green been, blend all the ingredients together and stir evenly
Boiling proportional water in a pot, pouring moderate glutinous rice flour, stirring evening until cooking thoroughly. Mixing the cooked flour with the raw flour and kneading well until it is not enough hand-sticky
Shaping the kneaded dough into ball and adding stuffing into it
Doughing into ball
Putting stuffed ball into the mould to become peach-shaped 籺(hé)
specific mould for making 籺(hé)
Using jackfruit leaves to separate shaped 籺(hé) and then stewing for half an hour
Dotting red color in the surface of 籺(hé) which stand for jubilance and celebration

Related Folklore of 籺(hé)

During the Tang Dynasty(618-907AD), one day, the Nanshan god of longevity passed by Gaozhou County and accommodated himself to a courier hostel. At the midnight, he heard a woman next door bursting into crying. He was so curious that he asked for information from the crying woman. He learned that the woman was an impoverished widow and completely bound by her parents-in-law. Yet, her parents-in-law were seriously ill and she decided to go to the seek longevity herb to save her parents-in-law’s life. The god was deeply moved by the woman’s filial behaviors and took two rice balls out and gave them to the woman. The woman brought them home and made them into peach-shaped 籺(hé). After eating the 籺(hé), her parents-in-law were recovered. From then on, this kind of 籺(hé) represented longevity and ecstasy.