Ancient Village in Tonglu, Hangzhou: Embrace Dragon Boat Festival by Making Unique Zongzi

As the Dragon Boat Festival approaches, all kinds of zongzi (rice dumplings) come out. Villagers in the thousand-year-old Shen'ao village located in Jiangnan Town, Tonglu County, Hangzhou City, are busy wrapping unique zongzi — sister zongzi and longevity zongzi , which are somewhat different from the common zongzi both in the shape and the way of packing.

Recently, many villagers have come to Zhou Yalian's home to ask her to make some unique zongzi, which is seen almost every year. After preparing ingredients such as bamboo leaves, palm leaves, glutinous rice and red dates, she starts to wrap the sister zongzi, the unique red date zongzi passed on from generation to generation in Shen'ao village. Two small zongzi in the shape of a pointed triangle stick close to each other, symbolizing unity and fraternity.

"The one inside should be smaller and the other outside bigger, and make sure you hold it tightly while wrapping," Zhou Yalian explains the key points of making, as she wraps the zongzi. She wraps glutinous rice and red dates in a small bamboo leaf, makes it into a cone, and puts it upside down to a bottle to keep its shape. With the smaller one of the sister zongzi done, the bigger one is to be wrapped afterward and then the two zongzi are tied together tightly with palm leaves to make a pair of delicate sister zongzi.

Apart from the sister zongzi, the longevity zongzi, more complex to make, is also a "must-order" for villagers each year. Longevity zongzi, in a long cylindrical shape, looks like latches, so it is also called latch zongzi. To make a longevity zongzi, the villagers use 12 large bamboo leaves with 12 red dates lined up in the middle, representing the 12 months of a year, and also stuff peanuts inside. When it is wrapped, pieces of red paper with Chinese characters on it such as "Chang Ming Fu Gui" (longevity and prosperity) and "Fu Ru Dong Hai" (happiness and good fortune) are put on the surface of the zongzi.

Longevity Zongzi from Shen'ao Village

"When babies are one month old or one year old, their grandmothers on mother's side need to give two pairs of longevity zongzi with their blessing to their grandchildren, hoping that they can grow up safely and healthily," said Xu Ying, chairperson of the Women's Federation in Shen'ao Village, Jiangnan Town, Tonglu County. (Text/Photo by Wang Lilin, Qian Kun and Fang Lin)