Rice Glue Balls, Light Fragrance of Sweet, Unique Flavor (汤圆)

Tangtuan (rice glue ball) is a kind of traditional food in China. Originally named yuanxiao in Sui Dynasty (581- 618 AD), it used to refer to the Lantern Festival, a day celebrated with rice glue balls. It now has a history of over 700 years. In old times, January 15th on Chinese lunar calendar was called the night of Lantern Festival. This food, much favored by people, was then spread to Ningbo. Through its continuous development and improvement, the unique flavor of Ningbo rice glue balls made of glutinous rice with lard stuffing has gradually come into being.
The Ningbo rice glue balls with lard stuffing are the most popular among all the rice glue balls. Textual research has it that Ningbo rice glue balls originated in Song and Yuan Dynasties and were made of top grade local glutinous rice with tender, pure "white soft sugar", black sesames and high quality lard stuffing. Featuring fragrance, sweetness, freshness, smoothness and glutinosity, the rice glue balls are pleasantly glutinous with lard fragrance, a truly fresh and delicious dessert enjoyed by people both home and abroad. According to folk custom, every household in Ningbo region would enjoy Ningbo rice glue balls for their breakfast on the New Year's Day to express their wishes for happiness, reunion and good luck. Many overseas Chinese would also have a bowl of rice glue balls to relieve their homesickness.
In 1982, the Ningbo rice glue balls became the first snack exported abroad from Zhejiang Province, while in 1997, it was selected as one of the "Famous Snacks in China".
With its connotation of reunion and good luck, even the overseas Chinese, thinking of their relatives far away on festive days, and will never forget to eat the lard "Tangtuan" on the Spring Festival, looking forward to reunion and delivering their homesickness.

Origin of the name of Tangyuan
Historically, a number of different names were used to refer to Tangyuan. During the Yongle era of Ming Dynasty, the name was officially settled as Yuanxiao, a name derived from the Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the lantern Festival. This name literally means the "first evening", being the first full moon after Chinese New Year, which is always a new moon. This name prevails in northern China. In southern China, however, they are called Tangyuan or Tangtuan.
Legend has it that during Yuan Shikai's rule from 1912 to 1916, the dictator disliked the name Yuanxiao because it sounded identical to "remove Yuan"(元宵), and so he ordered to change the name to Tangyuan instead. This new name literally means "round balls in soup". In the two major Chinese dialects of far southern China, Hakka and Cantonese, "tangyuan" is pronounced as tong rhen and tong jyun respectively. The term "Tangtuan" (Hakka : tong ton, Cantonese : tong tyun) is not as commonly used in these dialects as Tangyuan.

For many Chinese families in mainland China as well as overseas, Tangyuan is usually eaten together with family. The round shape of the balls and the bowls where they are served, come to symbolize the togetherness of the family.