With the end of the year approaching, the traditional rice-cake workshops in Linshu County, Linyi City, Shandong, have come alive again. The scent of rice cakes wafts through streets and alleys, adding a strong festive atmosphere to the winter countryside.
At 3:00 a.m. on February 11, the workshop of rice-cake artisan Sun Jixin was already brightly lit. Flames leapt in the stove, licking the bottom of the pot; steam rose from the steaming baskets, slowly climbing to the roof and bringing a warm haze to the winter morning.
This scene at the Sun family rice-cake workshop has been the same for more than thirty years. Sun Jixin is the third-generation inheritor; he learned the craft from his mother in his twenties and has now been making rice cakes for more than a decade. “I get up at three every day and start selling at five or six, just in time for the crowds at the market,” he said.
Linshu rice cakes have a history of more than a century. They are made from everyday ingredients—coarse millet, glutinous rice, cowpeas, brown sugar, sticky rice, red dates—transformed through kneading, rolling, stirring, and steaming into a uniquely delightful sweet aroma. Sun Jixin has made slight adjustments to traditional methods to suit contemporary tastes, and he adds no additives—relying solely on layers of steam to cook them through. “If you steam them like this, the grain’s original fragrance is preserved,” he said.
Standing by the steaming basket, Sun Jixin spreads the prepared ingredients in layers. The red, white, and yellow colors weave together and, when kissed by the steam, become even more glossy. “Layer upon layer like this is a good omen—‘rising step by step every year,’” he said with a smile.
When the rice cakes finish steaming, the baskets are lifted and turned out; the freshly made cakes release clouds of fragrant steam. Red cowpeas, snowy white glutinous rice, golden millet, honeyed red dates—the tempting sweet aroma makes mouths water. The Sun family works together: they pull off the steaming cloth, tie the twine, and neatly shape and wrap the cakes. Once bound and packed, Sun gets ready to head to the market to sell.
In earlier years, the Sun family sold their rice cakes only at a few nearby markets. Regular customers followed the scent to buy a bag to take home—a flavor of the New Year that spans generations. Now online orders have gradually increased; the rice cakes are vacuum-packed, placed in foam boxes, and shipped to distant places.
At dawn, Sun starts his three-wheeler, stacking the back with just-steamed rice cakes. As lights come on along the streets, the New Year atmosphere thickens inch by inch in the steam and the bustle of people.