Qingtuan
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Qingtuan
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Qingtuan (Simplified Chinese: 青团; Traditional Chinese: 青團; Pinyin: Qīngtuán) are jade-green glutinous-rice dumplings colored with Chinese mugwort or barley-grass juice, usually filled with sweet bean paste, and eaten especially in the weeks around Qingming (Tomb-Sweeping) in Jiangnan cities such as those covered on Shanghai Food, Jiangsu Food, and Zhejiang Food. Soft cold-food festival memory and ancestor-offering customs help explain why a snack that can be made ahead and eaten without reheating became seasonally iconic.[1][2]
Characteristics
The exterior is soft-chewy and faintly herbal; color ranges from deep moss to bright spring green depending on juice and modern colorants. Classic fillings are sweet red or black bean paste; soft Shanghai bakery counters also sell salted-egg-yolk, pork-floss, and other savory-sweet cores. Soft quality cues in seasonal writing prize a clean herbal aroma without bitterness, a skin that does not crack after steaming, and a filling that stays contained. Soft note: many convenience-store packs use matcha for color when fresh spring herb juice is scarce.[1]
Ingredients (overview)
Glutinous rice flour; juice or puree of mugwort (艾草) or barley grass; sweetened bean or lotus paste; optional modern fillings (pork floss, salted yolk). Steamed, sometimes lightly oiled to keep skins from sticking. Overview only—not a recipe.
History and culture
Soft cultural framing links qingtuan to the older Cold Food Festival (寒食), when fires were traditionally avoided and advance-prepared cold foods were practical; Qingming later absorbed much of that remembrance calendar, and green rice balls stayed on the table as offerings and seasonal eats in eastern and southern China.[1][2] Soft historical notes describe Southern Dynasties–Song herbal rice foods and Ming–Qing documentation of filled green balls closer to today’s dumpling form; exact one-to-one lineage claims should stay soft.[3] Soft Shanghai “tasting spring” (尝春) language treats qingtuan as an early edible sign of the season. Soft ritual function as grave offering has faded for many urban buyers who now treat it as bakery merchandise that appears a few weeks each year. Related sticky snacks include Tangyuan and Nian Gao.
Serving and variations
Seasonal snack, cold or room-temperature; soft gift-box and supermarket packs extend availability slightly beyond Qingming week. Soft bakery queues in Shanghai and Hangzhou appear in the fortnight before Qingming as locals buy by the box for home and for grave visits. Soft regional cousins include Fujian and Taiwan Qingming rice cakes under related green-herb names, sometimes denser or differently filled. Soft modern savory-sweet cores (pork floss with salted yolk) sit beside classic bean paste on the same trays—treat as contemporary bakery fashion rather than ancient rite. Soft contrast: not the same as everyday Tangyuan boiled in soup, nor as Nian Gao New Year cake, nor as matcha dessert balls sold year-round without festival framing. Soft travel writing often pairs qingtuan tasting with spring outings and tea. See Shanghai Food, Zhejiang Food, and Chinese Rice Snack.