Happy Dong Zhi!

It is Dong Zhi today… a time for family togetherness… a time for love, joy, laughter and warmth…

Dong Zhi (Winter Solstice) is one of the most important festivals of the Chinese lunar calendar, and falls almost every year on the 22 December (on rare occasions, it may fall on 21 December). Literally translated it means “arrival of winter”. In ancient times, it marked the end of harvest and the return of family members from far and near to the family ancestral home, to gather, celebrate and prepare for the coming of the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year. I suppose Dong Zhi can be regarded as the Chinese Thanksgiving, and like the American Thanksgiving, food, wine and feasting are integral parts of the celebration.

Tang yuan (glutinous rice balls served in a sweet soup) are a must on Dong Zhi. They are eaten to signify unity and harmony within the family and to celebrate the past good year. “Tang” (meaning soup in Mandarin), sounds like “tuan” (meaning reunion), and “yuan” (meaning round) signifies “yuan man” (completeness, fulfillment).

Although tang yuan can now be eaten throughout the year, at restaurants or hawker centers, or can be bought frozen and ready-prepared in supermarkets, they still take on special significance when eaten on Dong Zhi.

They are usually boiled and served in a sweet soup made with ginger and rock sugar. Our family made two versions today… one is the traditional clear ginger syrup soup, with an added South East Asian twist of pandan leaves as aromatics...

The second is a thick red bean sweet soup (red bean tong shui). I’m not sure what the origins of this version are… but this version is commonly served in restaurants and hawker centers. Apart from red bean soup, they can also be served in (black or white) sesame sweet soup (zhi ma hu) or in peanut sweet soup (hua shen hu).

[Interestingly, when tang yuan are served dry, coated with crushed peanuts, they take on a new name and new meaning. Known as “yuan xiao”, they are eaten on the 15th or last day of the Lunar New Year celebrations. But that is for another time…]

The tang yuan we eat nowadays are so different from the homemade ones I remember as a kid. Hardly anyone makes their own tang yuan anymore. It is just so much more convenient, and tastier too, to buy them frozen and ready-made from the supermarket. And they now come with luscious fillings of peanut (yummy), black sesame (very yummy) and red bean (yummy too).

In the days when there was no ready-made tang yuan to be bought, every family would come together on Dong Zhi morning to make tang yuan. These are made from a very simple dough of rice flour and water, and rolled into tiny marble-sized balls. Very often, they are made into white and pink colors, with the pink color signifying good luck. These had no fillings and were simply boiled in hot water until they floated to the surface, and then served in the sweet syrup soup.

I remember these home-made tang yuan to be rather chewy and bland. Today’s modern versions taste infinitely better, however, I so miss the laughter and joy of sitting around the kitchen table… grandmother, aunts, mum, cousins… all pitching in to mix the dough and roll out these little balls of glutinous rice. I miss the chatter, the teasing and the abundant laughter. Yes, today’s factory-made tang yuan may taste delicious, yet the traditional ones of old tasted sweet, rich and full with love, warmth and joy. Back then, families gathered to make and eat tang yuan together… and that truly must be the real meaning of Dong Zhi…

As I sit with my family to eat tang yuan this festive day, I wish one and all...

Happy Dong Zhi to you and your family!

Copyright © 2003 Renee Kho. All rights reserved.
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