Popularity
Dough sculptures are popular wedding and birthday gifts. They are also considered appropriate for prayer and memorial ceremonies and sacrificial offerings. Farmers place steamed dough sculptures before spirit tablets. Today, dough sculptures often appear among dishes on high-grade banquets to beautify and decorate the dishes, and add foils to the banquet atmosphere.
Dough Sculptures in Different Areas
Shanxi Dough Sculptures
The Shanxi people, famous for their rich variety of dishes made from wheat, aside from making various food with dough, also mold it into various "dough figures" to admire as well as for good luck. They send them to friends as gifts to extend lotions or pay tribute to gods. The dough figures are therefore also called edible artistic works.
The typical dough sculpture of northern Shanxi Province is the pudgy baby. The dough is fermented and steamed to depict the crawling, running and lovely gestures of the baby. The pudgy baby is usually used for ancestral sacrifice on the 15th day of the seventh Chinese lunar month (usually in August) to pray for a happy family life.
