Tong Guohua carefully removes huamo, or flower buns, from a steamed box.

On the tray of the box are steamed wheaten foods with various colors and shapes such as animals, gourds, fruits and flowers, including a cute tiger with a Chinese character for "king" on its forehead, bright green apples and round buns embellished with two or three delicate peach blossoms. Astonished onlookers snap photos of her creations.

Tong is the boss of a famous huamo studio in Beijing's Pinggu district.

Despite losing her job a decade ago, Tong's commitment to China's traditional food culture remained unchanged and she has since pursued further education and opened her own business. She has markedly improved her livelihood by turning her culinary skills into a successful business. Tong named her studio "Tong's good life."

Artistically decorated steamed buns, flower buns are considered steamed work of art as they can fulfill food, visual and etiquette functions. They are common in China’s Yellow River region, in provinces like Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi and Henan in particular.The making of flower buns borrows a lot of insights from China’s folk painting tactics.

Tong learned to make flower buns from her mother and grandma when she was young. She was happy and proud to see her family’s flower buns popular among the villagers at festivals, weddings, birthday feasts and other traditional family events, so she became more active in helping her mother and grandmother. That helped lay a solid foundation for becoming a steamed bun master and planted the seeds of inheriting her family’s cultural heritage.

After Tong was laid off from the state-owned grain supply system, she made and sold shaobing, or steamed stuffed buns, popular in north China, and worked as a decoration project worker for over 10 years.

For more than 10 years, Tong has deeply felt about the development of society, the acceleration of people's pace of life and the general improvement of living standards. People's demand for better food, if not traditional, encouraged Tong to inherit her family's graft of making flower buns.

At more than 50 years old, Tong started realizing her childhood dreams. "Although the raw materials of flower buns are simple, the technique it takes to make them savory is quite special," Tong said. Flower buns' production follows strict procedures, including fermentation, kneading dough, kneading patterns and steaming.

It's not an easy food to make well. Tong must adjust continuously according to the requirements of different shapes, the hardness of the dough and the thickness of the blank types of dough. To this end, Tong has experimented countless nights and written down the tips in 10 notebooks. She said that dreams are always worth striving for.

A flower bun should not only have a good look but also taste good. In addition to flour, milk, yeast and other common raw materials for wheaten food, Tong also uses carrot juice, spinach juice, celery juice, dragon fruit juice as well as different kinds of fruits and vegetables in her recipe to balance the final product’s taste and appearance, and food safety.

Tong pays special attention to making her flower buns attractive to young people, as she knows the young consumers represent the market's future. As a result, she has never stopped exploring new patterns.

In 2019, while learning Chinese painting with her children's art teacher in a university, Tong went to Shandong, a province in east China famous for wheaten food, to study local methods of making flower buns. Tong has formed her unique formulas, techniques, and designs by integrating painting art and new techniques.

The sunflower, cake, rose and Peppa Pig flower buns made by Tong proved an instant success among young consumers once they were launched in the market.

In the hands of Tong, the small dough is endowed with vitality and a sense of life and can be made into an exquisite pastry of unique shapes and patterns. Tong also started a customized service for unique designs and requirements.

Tong thinks that flower buns are a part of traditional Chinese culture, combining cuisine, religion, agricultural and family cultures and local customs. With the support of the Pinggu government, Tong set up her studio in August 2021 to teach other people how to make flower buns, which is applying to be recognized as an intangible cultural heritage in the district.

The flower buns made by Tong are popular among all kinds of activities in Pinggu, ranging from a peach festival and tourism promotions to comforting firefighters and senior citizens living alone.

"My dream is to pass down the skill to future generations so that flower buns will be able to not only become a household food but also gain a bigger and higher stage in the country's cultural life," Tong said. "That's where its vitality lies."

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