A taste of home, shaped by hand

While professional craftsmen showcase their creative minds and dexterous fingers by carving materials such as wood and jade, others perform the same artistry in the kitchen, working their magic on a very different surface — a fluffy steamed bun.

Liu Jing, who grew up in Shandong province, says she is overcome with homesickness as she stands before a pyramid of colorful steamed buns called huamo, now on display at the Chinese Traditional Culture Museum in Beijing. Having worked in the capital for years, the sight of the buns strikes a personal chord.

Steamed buns are a staple food in her province and across much of northern China. In Shandong and several other regions, people traditionally prepare huamo — steamed buns shaped and decorated with intricate patterns, either in relief or hollowed out — as part of long-standing traditional Spring Festival celebrations.

"My family still has huamo, homemade or ordered from bakeries, for Chinese New Year. But they are not as sumptuous as these," Liu says, as she leans forward to have a closer look at the buns, engraved with an astonishing range of motifs — flowers, food, animals, mythological creatures and even Labubu toys that have exploded in popularity worldwide.

These huamo are much more complex in structure than those made for eating at home; some resemble extravagant flower baskets from a distance, with auspicious creatures and blossoms appearing to burst from their centers. Others are layered to form pyramids, with some standing more than a meter tall.