THREE district-level Intangible Cultural Heritages (ICHs) of Dapeng New Area were upgraded to the municipal level, the Shenzhen government announced recently.

They are Kuichong’s cooking techniques of Hakka Chaguo (steamed bun), Dongshan’s fishing song and cooking techniques of Nao’ao sea urchin zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).

Chaguo (茶果) is also known as ban (粄) in Hakka dialect. It is a traditional Hakka food. Kuichong’s Hakka Chaguo

(葵涌客家茶果) is popular in the northern part of the Dapeng Peninsula. The making techniques are widely used around Gaoyuan and its surrounding communities in Kuichong Subdistrict. The first step of cooking Chaguo is to soak sticky or glutinous rice and then grind it into a paste or form a flour dough. After that, fill the dough with rich fillings and then steam the bun. The food is widely used in rituals and festivals, such as the Spring Festival and Qingming Festival.

Dongshan’s fishing songs (东山渔歌) were collectively created by fishermen in Dongshan community, Nan’ao Subdistrict. They got inspiration from daily work and life. The songs are sung in many dialects, such as the Dapeng dialect. There are various singing formats for the fishing songs, including solo, antiphonal singing, chorus, improvisation and so on. Also, the lyric content is rich, covering fishing, life, love and marriage, nature, customs and other themes. The melodies are simple and lively, beautiful and fluent, and full of variety.

Nan’ao sea urchin zongzi (南澳海胆粽) is a folk traditional festival food, widely spread in Nan’ao. Its cooking techniques have been passed down through five generations. The most critical part of cooking is carefully selecting materials and ingredients. The best time to get the freshest sea urchins is in March and April each year, particularly before or after the Qingming Festival. The zongzi’s stuffing includes pork, onions, Chinese spice powder, aniseed wine and sea urchins. The fillings inside glutinous rice is wrapped in two strips of leaves and steamed for three hours.

So far, Dapeng New Area has 18 ICHs at the district level and above, namely four at the provincial level, four at the municipal level and 10 at the district level.

(Xia Yuanjie)