Century-old wooden mould keeps village's rice cake tradition fresh

For as long as anyone can remember, the villagers of Zhangjia have used the same wooden mould to make a staple for the Lunar New Year table: rice cake.

The name of the craftsman who carved the box used to shape and steam the cakes made from glutinous rice flour is long forgotten, but villagers estimate the prized object is 100 years old.

Lin Qingxiu, 55, takes charge of sifting the flour into the wooden frame divided into squares, adding water and then steaming the snow-white cakes. 'Everyone in the village knows how to make nian gao,' she said, using the name for the New Year cake, which is especially popular in the east of the mainland around holiday time. The name nian gao is also a play on words that bodes well for the coming year.

Outside, a snowstorm is raging but the room is warm as an elderly woman feeds wood into a fire under a blackened wok. The mould has survived the Japanese invasion in the 1930s and the political turmoil of the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution when many smashed old objects.

The auspicious sayings it stamps onto the rice cakes use old-style, complex characters dating from before the Communist takeover in 1949.

The relic, shared among families, is the village's most treasured item along with an ornate Qing dynasty (1644-1911) bed that dealers have tried to buy from the owners.