Small vendors selling Tang Hua carry the burden of sugar, including stoves, pots, slates, shovels, stools and turntables. They drew a circle of small animals on the turntable. If you turn to something, he will draw you an animal with sugar, so Tang Hua is also called turning to sugar. When making Tang Hua, the master put the refined brown sugar (or white sugar) into a copper spoon and heated it to melt. Then, with the copper spoon as a pen and the sugar solution as ink, he concentrated on moving his wrist. On the smooth marble slate, it was fast and slow, high and low. With the continuous falling of sugar, the images of birds and animals, flowers and birds, insects and fish, mythical figures and so on were vividly presented. Sugar is made by heating sucrose and maltose. Its natural color is brownish yellow, and some of it is made into red or green by adding pigment or pigment. The control of temperature during use is the key. If it is overheated, it will be too thin and easy to deform, and if it is cold, it will be too hard to form. The tools used are very simple, mostly spoon-shaped and shovel-shaped.

Sugar man is not easy to raise. In the past, when the supply of desserts was in short supply, he would eat candy people after playing. People nowadays feel very unsanitary and seldom eat. If left for a long time, it will turn black and will naturally be destroyed.

In the past, artists often peddled gongs along the street, and some even brought a disc with flowers, birds, animals and insects painted on it. After paying the money, they can turn the pointer on the disc and do whatever they want to attract the children. Sugar people used to be very cheap, and they were children's favorite playthings when they were not rich. In the early 1980 s, a few cents or a few toothpaste tubes could be exchanged for a sugar man. Nowadays, there are more toys for children, and sugar people are no longer just fooling children. They have been paid attention to as a folk art. Now there are fewer artists along the street, and they can still be seen at the temple fair of Beijing New Year Festival, selling a few dollars more. Some locations will be sold to 10 yuan (such as Bar Street in Shichahai) because there are many foreign tourists.

According to the different production processes, it can be divided into three types: sugar blowing machine, sugar drawing machine and sugar forming machine.

Dough sculpture, commonly known as "dough mixer". It uses glutinous rice flour as the main material, mixes it into different colors, and shapes various vivid images with hands and simple tools. Shandong dough sculpture originated in Heze and has a history of more than 300 years. In the old society, dough sculptors "walked around in tears just to make a living", carrying boxes, walking around villages and towns and doing things in the streets, and were instantly loved by the masses, but their works were regarded as gadgets and could not be put on the elegant stage. Nowadays, dough sculpture art is valued as a precious intangible cultural heritage, and gadgets have also entered the art hall.

The dough-kneading artist takes materials at will as needed, and after several times of kneading, rubbing and lifting in his hands, he skillfully places, cuts, carves, describes and shapes his body, hands and head with a small bamboo knife, and puts on hair ornaments and clothes, so that he can get rid of the vivid artistic image in an instant. Beautiful women with elegant clothes and elegant manners, innocent children and various fairy tales, plays and historical figures in exquisite glass frames have become people's favorite handicrafts.

Characteristics of dough modeling

The characteristics of dough sculpture art are "one seal, two pinches, three embedments and four volumes" (the steps of clay sculpture), and "the chest of the text, the belly of the martial arts, the back of the old man and the waist of the beautiful woman".

Dough figurines are small in size, easy to carry, durable, free from mildew, cracking, deformation and fading, so they are deeply loved by tourists and are good souvenirs for friends and relatives. When foreign tourists visit Miansu, they are fascinated by the artist's skillful skills and various vivid roles, and they praise Beijing Miansu as "the sculpture of China".