As a kind of food, rice cakes have a long history in China. Rice cakes are mostly made of glutinous rice flour, and glutinous rice is a specialty of Jiangnan. In the north, there are sticky grains like glutinous rice, and sticky millet (commonly known as millet) was first introduced in ancient times. This kind of millet hulled powder, after steamed with water, is yellow, sticky and sweet, and it is a delicious food for people in the Yellow River valley to celebrate the harvest. The article "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" published during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty recorded that Beijingers at that time would "eat millet cakes on New Year's Day of the first month and celebrate the New Year's cakes". It is not difficult to see that "New Year's cake" is a homonym of "sticky cake" in the north.
There are many kinds of rice cakes, such as white rice cakes from the north, yellow rice cakes from farmers in Saibei, Shuimo rice cakes from water towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and red turtle cakes from Taiwan Province. Rice cakes have different flavors from north to south. There are two kinds of steamed and fried rice cakes in the north, both of which are sweet; In addition to steaming and frying, southern rice cakes are also fried in slices and boiled in soup, which are both sweet and salty. It is said that the earliest rice cakes were used for worshipping gods and ancestors at the New Year's Eve, and later became food for the Spring Festival.
The rice cake is not only a kind of holiday food, but also brings people new hope with the passing of the year. As a poem in the late Qing Dynasty said, "People's hearts are high, and food is made in harmony, so that the year is better than the year, so as to pray for the year."