Octagonal snow jujube is named after octagonal street in Zilingpu Town, Dongbao District, Jingmen City, Hubei Province. Snow jujube is named because of its appearance like a jujube and its color is snow white and crystalline. The octagonal snow jujube was first created by Liu Zhifang, an old folk artist on octagonal street in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and is a traditional food with strong local characteristics.
According to the "Dongbao Literature and History Collection", folk artist Liu Zhifang and his family moved from Yushiqiao Muzhuang Jade Village in Jishui Prefecture, Ji'an Province, Jiangxi Province, to Bajiao Village Street in Zilingpu Town, Dongbao District, using locally produced high-quality glutinous rice, relying on his superb food production and processing skills, after years of experimentation and painstaking research, developed a traditional food suitable for the taste of the public - octagonal snow jujube. The production process of star anise snow jujube has been passed down for more than ten generations, and the regional circulation is very extensive, and the social influence has been long-standing. There is also a written record of the octagonal snow jujube in the "Jingmen Zhou Zhi": the octagonal snow jujube is the ancestral pastry process of the Liu family, which has been finalized and produced in the Ming Dynasty. Regarding the octagonal snow jujube, there is a legendary story in the folk. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, eight students from Jiangnan went to Beijing to rush through the octagon, exhausted, and got the help of the famous teacher Liu Shi of Xueju, so that they had to enter Beijing as scheduled to take the exam. After the eight students entered Beijing, they all became famous on the gold list and became famous in one fell swoop. When Yi Jinrong returned, in order to thank Liu's kindness, he made a special trip to the octagon to build an octagonal pavilion and talk about the reward of the gift, and since then the octagonal snow jujube has been famous. In the second year of the Qianlong Dynasty (1737 AD), the Qianlong Emperor went out to tour Jiangnan, came to the Octagon, personally tasted Liu's snow jujube, greatly appreciated it, and was designated as a tribute to Nian Na. Since then, the octagonal snow jujube has been famous all over the world, and the production skills have been widely circulated.
According to the Organizing Committee of the Public Selection Activity of China Specialty Brands, today, the octagonal snow jujube continues to continue its "reputation". In the 1980s, it was rated as the first place in the province of similar products at the Hubei Provincial Famous Products Appraisal Conference, was selected to be sent to Beijing to participate in China's first food expo, and was also exported to Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and was well received by domestic and foreign merchants. In the 1990s, at the economic and cultural exchange meetings in the adjacent areas of Hubei, Henan, Sichuan and Shaanxi and the Jianghan Plain Cooperation Zone, the octagonal snow jujube was rated as the best product, and it was also included in the book "Collection of Chinese Enterprise Products" by the Management World Magazine of the Development Research Center of the State Council. In 2004, the octagonal snow jujube won the famous special award of the first agricultural exposition in Hubei Province, in 2005, it won the gold medal of the provincial agricultural expo, and in December of the same year, it won the gold medal of the National Food Expo and the Green Products Expo.
Star anise snow jujube is a traditional food unique to The Jingmen region with strong local characteristics, and this traditional food production process has a long history of more than 400 years and is a treasure in the intangible cultural heritage of Jingmen. According to the Organizing Committee of the Public Selection Activity of China SpecialTy Products, at present, Jingmen City has organized special forces to protect this traditional skill. Every year, the body of the inheritor, Liu Xiangyu, is regularly examined free of charge to provide necessary medical protection measures. In the next few years, Jingmen City will also strengthen the social publicity of the traditional food of "octagonal snow jujube" and find suitable inheritors to ensure that this craft will be passed on from generation to generation.
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