The Chinese festival food made from glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves is zongzi. These sticky rice dumplings are traditionally associated with the Duanwu Festival, better known in English as the Dragon Boat Festival.
Zongzi are prepared by soaking glutinous rice, adding fillings, wrapping the packet in bamboo leaves, and then boiling or steaming it. Fillings vary widely by region: savory versions may contain pork belly, Chinese sausage, mushrooms, chestnuts, or salted egg yolk, while sweet versions may use red bean paste, dates, or preserved fruit. Shapes also range from tetrahedral parcels to elongated cones.
A popular legend links zongzi to Qu Yuan, a poet and statesman traditionally said to have drowned in the third century BCE. Stories say people threw rice into the river to protect his body from fish. The association became prominent in later sources, but the food’s history is older and more complex than the legend alone. Similar leaf-wrapped rice foods are also found across East and Southeast Asia.