Compiled by Xing Jianguo and Zhao Na The custom of Jiaodong flower cakes has a long history and is still popular in Yantai City, Laizhou, Penglai, Longkou, Zhaoyuan, Qixia, Muping and surrounding areas. During various traditional festivals, smart and hardworking Jiaodong rural women use dough to make mandarin ducks, carps, dragons, phoenixes, longevity peaches and other symbolic shapes, steam them and cool them thoroughly, and then dye them with colorful colors, which become very vivid works of art for sacrifice, viewing, eating or giving to relatives and friends. Jiaodong flower cakes have strong plasticity and good expressiveness. The style of kneading is simple and natural, and the shapes are either honest or clever. It is a comprehensive carrier of nature worship, religious thoughts and psychological consciousness. The production process is: kneading dough, fermenting dough, kneading dough, shaping, carving, steaming and coloring. It is created with tools such as knives, scissors, and pens. It has names such as "holy insects" ("divine insects"), "flower buns", and "clever cakes". It is a living art work for folks to express their feelings, celebrate harvests, and pray for longevity. In terms of techniques, different regions have their own characteristics and styles. According to life etiquette, seasonal items and local customs, it is usually divided into several major categories such as "marriage", "sending three", "hundred years old" and "New Year". Wedding is a major event in life, and the requirements for flower cakes are naturally high. In particular, the flower cakes "dragon and phoenix present auspiciousness" (commonly known as basin flower cakes) placed in the washbasin are finely sculpted with twelve zodiac animals, with vivid and interesting shapes and bright colors. The combination and contrast of lines and surfaces, points and blocks, sculptures and paintings, clumsy and clever, form a strong artistic effect, enhance the festive atmosphere, enrich the content of folk wedding customs, and add more beautiful branches and buds to folk art. In addition, there are "eight major items" for wedding flower cakes: a pair of mandarin ducks represents love; a pair of carps represents a rich life; a pair of fat pigs represents a bumper harvest; a pair of longevity peaches represents a long life of a hundred years. "Sending three" is the third day of the third lunar month of the first year after the girl gets married. The girl's family makes a basket of "spring swallows" and takes them back to her husband's family, indicating that the swallows return to their nests and repay their parents' kindness. "Bai Sui" is a New Year's flower cake sent by the grandmother's family when the baby is 100 days old. In Laizhou area, it is called "Yue Chi". The main products are "Long Sui (Sui)", "Sugar Bag", "Sugar Hat", "Hanging Flower", "Tiger Head", "Yue Chi" and other small pieces, hoping that they will grow up healthily. In addition, a few days before the Spring Festival every year, in order to avoid having to make staple food in the first month of the year, every household will steam flower cakes, and at the same time make four "holy insects" and eight jujube cakes. Jujube cakes are used to worship ancestors; "holy insects" are placed in the steamed bun jar to ensure a good harvest that year and not run out of food, expressing the people's yearning for a rich life. The Jiaodong flower cake custom is an artistic style created by Jiaodong women based on regional characteristics, festivals and living customs. It survives in the deep living soil of the workers, embodies the simple aesthetic concepts and spiritual qualities of human art, and has distinct artistic characteristics and life interest.