For many Shanghainese, eating dumplings is an essential ritual during the Spring Festival. Xu Zhengliu joined the Ningbo Tangtuan Store when he was 18 and has been working with dumpling ever since.

During the period before New Year’s Eve, we can sell 40,000 to 50,000 glutinous rice balls a day, and during the Lantern Festival, which is the peak period, we could sell 100,000 a day. In fact, it is the expectation for life and reunion, and it is also a kind of inheritance of sweet folk customs and memories.