From exclusive luxury for royalty to the pride of the People’s Republic, ice cream in China has a long and sweet history
Record heatwaves have been sweeping China recently, with Sanbao, Xinjiang, hitting a scorching 52.2 degrees Celsius—the country’s hottest-ever recorded temperature. Beijing, meanwhile, suffered three consecutive days of temperatures above 40 degrees in June for the first time. One small comfort amid this deadly heat is China’s vast range of ice cream options that have refreshed people for generations.
In fact, versions of ice cream have been around for centuries in China, long before gelato emerged in Italy. In the Tang dynasty (618 – 907), for example, one popular dish was sushan (酥山), a frozen dairy product made from the cream skimmed from goat’s milk when making cheese. To make it, people would heat the curd (酥) until it was close to melting, before sieve it so the liquid dripped into molds that resembled mountains (山). Then it was cooled with ice until it froze, decorated with flower petals, and finally served as a delicious creamy treat. In Tang poet Wang Lingran’s (王泠然) “Ode to the Suhe Mountain (《苏合山赋》),” he described it as having a texture between solid and liquid, melting as soon as it touched the tongue.
Elizabeth Gonzales is an editorial intern of The World of Chinese. She is currently a graduate student at the John Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies. She enjoys learning about Chinese history, culture, and language.
