Sugar Figurine Blowing on Jinli Street

Sugar figurine blowing is a traditional Chinese art. The folk artist heats the syrup to a certain temperature, pulls off a small portion, kneads it to a ball with an open center, pinches the open area together and stretches it to form a tube. Then he blows air into the tube and molds the sugar ball into different shapes. The experienced folk artist can make out many kinds of sugar figurines, such as dragon, rat, chicken and dogs. Lastly, he uses a brush to decorate the sugar figurines.

According to the folk artist, the whole process is finished with a minute. On one hand, the syrup is too hot to hold it in hands. On the other hand, the sugar ball turns into a solid state if the artist moves slowly. If this happens, he won’t make it into different shapes.