Creative markets blossom in cool of night

Soft, airy buns

In the Longfu Temple area, preserved-vegetable buns from Laijinyuxuan teahouse are reaching consumers in a new setting.

With 26 pleats, the buns are tall and resemble a small birdcage. The dough is fermented with a traditional starter, producing a soft and airy texture. The filling combines preserved vegetables with minced meat, creating a savory flavor with a hint of sweetness.

The bun is a signature snack of the century-old teahouse and is a fond food memory shared across generations.

Pei Wenzhe, brand director of Laijinyuxuan, recalls meeting an elderly woman accompanied by her granddaughter at the market. Seeing the buns, she began talking about her childhood and the times when someone in her family would ask a neighbor to buy them from Laijinyuxuan in Zhongshan Park. They would often share them with neighbors, the woman said.

Decades later, she was eating the familiar flavor again, this time with her granddaughter at the Longfu Temple market.

"Not everyone will make a special trip to Laijinyuxuan in Zhongshan Park," Pei said. "But while taking an evening walk after work or browsing a market with friends, people can get to know us."

At the Beijing Cocktail Festival, shadow puppetry added a pop psychology trend to make it relatable to a new generation.

The third edition of the festival brought together 110 bars from across the country and more than 30 food brands.

Amid cocktails, DJs and live music, Wang's Shadow Puppetry introduced MBTI-themed tattoo stickers. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality assessment based on questions about a person's preferences.

Dang Feihua, a fifth-generation inheritor of Wang's Shadow Puppetry, said intangible cultural heritage should not exist only in museums, exhibition halls and traditional cultural events. It was once popular at fairs and festivals, but today it needs new ways to connect with young audiences.

MBTI is popular with young people. It gives them a way to talk about themselves and provides a conversation opener. The faces, colors, clothing and patterns of shadow-puppet figures also convey identity and personality, Dang said.

"In the past, we used the shapes of shadow puppets to understand a character. Today, young people use MBTI to understand a person," he said.