Hee pan

Hee pan(Chinese:喜粄;pinyin:xǐbǎn) is a type ofsteamedrice cake ofChineseorigin from theHakka people. Traditional Hakka hee pan is made fromrice milk(米浆) and red sugar. This gives hee pan its distinctive red coloring, chewy texture, and sweet taste.
Traditional red hee pan is prepared for important festivals such as the Lunar Chinese New Year and weddings. It is considered an auspicious food and is believed to bring prosperity, luck, and fortune to the people.
Nowadays, the consumption of hee pan is more commonly consumed as a pastry and no longer restricted to cultural festivities.
Hee pan is theromanizationof "喜粄" from theMandarin languageinpinyin. "喜" (Hee) is pronounced as "xǐ", it means joyful.< The word “粄 " (Pan) is pronounced as "bǎn" is acognateof theold Chinese language,Hakka dialectand theHainanese dialect.
"粄" (Pan) has two components that make up its word structure. The principal indexing component of  "粄" (Pan) is "米", pronounced as "mǐ".It is a noun that describes "raw rice grains". The radical component of "粄" (Pan) is  “反”, pronounced as "fǎn".Derived from the word"饭"“fàn”, which means rice or a meal. "粄" (Pan), congruent to itsauto-logicalstructure, it means meals that are made from rice or rice cakes.
Together, hee pan is aportmanteauof "喜" and “粄 " that translates into "Joyful rice cake".
Traditional hee pan is made with onlyriceand redsugarand steamed over a piece ofbanana leaf. Thebanana leafprevents it from sticking to the steamer and allows the steam to penetrate; adding natural fragrance to the hee pan.
Traditional hee pan is made by:
The modern-day hee pan is made fromflour,glutinous rice flour,pandanleaves, hotwater,sugar,instant yeast,  redyeast rice powder,corn oil, andbanana leaves.The dough is made fromglutinous rice flourandflourinstead ofrice milkbecause it requires prior preparation.Banana leavesare coated with oil to make the hee pan more fragrant than the traditional recipe, and the red yeast rice powder gives the hee pan its coloring.
Modern-day hee pan is made by:
Bamboo steamersare traditionally and presently used to steam hee pans.
Bamboo steamers are preferred for steaming because the structure of the bamboo steamer is airtight. It prevents condensation of water dripping onto the hee pan; preserving its original taste and texture of the hee pan.
Many bakeries and pastry shops have innovated to create new variants of the traditional hee pan.InMalaysia, apart from using red sugar to flavor and color the traditional hee pan, the hee pans are flavored and colored with new ingredients such aspandan,coconut sugarand more.
Pumpkin Hee pan
Steamed dicedpumpkinandpandanleaves are utilized to flavor and color the dough instead of the traditional red sugar. The addition of steamedpumpkinandpandanleaves creates a naturalpumpkinfragrant and yellow color.
Brown sugar Hee pan
The usage of the red sugar as a flavoring and coloring to the hee pan dough replaced bybrown sugar. In addition tobrown sugar, small amounts ofbaking sodaare also added to neutralize the acidity of brown sugar.
Purple sweet potato Hee pan
Steamedpurple sweet potatoandpandanleaves are used to flavor and color the dough instead of the traditional red sugar. The additional of thepurple sweet potatogives hee pan its natural fragrant and purple color.
Hee pan derives from a wheat cake traditionally made by theHakka peoplein their olden settlement,Zhong Yuan(中原)before the outbreak of theDisaster of Yongjia(永嘉之乱), which led to their migration to the south of China duringJinandWeidynasties.The migration of theHakka peoplehas led to a settlement inMeizhou(梅州), a prefecture city in theGuangdongprovince in southern China.
Unlike,Zhong Yuan (中原)where vegetative crops and wheat were predominantly grown, the dominant agricultural crop inMeizhou(梅州)wasriceandglutinous ricecrops.As a consequence of ingredient differences due to contrasting geological conditions,riceandglutinous ricewere used as a substitute ingredient for the making of the traditional Hakka wheat cake. In hopes to recreate the olden Hakka cuisine from the north, the Hakka settlers inMeizhou(梅州)have applied the same wheat cake making technique to rice and glutinous rice. As a result, hee pan is created along with the birth of the Hakka rice cake tradition during theJinandWei dynasties.
Over time, hee pan and the Hakka rice cake traditions of the south have become popular over theTangandSong dynasties.
In Hakka and Chinese culture, the color red is historically symbolic of prosperity, luck, and longevity. As such, the traditional red hee pans are of high cultural significance and value amongst the Chinese people. The red color in the traditional hee pan symbolizes good fortune and happiness. The hee pans are typically associated with auspicious occasions and are prepared during festivities to symbolize blessings and good fortune.
Lunar Chinese New Yearis an important festival in Chinese culture. It represents the start of a new year and new beginnings for everyone, where people reconcile and families reunite in harmony.During the first day of this festival, hee pan is offered to honor ancestors and deities on ritual altars. The Hakka people believe that the sweetness from the hee pan offerings will leave a sweet taste in the mouth of the deities and ancestors and so they will answer their prayers and bless the people with a prosperous year ahead.
Hee pan is also traditionally enjoyed throughout the Lunar Chinese New Year festival. In the Hakka culture, the sweetness of the hee pan represents the "sweet fruits of labor" and the consumption of hee pan during Lunar Chinese New Year will bring a blessed and "sweet" year ahead.
Qing Ming Festivalis a 2,500-year-old tradition where the Chinese people visit the burial sites of their ancestors to sweep their tombs, pays respect and to commemorate their ancestors. To commemorate and show respect for the ancestors, prayers are conducted with tea and food such as hee pan is prepared as offerings to the ancestors. Unlike the usual red hee pan, the hee pan prepared for the Qing Ming festival is green, from the addition ofwormwood. Green hee pans are traditionally prepared as offerings instead of red hee pans because green color symbolizes the descendants' grief and their hope that their ancestors are coping well in the afterlife.
Aside from being an offering, the green hee pan is also traditionally consumed during the Qing Ming festival. It is believed that the consumption of the green hee pan before, and after tomb sweeping service will bring great health and blessings from the ancestors for the upcoming four seasons of the year.
In the Chinese customs, a full month celebration is held when a baby turns one month old in theGregorian calendar, which equates to the baby turning a year old in theLunar calendar. The ceremony is a tradition held to celebrate the baby's first month of life as it is historically hard for babies to live over a month old.The traditional red hee pan is distributed to family and friends during this time to celebrate this blessing of the survival of the baby and also to pray for vitality, luck, and blessings for a long life for the child.
In Chinese culture, wedding ceremonies consists of several rituals. One of the first rituals held on a wedding day is the tea ceremony. This is where the bride and groom greet their respective future in-laws and family with tea. During the tea ceremony, the traditional red hee pan is served as a pastry for family and relatives.The traditional red hee pan is served to ward off evil as well as to  bless to the couple for fertility and a long successful marriage.
Hee pan is economical to produce as it is traditionally made in bulk from two ingredients,sugarandrice. Hee pan is also filling and have a long shelf life compared to cooked rice. Over time, hee pan gained popularity and became an integral type of rice cake in the Hakka food culture.
Hee pan is traditionally prepared at home during significant cultural festivities. Nowadays, hee pan has become a popular snack. It is commonly made and bought from bakeries and traditional pastry shops for cultural festivities and cravings. This is because the preparation of hee pan is time-consuming and more and more Chinese families living in cities have gradually replaced the tradition of making hee pan at home with store-bought alternatives.