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The clue is in their name: spring rolls are eaten year round, but particularly at new year because their colour and shape evoke gold bars
Charmaine Mok
Published: 7:45am, 1 Feb 2025 - South China Morning Post
The spring roll is a common sight on Chinese dinner tables during Lunar New Year celebrations because its golden-brown exterior and shape mean it is taken to resemble a gold bar, although it is eaten year round.
The unassuming fried treat has worldwide appeal: so ubiquitous is the spring roll on takeaway menus in the United States – where sometimes it is referred to as an egg roll – that some believe it to be an American-Chinese invention. In fact, the spring roll has a history in China going back several centuries.
Its name hints at the time of year it was mostly eaten. The spring roll’s name in Mandarin, chunjuan, refers to spring the season; as for its history, it was mentioned by the Tang dynasty (618-907) poet Du Fu and referred to in The Shoufu, a Yuan dynasty (1271- 1368) compilation of stories.
Early iterations of the spring roll were not fried golden brown as they are today; rather, it consisted of fresh herbs and vegetables associated with the spring harvest, loosely wrapped in thin pancakes.
Typically, the rolls would be made to welcome the advent of the Spring Festival, as Lunar New Year is also called, and constituted part of a “spring platter” that was decorated with auspicious ornaments and given as a gift to friends and family.
During the Tang dynasty, the rolls featured what was called “five spicy” – pungent ingredients garlic, shallots, leeks, coriander and field mustard that were believed to nourish qi, the life force Chinese believe circulates through the body, and expel stagnant air from the internal organs. The rolls were offered to the gods before being consumed.
Song dynasty chefs took the spring platter further and made it more elaborate, with finely shredded vegetables showing off chefs’ knife skills, luscious fatty meats, and brightly coloured purple and yellow carrots – orange ones did not exist at that time – radishes dyed red and chives to create a visual spectacle.
Delicate ingredients such as bamboo shoots, water celery and shepherd’s purse also featured.
Poets of the day waxed lyrical about the intricate spring dish, which heralded the beginning of the new year.
Following a harsh winter, the spring platter, with its abundance of fresh and sweet vegetables, represented renewal and hope for the year ahead.
During the Ming dynasty that followed, the spring platter evolved to the point where the pancakes were rolled into more compact pieces. But it was not until the Qing dynasty that the term spring rolls was used.
By this time the spring roll, now bundled and fried to resemble a gold bar, had become the version we know today.
“In the US, spring rolls are served year round because Chinese-American restaurateurs needed a dish to serve as an appetiser, so seized upon this festival food as an option,” says Grace Lin, the author of Chinese Menu: The History, Myths and Legends Behind Your Favourite Foods.
The origin of spring rolls, and why Chinese people eat them to celebrate Lunar New Year
Greg