In Yifeng Village, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province in eastern China, a small nian gao—also known as a rice cake—workshop has entered its busiest stretch of the year as Chinese New Year approaches. Seventy-plus master rice-cake maker Tao Chengtu begins work in the small hours, around three or four in the morning, and keeps going into the night, producing hundreds of kilograms of nian gao each day for the surrounding area.

Tao insists on the old-fashioned process: soaking the rice, grinding it into a slurry, steaming it, and then pounding the cooked mass. The results are decidedly springy and tender, yet not tooth-adhesive; the cakes are softly glutinous with a clean rice fragrance, and each bite picks up the grainy pop of white sugar crystals.

From dawn to late night, the workshop fills with steam and the steady rhythm of the workers. The scene—rising vapor, busy hands and the smell of steaming rice—has become Yifeng Village’s most vivid winter image, a small, deeply local portrait of New Year preparation.