Yangon’s thriving Chinatown shows how food can help heal scars of Myanmar’s past
- After the anti-Chinese riots in the 1960s and years of discrimination, Chinese immigrants are now celebrating their identity and heritage through food
- Yangon Chinatown’s food evolution illustrates the changing times of the country
Two days after the end of Chinese New Year, Rabbit Bakery is still busy churning out pastries for eager customers.
Inside the cramped room in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, shop owner Aung Kyaw Moe oversees workers making dough for Taiwanese sun cakes.
The tai yang bing, as the cakes are known, are composed of two types of dough, an inner layer with oil and an outer layer with water, that together produce its flaky texture.
The bakers roll the dough into balls, flatten them, stuff maltose sugar filling inside and seal the edges. Then, the baker kneads the ball into a round cake and puts it on a tray to be brushed with egg wash.
After six minutes, 30 sun cakes emerge from the oven, all warm, crumbly and golden brown.
The recipe has travelled a long way. In 1988, Aung Kyaw Moe’s father, Wang Suming, a second-generation Chinese immigrant from Fujian province, went on a holiday from Myanmar to Taiwan. Due to pro-democracy protests at the end of general Ne Win’s regime, he was not able to return to Myanmar until his parents deemed it was safe.