Chinese Muslims wrap halal rice dumplings to promote Chinese culture

The fragrant, oily but not greasy zongzi is the favorite of the Chinese, but for Chinese Muslims in Singapore, it is very difficult to find halal and delicious zongzi.

In order to let Chinese Muslims eat delicious zongzi, the Singapore Huihui Cultural Association held an online live broadcast during the Dragon Boat Festival to teach zongzi making. The live broadcast received enthusiastic response, not only attracted thousands of people to watch, but also received dozens of orders. The orderers include Chinese Muslims, Malays and Indian Muslims.

Over the past weekend (June 18-19), nearly 30 members of Huihui Cultural Association built a fire and made more than 800 rice dumplings in two days.

Halal rice dumplings are based on glutinous rice and contain fried chicken, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, chestnuts and salted egg yolk. Lai Baozheng, deputy secretary of the executive committee of Huihui Cultural Association, said in an interview that the smell of cooked rice dumplings when they opened the lid made people drool.

The Huihui Cultural Association of Singapore was established in 2019 to promote traditional Chinese culture and customs, and to help new Chinese Muslims.

Fu Baoyu, president of the association, said in an interview: “The Huihui Cultural Association hopes to be a platform for Chinese Muslims who have entered the religion to have a place to study, not only to learn the Islamic religion, but also to learn the traditional culture of our Chinese. The traditional culture of the ethnic group has a long history and cannot be ignored.”

In addition to the Dragon Boat Festival, Huihui Cultural Association also holds activities during the Spring Festival and Qingming Festival to promote Chinese culture. Fu Baoyu said that this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival will also hold a party to appreciate the moon.

“I hope that the Chinese who are not Muslims can learn about Islam. This is a religion that does not distinguish between races. They will not object to their children interacting with Muslims, and let them know that we Chinese can participate in all religions. of.”