Cut cake, also maren candy (瑪仁糖), maren (麻仁), or qiēgāo, is a

confectionery Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...

made with candied fruit, corn syrup, flour and nuts. It is a traditional snack of the Uyghur ethnic group in

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

Hotan Hotan (also known as Gosthana, Gaustana, Godana, Godaniya, Khotan, Hetian, Hotien) is a major oasis town in southwestern Xinjiang, an autonomous region in Western China. The city proper of Hotan broke off from the larger Hotan County to become ...

. Cut cake is made in large blocks, and sold by cutting slices from the block, hence the name "cut cake". Cut cake bought from Uyghur peddlers has developed a bad reputation because of the practice of cutting slices much larger than requested, followed by insistence on purchase of the entire piece. In December 2012, the "Sky-high Price Cut Cake Incident" in

Yueyang Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake and Yangtze in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China. Yueyang has an administrative area of a ...

resulted from a local government post on

Sina Weibo Sina Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily acti ...

, describing the government's response to a public brawl involving cut cake peddlers and locals.

Yueyang Sky-high Price Cut Cake Incident

On 3 December 2012 the Yueyang Public Security Bureau posted a report on Sina Weibo about a brawl involving locals and Uyghur peddlers which ended with two people injured and the destruction of peddlers' product. The post said that one local villager was detained, while the Uyghur peddlers were reimbursed . The post resulted in a flood of internet commentary resentful of the favouritism shown to minority groups, exemplified by what was considered the exorbitant reimbursement price offered to the peddlers.

References

{{reflist Chinese desserts Uyghur cuisine