Shaobing
/ˈʃaʊ.bɪŋ/noun
A Chinese baked or pan-cooked flatbread, often layered and filled with sesame, meat, or sweet paste.
Did you know?Shaobing belongs to the broad family of Chinese *bing* foods, a category whose name originally referred to cooked cakes or grain-based breads rather than modern Western cake.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Chinese
Old Chinese
餅 (*péng/*bǐng)
“A cooked cake or cake-like preparation made from grain flour; the ancestor of modern *bing*.”
Han Dynasty
Chinese
胡餅 (*húbǐng)
““Foreign-barbarian cake,” a sesame-topped bread associated with Central Asian influences; often discussed as an early relative of later flatbreads.”
Tang Dynasty
Middle Chinese
燒餅 (*sjewX-pjæŋX)
“A baked or roasted grain cake; the compound combines 燒, “to roast or bake,” with 餅, “cake or bread.””
Late Imperial China
Chinese
燒餅 (shāobǐng)
“A common name for layered, baked flatbreads sold in regional varieties.”
Modern English
English
shaobing
“An English loanword for a Chinese sesame flatbread or filled baked pastry.”