The film is about an aging and lonely Chinese Canadian mother suffering from empty nest syndrome, who receives an unexpected second chance at motherhood when she makes a steamed bun (baozi) that comes to life.

[6] The earliest sketches of Bao date back to January 2014, when Shi began work on it as a side project, drawing inspiration from classic fairy tales and her experience as an only child.

The Mandarin dialogue in the details of that scene is an homage to old Cantonese soap operas that Shi watched with her mother growing up.

"[7] A driving motivation for Shi's desire to tell the story in Bao was her experiences of being Asian in a country with lack of Asian-American media.

Initially Shi was worried that the ending was too dark, and would be out of place for a Pixar film, which prompted her to write a watered down version.

Shi took this feedback and created the final produced version that made it into the short in which the Mother takes the dumpling and swallows the son in one gulp without chewing, in order to show "a quick crime of passion.

"[8] Shi went on to say that Bao was an example of a children's story that involved darker elements and themes that she believed were important, and a modern-day interpretation of some of the darker-themed folk tales that inspired her, such as The Gingerbread Man and Asian fables about finding babies in food such as peaches.

Bao thus had to be worked on more slowly, creatively and flexibly, with the production only finding out that it would be paired with Incredibles 2 a year before that film's release.

[9] In order to research the cuisine presented in the short (many of which were inspired by favorite dishes that Shi's parents made), the crew took many steamed bun and Sichuan restaurant trips in San Francisco and Oakland's Chinatown.

[5] She came in twice to Pixar to hold steamed bun-making classes for the crew, which also provided video reference for kneading dough and making wrappers for the opening shots of the film.

Photos of their parents' houses, as well as research trips taken by the entire staff to shops and dim sum restaurants, including those in San Francisco's Chinatown and Oakland, provided reference for the film's production design.

[9] To further capture this authenticity, Liu helped keep track of cultural details, such as tin foil covering the burners on the stove, tchotchkes on the television, the rice cooker in the background, and soy sauce bottles.

[7] Other members of the production crew were also instructed to visit specific locations in Chinatown to shop and eat at in order to given the film a sense of authenticity.

[4][10] Prior to the Christmas holiday in 2018, Pixar made Bao freely available to stream on YouTube for a week, the first time that the studio has offered a short in this manner.

[12] In The Verge's review of Incredibles 2, Tasha Robinson described Bao as an "extremely emotional little film" and a "perfect complement" to the main feature.

[14] Jess Lee for Digital Spy said that the film "hit extremely close to home", and added that the story exhibits "universal themes which should resonate with most cultures".

[15] Petrana Radulovic of Polygon says the film was well received by "many" Asian Americans, although some non-Asian viewers found the short confusing.

[16][17] Lisa Wong Macabasco of Vogue saw Bao as a story whose emotional resonance is derived from how it fuses its themes of food and family.