Wotou or wowotou, also called Chinese cornbread, is a type of steamed bread made from cornmeal in Northern China.

It was a cheap food for poor people, but a legend grew on how it became a dish served in the Imperial Kitchens.

The legend says that during Empress Dowager Cixi's flight to Xi'an from the Battle of Peking (1900) when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China in the Boxer Rebellion, Cixi received a bunch of corn buns to satiate her hunger.

[8] A cake called wowotou was cooked in the same pot as a cabbage after being "slapped on the side", and it was made out of corn-meal and served during the late Qing at Peking University.

[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Wotou steamed bread would be heavy without soda, so it was lightened by adding some sodium bicarbonate according to the Chinese Economic Journal and Bulletin.