Tāngyuán is a Chinese food made from glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water. Tangyuan can be either small or large, and filled or unfilled. It is traditionally eaten during Yuanxiao, or the Lantern Festival.

Historically, a number of different names were used to refer to the tangyuan. During the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, the name was officially settled as 'yuanxiao', a name derived from the 'Yuanxiao festival', also known as the Lantern Festival. This name literally means "first evening", being the first full moon after Chinese New Year, which is always a new moon. This name prevails in northern China.

In southern China, however, it is called 'tangyuan' or 'tangtuan'. Legend has it that during Yuan Shikai's rule from 1912 to 1916, they disliked the name 'Yuanxiao' because it sounded identical to "remove Yuan" 元宵), and so they changed the name to 'Tangyuan' instead. This new moniker literally means round balls in soup. 'Tangtuan' similarly means "round dumplings in soup".