There are three sources of "bread" in China.

The first one, "mantou" supposedly has its roots in a Three Kingdoms story. Zhuge Liang, the strategist for the kingdom of Shu, wanted to cross a tumultous river after subjugating a barbarian kingdom. When he was informed that the tradition was to sacrifice some humans and toss their heads into the river, he instead slaughtered some animals and stuffed them into buns shaped like human heads. He called these "barbarian heads" or "mantou," which turned into the mantou we know today.

Then we have the bread of the Uighur people. This bread is very similar to that of the South Asian chapati, as is what is likely a Chinese version of the chapati called laobing. The Uighur version is a bit different though as it is multilayered and more puffy as opposed to other flatbreads.

The last variation is that of a Western-style bread, introduced by, amusingly, Japan. During Japanese colonization of Taiwan, they introduced western-style bakeries into Taiwan as part of their assimilation platform. After the return of Taiwan to Chinese rule, this industry began to thrive, and more recently mainland China bakeries in this Taiwanese-style have began to pop up as well. This trend is also popular in Korea.