You are restricting the list of Chinese sweets to those limited to Western tastes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasma etc. The things put in Chinese jellies and sweet soups are far more diverse than your list which I would not even call uncommon since you can get red bean or green tea whatever at a middle american strip mall buffet. Try a Chinese dessert shop in Chinatown. Personally, I have difficulty enjoying most of the items as dessert.
When I'm in the states I regularly get sweets from a Chinese bakery in Chinatown. I'm often the only white guy there so I think it's reasonably authentic - Chinese friends have confirmed this.
There may be weirder options (any vegetarian suggestions?) out there somewhere, but they don't seem particularly common even in Chinatown. Most folks seem to order similar things to me (albeit carnivorous).
China is much bigger than Chinatown -- and then there are lots tons of regional differences, say between Hong Kong and Hainan. Even in places like Singapore, Malaisia, etc with multi-million Chinese communities you can find much more variety in foods & sweets than what's available in Chinatown.
The authenticity of said bakery may be true but one needs to go to a chinese dessert cafe or similar for a full menu of chinese traditional desserts. Various soups, congee (porridge), and jellies, and gelatin cakes. Again as someone else mentioned, it is not just the ingredients (coconut is very common) but the amounts and textures. Cashew nut soup is an example, and probably quite accessible.
Speaking as someone (an American) who has lived in Shanghai for several years, I find the authenticity of the concept "Chinese dessert cafe" pretty questionable.
I'll take your word for it. I've never noticed such a thing. There's street food all over the place, sit-down restaurants are common, but dessert is vanishingly rare outside of foreign restaurants. The closest thing I've seen to a dessert cafe served waffles. :/
EDIT: I have confirmed that stores exist selling chinese sweet pastries. I'm happy to call this a win for you. (I also got a note saying Guangdong is known in China for the local prevalence of sweets, so Hong Kong would be especially likely to have such a local tradition.)
One person I asked listed 纽约芝士蛋糕 ("New York style cheesecake") as an example of Chinese dessert, so there's that.
>One person I asked listed 纽约芝士蛋糕 ("New York style cheesecake") as an example of Chinese dessert, so there's that.
Yeah, not even close, there are such chinese places (with sweets etc), but "New York style cheesecake" is not even close to what they sell.
"New York style cheesecake" is just something Chinese eat in westernized places -- so that would make it an example of Chinese dessert the same way McDonalds would be an example of Chinese food.
It's not that expensive. You can get hasma dishes at a dessert cafe for 15 CAD. Definitely higher end. But it was just one example to counter green tea and red bean. My point still stands.
