Bizarre Mooncake

The traditional mid-Autumn (moon) festival is coming, so moon cakes are widely available now in various shops. I received a box of simply-packed moon cakes from my parents several days ago, a kind of family tradition indeed. Probably that's the only reason, a bit nostalgic, that would propel me to eat those greasy sweet cakes to celebrate the Festival.

When I was a child, the choice of moon cake was very limited. Yolk, ham, bean, date etc, probably all together moon cake stuffing had less than ten types. But in recent years, a lot of new types of moon cake have been created to lure customers. Tea, ice cream, coffee, mushroom, organic cereal, all sorts of fanciful or healthy stuffing are put inside a piece of tiny cake. Still, it's a seasonal food, which perhaps explains why it's not like tart, or cookies, that you can always have it as a kind of daily delight with a cup of coffee or tea.

In fact, no matter how attractive the stuffing sounds to me, I simple would ignore it when I step into a lovely bread shop at the street corner opposite the east gate of the Temple of Heaven. Until a friend of mine who just visited China for the first time showed special interest in those tiny moon cakes, wondering why one piece was nine RMB while a blue berry tart was just five, did I notice that there were quite a lot of moon cakes being displayed there. At the moment he asked that question, we just finished our breakfast, and I suddenly realized that probably I should have treated him a piece of real moon cake. That nine-yuan moon cake has pine mushroom (matsutake) inside, it should be tasteful.

A bit strange though, today when I saw that vulgar gold moon cake in the newspaper, I ruminated a bit on why I lost my touch to this seasonal food. I guess I'm not the only one having such a mentality. There is a saying in China now that those who buy moon cakes will not eat them, and those who eat moon cakes generally would not buy themselves. They have become gifts, not made purely for the pleasure of taste buds and for the family re-union, but for lubricating Guanxi or bribery, with sumptuous packing and ridiculous stuffing such as gold, jade, silver, or even platinum.

For the pure gold moon like the one in the photo, it can be sold with the prize tag nearly 10,000RMB. Everybody knows its purpose, and every year when the Moon Festival is approaching, there are always some extremely bizarre and expensive moon cakes being sold in the market. Creativity in bribery is abundant!

Gone are the days when moon cake is simply a nice small cake, while eating it under the full moon, with some snacks and liquor, brings so much joy among family members and friends. When a delicate tradition connecting to our inner world has been spoiled by those bizarre gold cakes and bogus practice of Guanxi, perhaps I can excuse myself for forgetting to treat my friend a piece of real nice moon cake.