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.

orderly, but soulless

Yesterday evening, when I was watching the well-coordinated movements of thousands of performers in the closing ceremony, I suddenly thought about some mise-en-scenes in the film the Lord of Ring, in which the intimidating force is represented in the similar manner. The only difference is that the later one is a simulacra created on the screen with the help of computers, while the former one is a real event happened in the Bird's Nest.

Today, quite exceptionally, the headline of the top story appeared nearly all newspapers in Beijing, and Internet news portals as well, has unanimously used IOC chief Roggae's word 'truely exceptional' (in Chinese it's translated as '无与伦比', which plays up a bit to the meaning 'best ever' from Roggae's words, like this story from the Australian indicates) to praise the Beijing Olympic Games. Although it's amusing to see the gap btw the Chinese expectation in the translation and what's been given in reality by Mr. Roggae's, I'm really sick of such self-intoxication in such a shoddy unanimity and order, so depressing and distasteful that when I heard Boris Johnson poking fun to his audience at the London House by saying it's the 1908 Games, I couldn't help laughing.

It makes me feel better, and I swear, it has nothing to do patriotism or nationalism. I'm just cheered up a bit by his sharp and humorous comment, like suddenly you are granted to breathe freely after having been confined in a tightly controlled space for a while. This somewhat eccentric London mayor just behaves like that lovely child in the story of Anderson's emperor's new cloth, by simply pointing out a matter of fact, while most of us are silent. Of course, the speech given by him as a whole is full of Londoner's pride, but it's not offensive to my ears.

What a relief! I know he thinks the aesthetic taste of the ceremony is quite outdated, even philistine.

There is another story from WP that has made my head even cooler. Probably it is the first insider's account on the weirdness of services he was provided.

'As sports spectacles go, I've never seen one more efficiently or soullessly executed than this one. I have no idea where they put the real people for 17 days, but I felt like Jim Carrey in "The Truman Show." Where's Ed Harris saying: "Truman is going to turn left on Main Street: Cue the smiling girl and the hearty hot dog vendor." '

Very personal indeed, but it gives me a sense of truth about how good it is.

Really a cool stuff!

August 08, 2008

First thing I did in the morning when I got up is to see the sky outside the window. No bright sunshine, no blue sky, it is grey and hazy as yesterday and the day before yesterday.

Today is a big day for China as the opening ceremony of the Games will be staged tonight at 8:00 pm. The so-called greatest event that China would host in the last one hundred years would be unveiled to the rest of the world. I can foresee the grandeur of the ceremony which is supposed to inspire, to awe, or even to shock spectators from all over the world. Anyway, which country has ever worked out such a big scale fireworks show as Beijing would do by using the whole stretch of the north-south axis of the city, to symbolize China’s returning to the world as a power?

Of course, no comments on the air pollution by such a great work, as we are supposed to lose ourselves in such a beautiful and fantastic illusion. And the mandate - enjoy! Because you must – is permeating everywhere in the public sphere, from banners saying ‘one world, one dream’ in streets to national flags in local residential areas, not to mention the hyper-joyful mood saturated in the media world.

Welcome to the grandest party that Chinese have ever had in its history. Excessiveness is everywhere, and pleasure abundant, no matter how superficial it is. We are in the era of overindulgence in the image projection and flexing muscles with national pride.

Will this unprecedented show eliminate the skeptics about the prospect of China? Certainly not. Amid this hypnotic man-made frenzy, today’s gloomy weather is the most powerful counter argument against the claim that the environment has been largely improved. The last straw to restrict the number of cars in streets didn’t deliver the miracle that most people have been hoped for.

If there is anything peculiar today, it must be weather. Disenchanting and sober, it is such a good reminder for the GREEN Olympic Games!