Mooncake

Synopsis

Mooncakes are the most representative traditional food of the Mid-Autumn Festival, shaped like a full moon to symbolize reunion. Chinese mooncakes have developed into nine major regional styles, including Cantonese, Suzhou, Beijing, Chaozhou, and Yunnan styles, with dozens of flavors. Cantonese mooncakes are best known for their thin crust and rich fillings, with lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk being the most classic. Suzhou-style mooncakes are famous for their flaky, layered pastry, while Beijing-style mooncakes traditionally feature fillings like jujube paste and mixed nuts.

Overview

Mooncakes are the most representative traditional food of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Named for their resemblance to a full moon, they symbolize family reunion and happiness. Also known as Hu cakes, palace cakes, small cakes, moon balls, or reunion cakes, mooncakes consist of a pastry crust and a rich variety of fillings. Admiring the moon and eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important dietary customs for Chinese people. On this day, no matter where they are, people eat mooncakes to express their longing for family reunion and their yearning for a better life.

After a long period of development, Chinese mooncakes have formed nine major regional styles: Cantonese, Suzhou, Beijing, Chaoshan, Yunnan, Shanxi, Hainan, Taiwanese, and Harbin, with dozens of flavors. Among them, Cantonese-style mooncakes dominate the national market, being the first choice for over 60% of consumers. In recent years, innovative development of mooncakes has been very active, with new varieties such as snow skin mooncakes, lava mooncakes, and ice cream mooncakes emerging one after another. However, traditional mooncakes remain the mainstay on the Mid-Autumn Festival table.

Historical Origins

The history of mooncakes can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. Legend has it that when Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, was admiring the moon with his ministers on a Mid-Autumn night, a merchant offered Hu cakes. Li Yuan took the round cake, pointed at the bright moon with a smile, and said it should be used to invite the toad (from the moon). This is considered the earliest prototype of the mooncake. By the Song Dynasty, mooncakes had become a common food for the Mid-Autumn Festival, as recorded in many literati notes.

There is a widely circulated legend from the Yuan Dynasty: when Zhu Yuanzhang was planning an uprising, to secretly spread the message of rebellion, he had notes reading "Kill the Tartars on the fifteenth of the eighth month" hidden inside mooncakes distributed across the land. Although the authenticity of this story is questionable, it reflects the folk memory and national sentiment that mooncakes have carried in Chinese history.

Mooncakes truly became a nationwide core food for the Mid-Autumn Festival during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Tian Rucheng's "Records of Travels Around West Lake" from the Ming Dynasty notes: "The fifteenth day of the eighth month is called Mid-Autumn. Common people present mooncakes to each other, signifying reunion." From then on, mooncakes officially became one of the most important cultural symbols of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Nine Major Styles

The dominance of Cantonese mooncakes nationwide owes much to the lotus seed paste filling. In 1889, a pastry shop in the west of Guangzhou city used lotus seeds to make a fine, sweet lotus seed paste as filling for mooncakes, which became widely popular. The lotus seed paste with salted egg yolk mooncake thus became the signature of Cantonese-style mooncakes and remains the best-selling variety nationwide to this day.

Suzhou mooncakes are famous for their layered, flaky crust, which requires extremely meticulous craftsmanship. The pastry dough must be rolled and folded multiple times to create layers, each as thin as a cicada's wing. The most distinctive among Suzhou mooncakes is the fresh pork mooncake, with its flaky crust and juicy filling, releasing a burst of meaty aroma with each bite. It is the most popular traditional pastry in the Jiangnan region during the Mid-Autumn season.

Cultural Significance

In Chinese culture, mooncakes carry profound symbolism of reunion and happiness. Their round shape symbolizes the full moon in the sky and the gathering of family. On Mid-Autumn night, the whole family sitting together to share and eat mooncakes represents the warmest form of Chinese-style reunion. This cultural tradition of expressing the desire for reunion through shared food is one of the simplest yet deepest emotional expressions of the Chinese nation.

Mooncakes are also an important carrier of traditional Chinese culture. The patterns on the mooncake surface often feature Mid-Autumn themes like Chang'e flying to the moon, the Moon Palace (Guanghan Gong), or the Jade Rabbit, as well as auspicious patterns like symbols for fortune, prosperity, longevity, and happiness, or dragons and phoenixes. These patterns themselves are exquisite examples of folk art. Mooncake packaging also bears the mission of cultural transmission. Many time-honored mooncake brands, such as Guangzhou Restaurant, Xinghualou, and Daoxiangcun, are themselves integral parts of Chinese culinary culture.

Mooncakes also serve as an important link for overseas Chinese to maintain cultural identity. In Chinese communities around the world, the tradition of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival is passed down through generations. A single mooncake connects the emotions of overseas Chinese to their homeland, acting as a sweet ambassador for the global dissemination of Chinese culture.

References

1. Baidu Baike: https://baike.baidu.com/item/月饼/248376
2. Wikipedia: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/月饼
3. Guancha.cn: https://www.guancha.cn/EErJin/2017_10_04_429779.shtml