Shining spotlight on mooncakes
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-17 07:31

Annette Wiedenbach, who lived in Taiwan for five years then on the mainland for three-and-a-half, is in the rare position of having observed different styles of celebrating the holiday. She said that in Taiwan people get one day off to get together with family members and friends, whereas here it seems all about giving away the cakes. "There should be more respect for the spirit of the festival and its underlying story, which many people don't know,"she said.

Like all expats interviewed for this story, Wiedenbach, who works for a German multinational company in Shanghai, has difficulty "digesting" the cakes. "I don't discriminate against mooncakes per se, but many of them contain egg yolk or sweet minced meat mixes, which I cannot eat because I am a vegetarian. Furthermore, I believe that meat should be salty or spicy. Sweetmeat just doesn't sound right."

She suggests trying to make apple pie mooncakes but is happy herself to settle for the Haagen Dazs ice cream cakes.

"I give out mooncakes, too, and I tip my hat to this tradition," laughed B. Gilbert Luzader, an American lawyer who has worked in China since 2000, first at a university in Guangzhou and now for a British company doing corporate training.

Even though some compare the Moon Festival to Thanksgiving in the United States, Luzader said it reminded him more of Christmas because fruitcakes, like mooncakes, are everywhere during the season but are eaten by few. But he did not see much need for tinkering because "the market will take care of that."

(China Daily 09/17/2005 page1)