Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Full moon, full hearts, join us this mid -autumn festival for tasty mooncakes and good vibes.
Let's make this celebration pop.
And is your friend a master at showing up late?
What are some creative ways to address chronic lateness and friendships?
Coming to you live from Beijing, this is Roundtable.
I'm He Yang. For today's program, I'm joined by Steve Hatherly and Li Yi in the studio.
First on today's show, the Mid -Autumn Festival is one of China's most cherished traditions.
This year, it falls on September the 17th, when the moon is believed to be at its fullest and brightest.
For the Chinese people, this celestial event symbolizes unity, harmony, and happiness.
It is a time for family reunions, moon gazing, and sharing heartfelt gratitude through sincere wishes.
Central to the celebration is the enjoyment of mooncakes, a beloved delicacy that brings people together.
While mooncakes are the festival's signature treat, this year's mooncake industry is embracing a more simplified approach with reduced prices and a focus on promoting rational, healthy, and sustainable consumption.
The industry reflects the evolving values of the celebration.
So this festival holds cultural significance near and dear to the hearts of the Chinese people.
Li Yi, please explain where does this festival come from?
Sure, and I just want to say happy Mid -Autumn Festival.
First of all shout out to all of us that are still working here and also those people who are still working.
You said full moon and full hearts.
I want to say full moon, full heart, full belly.
It is a day to eat as well, isn't it?
It is a day to eat, to celebrate, and also to appreciate the beauty of the moon.
As He Yang said, it's the day usually when the moon is at its fullest and brightest.
In the meantime, we celebrated Mid -Autumn Festival a day on the 15th day of the eighth month in the traditional Chinese calendar every year, and this year it falls on September 17th, and also China celebrating the festival with a three -day holiday from September 15th to 17th.
And this Mid -Autumn Festival in China marks a time of family reunion, somehow similar to Thanksgiving I guess, and also it's considered as the second largest, the second most important traditional festival here in China, while the first of course is the Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year.
And the celebration is pretty much all about the moon as He Yang said, because moon is usually the brightest and the fullest, and meantime there are different actually legends about this Mid -Autumn Festival, how it came being, and I think the most popular one would be about Zhang Euo or the Chinese
goddess of the moon, and also her husband Hou Yi.
Well, legend has it that in the ancient times there were ten suns in the sky, and it was extremely hot all the time, so extreme heat really made it impossible for people to live.
And then Hou Yi who is a young man and also an excellent archer saved the planet by shooting down nine of the ten suns, and so that's why he became a hero, and also was given an elixir of immortality by one goddess.
And anyone who takes this elixir can ascend to heaven and be immortal, and somehow his wife, Zhang Euo, drank it.
Some people say she stole it, but anyhow after she drank this medicine she found herself floating and flying to the moon, also with a small rabbit at her company beside.
Where did the rabbit come from?
I don't already know.
I'm just enthralled with this story.
That's just a legend.
Don't make it too scientific.
And a jade rabbit. Yeah, somehow after, well what was since then?
I guess this lady has been considered as the moon goddess and therefore she is closely related to the Mid -Autumn Festival culture as well.
Yes, and we have all these beautiful fantasies about the moon, especially when it's so round and bright, and it does have something that resonates with all Chinese people, because we grew up in this culture with so many poems and classics in literature or whatnot that you grow up with.
So to us it's really one day that you feel, oh I got to give my parents a call even if we're not living in the same city kind of thing.
Big family reunion day, big family celebration day.
Would this be a holiday in China where people leave their work, they try to book their train tickets or their bus tickets or their flights to try to get home and spend time with the family for a few days?
Well I suppose ideally that is what people could do.
But given the fact that it's a pretty short holiday, only three days, and then, you know, everybody will be back to work, which is tomorrow pretty much, and then so I think for a lot of young people who live away from their hometowns, then maybe it's still a day to travel a little bit, have a little
bit of fun, or gather together with friends instead of family.
But the biggest traditional family gathering would still be the Chinese New Year's.
That's the biggest one of the year, right?
Yeah, indeed. And in the meantime, well it's a festival for family gathering, and do you know it's also a festival to celebrate harvesting as well?
I mean, although we do have a special harvesting day here in China, but usually during this Mid -Autumn Festival, holiday or this period, people would also somehow relate to harvesting with this holiday.
That is also because of another origin of this festival.
Well, actually in history, this Mid -Autumn Festival has a history of over 3 ,000 years, and it was derived from the custom of Muen worship during the Western Zhou dynasty, which is about 3 ,000 years ago, and ancient Chinese emperors, they would worship to harvest Muen in autumn, as they believed that the practice
would bring them a plentiful harvest the following year.
That has also something to do with, you know, ancient peoples, their worship towards sky, and everything they think to worship everything related to this can bring them good harvesting.
Yeah, so this would be an important time of year for farmers, historically speaking, would that be correct?
We have it in Canada as well, Thanksgiving holiday.
It's a little bit later.
It's in October, and that's because the weather is a little bit colder in Canada, so the harvest I guess happens at that time.
But yeah, I was wondering, curious to know if it's because it's related to harvest, it must be related to farmers too.
I guess so, but nowadays maybe the harvest aspect of things is a little bit, sort of not the first thing that people would associate with this holiday or this festival.
And to me, it's always about mooncakes.
But for other people, I'm actually one person who's genuinely adoring mooncakes every year, and this is rather, I don't know if it's old -fashioned or it's just not what most people do these days.
Yeah, I'm actually quite surprised to find that you are a true lover of mooncakes.
Can we start with a definition of mooncakes please, because I just tried my first mooncake today as a matter of fact.
So for our listeners who don't know what a mooncake is, can we talk about that?
Of course, actually the mooncake is somehow like a little dessert that is made from wheat flour as a wrap, and there are different ingredients and there are different fillings.
Some can be salty, some typical salty filling could be egg, yolk, and also ham and mixed nuts.
And then there are sweet fillings and the most popular one would be red bean paste and also lotus seed paste.
These are very common fillings and also very traditional flavors of mooncakes.
And nowadays there are also some quite unusual fillings.
And for example, like duran is also being made.
Oh really? Yeah, as the filling of mooncake.
Did you try the durian one?
I have had them in the past, not my favorite, but Chinese people or there's a chunk of us who have this love of durian.
Sometimes you can't even see Chinese pizza places selling durian pizza, you know, so having that smelly monster fruit as the pizza topic.
So the mooncakes are the shape of a disc.
They're about maybe an inch high and they're really, really pretty.
They're really beautiful on the top.
Is this normal? The one that I had today, it had a very pretty design on the top.
They typically have a design, I think.
Yes. And then the fillings from what I understand, they can get the people who make them can get creative, I guess, these days with the interior of the mooncake itself.
Yes, absolutely. And I have to say, I started my celebration two weeks plus ago.
I've been having mooncakes for my breakfast every day and can I just, you know, indulge a little bit on what I believe are the best noteworthy mooncakes to recommend to our global audience?
Please do. Okay, I'm absolutely obsessed and every year around this time I'm just ready for these rich and sugary indulgences.
And okay, Yunnan province in China is known for nowadays coffee, tea and including truffles.
And these days, my favorite French restaurant in Beijing, they've come up with their own truffle, coffee and tea customized mooncakes which have been selling pretty well and Yunnan's flour cakes so good and shredded ham mooncakes are incredibly tasty and that meaty flavor is out of this world.
Plus those dry tangerine peeled red bean mooncakes just so great.
And red bean, by the way, Steve, is the Chinese equivalent to chocolate.
Yes, after living in Korea for a long time, I'm very familiar.
It's called pot in Korean, the red bean and it's used as a kind of a dessert filling a lot of the time.
Oh yes and the Peninsula hotels renowned creamy custard mooncakes are always a hit and the Hong Kong Mei Xun lava custard mooncake has been a favorite here for many years as well.
But the Cantonese white lotus paste with double egg yolk, which is bai lian rong shuang huang yu bing is my top pick.
Definitely the goat and the Su Jo style pepper and salted ginkgo and grain seeds mooncake.
So amazing. And this, sorry.
We're going to be here for the rest of the show just listening to various mooncakes.
Oh my goodness. And this morning when I was like posting on WeChat, no, I mean on Weibo and I really had to hurry because, you know, I was just gonna before I devour the whole thing I had to send the pictures out.
I'm thinking this holiday is a time in China where people usually gain a few pounds or a few kilograms.
Yeah, makes sense based upon what you just described.
Yes my friend, if you feast on mooncakes for more than half a month, then yes, I can feel I'm a little bit more chubbier and apparently well, this is a disclaimer.
I think everybody should know that with the more regular mooncakes, they're usually 100 grams per cake and they're about 400 calories in there.
And then that is more than one can of coca -cola and less than a Big Mac in terms of calorie count.
But if you have a Big Mac with a Coke and then a mooncake for dessert, well then hopefully your next stop is the gym.
But now don't exercise on this holiday.
Take a break. But, you know, for us people who honor the tradition, who love this sweet and sugary delight, then I suppose it's worthwhile.
And then it just reminds me of this festive period.
And well in China we're proud foodies and for a lot of the big celebrations or big holidays, there's one signature food that's attached to it and ta -da mooncakes today.
I'm really happy to see that you're a true fans of mooncake.
Because for me, you know, during this modern festival, well I do care because my memory of mooncake is that I have to eat, I'm somehow forced to eat this mooncake because every year you see like the exchange of mooncake sets between friends and families.
Because here in China, you know, it's not only it's more than you're eating.
It's also a gift that you tend to give to other people.
Your coworkers, your families, your relatives, your friends.
So that's why in like big and small supermarkets, you can see different mooncake sets of different prices.
Some can be extremely expensive actually.
In the past, this has been a talking point and then there's a lot of discussion about can't we make it a little bit more affordable, especially when sometimes these mooncake sets come in such exquisite packaging.
And then you have to go through layer and layer and then there might be a mirror, there might be a, what do you call it?
It's not a juke box like a music box.
Oh, within the box of mooncakes?
Yeah, sometimes. And so like these manufacturers that get really creative and then you know, it's that added stuff that can give them a reason to up the price.
Right. So therefore, sometimes people feel like, okay, this is supposed to be a mooncake set box, but why do I feel that the mooncake is the garnish and is the box that is the most expensive fit?
Question. So when you're gifting another person a box of mooncakes for the holiday, are you supposed to spend a certain amount of money on a box depending on who that person is?
Do you know what I mean?
I see what you mean.
And that's why it gets a little bit tricky.
And that's why I think we've seen a little bit of an evolution of gift mooncake gift giving in recent years, because a few years back, maybe a lot of people did buy these very expensive mooncake boxes, basically as a gesture to send to business associates, clients or people you want to impress in the work
setting. But in recent years, there's this gradual change that is maybe more and more people are doing less of that and then more towards in between friends to family or maybe folks like me who just enjoy mooncakes.
And I can't I don't care at all about the packaging if it's buying for myself.
Right. And then you see these new trends in mooncake gifting as well as manufacturing these days, which apparently is a lot more sustainable.
And we're talking about some people even going for individual mooncake shopping.
So, Lee, do you have some information for us regarding where we are at in terms of the mooncake industry right now?
Well, I think on one hand, you can see that consumers are being more rational in terms of the consumption of mooncakes and also when it comes to gifting mooncakes boxes.
And particularly this year, you can see that the mooncake gifting boxes priced over 500 yuan, that's about 70 US dollars, have gradually stepped out of the market.
And instead, some quite affordable, for example, like 100 yuan cost effective gifting boxes set to begin get popular.
And I think that's also have something to do with a policy.
You know, we do have a regulation and official policy on mooncake and also its prices.
And that's in 2022.
Oh, so is there a price ceiling on the mooncakes?
Somehow. Yes. Pretty much like that.
While in 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and also three other departments, they issued a guideline to control the exorbitant prices of mooncakes and also make well, the purpose of this policy is really to make this traditional treat more affordable to most consumers and also try
to I would say try to say no to this trend that you have to send very expensive mooncake gifting boxes to your bosses or to your relatives.
That's why I asked before, because if companies and I understand why companies would do that, make them fancier with mirrors and music boxes inside or whatever they can think of.
But that puts more pressure on people in society to buy more expensive gift box sets, because people know everyone's aware of the cheap ones and aware of the expensive ones.
So if you gift someone a cheap one, they might feel like, where's my mirror?
Where's my music box?
So I get that move to try to control the prices so it doesn't put people in that awkward position.
And also, may I say, is more oversight over the price of expensive mooncakes.
But I wouldn't go as far as saying there's a price ceiling per se.
And certainly in recent years, there's been a lot of talk about making these mooncakes a little bit more affordable and really just coming back to mooncakes instead of the mirrors and the fancy music boxes.
So there is, I think, a palpable change in you don't even see people like go into...
It's not as prevalent as it used to be, maybe for all this mooncake giving.
It's more of, you know, consumption among friends or relatives and home, that kind of thing.
A kind gesture as opposed to a luxury gift.
Yes. And also, I think people care if you're actually gifting between friends or family, then if this mooncake is tasty or not, that, in my opinion, becomes a key parameter in, you know, whether this is a good gift or not instead of the showy aspect of things.
It's a similar time of year to what's going on in Korea right now, as a matter of fact.
It's called Chuseok in Korea, and it's a major holiday there too.
And it's also the second biggest holiday of the year after the New Year's celebrations.
And they don't have mooncakes in Korea, but they do have something called Songbian.
And those are little tiny balls or they're rice cakes that are filled with sometimes the pot, the red bean, sometimes sesame seeds and honey.
Oh, that's a good one.
Oh, yeah. Sometimes, yeah.
Same as in China, they get creative with the fillings.
And that's how they celebrate there.
They don't do... I don't know if they do gift boxes of Songbian as gifts during the holiday, but they do plenty of other gift box sets there too.
In Japan, they have a festival as well.
It centers on the moon appreciation.
It's called Sukhimi.
And people eat rice cakes there as well instead of mooncakes.
In Vietnam, it's called the Children's Festival.
And children play a really central role.
They carry around colorful lanterns, and they enjoy lion dances there.
But in Vietnam, they do eat mooncakes, but the focus is more on children's activities there.
They also have celebrations in Singapore and Malaysia and Thailand as well.
So this is a big party time, I guess, and gathering time for many different countries around the world.
And every year around this time on this day, there's the China Media Group Mid -Autumn Festival Gala, which is something folks do anticipate.
And I remember when I was living overseas, of course, the CMG New Year's Gala is one thing.
And also the Mid -Autumn Festival Gala is one big show and extravaganza that you could watch on TV.
And also besides eating mooncake and watching TV Gala, I assume that traveling is still the most popular thing that people would do during this three -day holiday.
And this year, during the Mid -Autumn Festival holiday, you do see a surge of short -distance travel.
I think that really makes sense because you only have three days.
So short -distance travel is really a very good option for you with easy accommodation and more options.
And data from China's online travel services platform Flicki showed a double -digit increase in bookings for hotels, domestic car rentals and tickets for this popular traditional festival compared with 2019.
And I also noticed that for some young travelers, they also prefer short -distance travel because they feel like, you know, during previous short holidays like Dragon Boat Festival and even May Day holiday, they feel like there are too many people in every tourist attraction in China.
So that's why they prefer also visiting nearby cities and smaller towns to ask a more proper destination during this year's Mid -Autumn Festival holiday.
So that's kind of like a long weekend.
Yeah. Yeah. So people can get mentally prepared.
Yes, you come back to work.
And then in October or in the very beginning of October, there's a long holiday.
That's, you know, giving us a lot of energy to work right now.
So this is the warm up, I guess, for the bigger holiday.
Everybody's doing their stretching and getting their eating their mooncakes now so they can get ready to maybe go to a beach or something for the long holiday.
No, I get it. It makes sense then.
Do the short domestic trip now something not so far away because number one, you have a limited amount of time.
But number two, people have a longer holiday coming up in about four weeks, three weeks, four weeks.
So if you're going to be spending a lot of money on a big trip, you're going to save your money now, I guess, and save it for that time.
Do the mini trip now.
Oh, don't even get me started.
And I haven't really been doing my calculations.
Yes. That makes a lot of sense.
Steve, Mid -Autumn Festival is perhaps the most romantic of our holidays, in my opinion.
No sacrifices, no rights, no thoughts of the mortals.
We come together for the full moon's allure.
For those apart, may their bond endure as the moonlight spans the distance.
And on this special day, I can't help but think of, you know, those people who are also working.
Kudos, you know, you guys are all, you know, troopers for doing this.
And we say thank you to those, you know, who are still on their job posts.
And for all of you who are traveling back to your workplace because, yeah, work does commence tomorrow.
And, you know, safe travels and all that good stuff from Roundtable sending you love and light this Mid -Autumn Festival.
May the full moon bring you peace and joy.
And of course, enjoy those mooncakes.
Today is the day to indulge and think about maybe weight loss another day.
And may your celebration be filled with love and laughter.
Happy Mid -Autumn Festival.
