Said the journalist and cookbook author Clarissa Wei, quoted in "Mooncake madness: China cracks down on extravagant versions of festival staple/Modest packaging, capped pricing and auditing of sellers form part of Xi Jinping’s war on societal excess and ‘rampant money worship'" (The Guardian).
China’s mooncake crackdown... is a sign of the CCP’s push to curb societal excesses. Other campaigns or laws have discouraged expensive wedding celebrations and “vulgar” practices that reflect “rampant money worship”, limited the number of dishes a table can buy at a restaurant, and introduced fines for the promotion of performative overeating.
“These [high priced mooncakes] not only deviate from the origin of traditional culture, but also contribute to extravagance and waste, and have a negative impact on the social atmosphere, and may even be alienated into a carrier of corruption,” one official told China News Weekly.
Alienated into a carrier of corruption — that seems like a bad translation. I'm guessing it should be something like "used for bribery."
I'm interested in this story because it's so unlike anything the American government would try to do — not merely school us about vulgarity and materialism but actively control us, and through the medium of festival food and extravagant packaging.
And I don't think I'd ever noticed mooncakes before. Here's the Wikipedia article on these pastry crusts filled with lotus seed paste (or other filling):
Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony", as well as the name of the bakery and the filling inside. Imprints of the Moon, Lady Chang'e on the Moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit (symbol of the Moon) may surround the characters for additional decoration.
The story of Lady Chang'e explains the Mid-Autumn festival, the festival with the tradition of mooncakes:
Ten suns had risen together into the skies and scorched the Earth, thus causing hardship for the people. Houyi the archer shot down nine of them, leaving just one Sun, and was given either two or one with enough for two elixirs of immortality as a reward. He did not consume it straight away, but let Chang'e keep it with her, as he did not want to gain immortality without his beloved wife. However, while Houyi went out hunting, his apprentice Fengmeng broke into his house and tried to force Chang'e to give the elixir to him. She took them instead of giving them to Fengmeng. Then, Chang'e flew upward past the heavens, choosing the Moon as a residence, as she loved her husband and hoped to live nearby him. Houyi discovered what had transpired and felt guilty, so he displayed the fruits and cakes that Chang'e had enjoyed, and killed himself....
Her story is commonly used as a cautionary tale from older generations to warn young girls about the dangers of following selfish desires.
Chang'e was mentioned in a conversation between Houston CAPCOM and the Apollo 11 crew just before the first Moon landing in 1969:
Ronald Evans (CC): Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says the girl named Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.Michael Collins (CMP): Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.
The rabbit is the Chinese equivalent of the man in the moon. There is a human tendency to see something meaningful — that's called "pareidolia" — but different cultures have different ideas about what the dark-and-light patterns on the moon resemble. We've been seeing a man's face for a long time, but the Chinese have been seeing a rabbit.
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17 comments:
I'm pretty sure mooncakes were sold alongside Twinkies at private airport vending machines in the 60s.
Alienated is code for deviation towards Western values.
I ate a single mint once from a Japanese hotel.
It was all alone in a very elaborate, die-cut folded box...like origami.
Really incredible.
I designed retail packaging for many years, and I've never seen anything better than what the Japanese do on a consistent basis...
One reason for the emphasis on packaging: moon cakes don't taste very good and traditionally are regifted.
My first impression was that "moon cake" was another oriental pejorative like Christmas Cake in Japan.
Urban Dictionary: Christmas Cake; A woman 26 years+ who is considered to be past her prime, undesirable...
The term originates from Japan where it is tradition to eat cake on Christmas. So a cake intended for Christmas that was not eaten or is left over is considered bad and should be thrown out.
'One reason for the emphasis on packaging: moon cakes don't taste very good and traditionally are regifted.'
So in China, people are nuttier than a moon cake?
I'm sure Xi's mooncake is large and extravagantly packaged. And he probably has cases of them for his family and mistresses. Those at the top of the Socialist hierarchy always have what they want as they decry what others have or what others are doing.
They had a good run.
Mooncakes are OK in small doses. The ones from HK with egg yokes are better (at least to me).
What's interesting about the article is the heavy-handed puritanism that is now a part of Xi-Thought. Excess is bad because, if you have more than the bare minimum, you aren't dependent on the state. Xi started with the moguls, then the libertines and free-living urbanites and is now down to mooncake boxes. And along the way, he instituted mass facial ID cameras everywhere, permits required for everything, controls watching users on social media and the internet, everyone well aware that they can be wiped out financially (or otherwise) for wrong-think or wrong-speak.
Puritanism always ends up as an exercise in controlling others, making them conform and bend the knee to someone else's god. It's as if the Red Guards were coming back as Green Scolds. Regardless of the particular color or the fact that today's methods are more sophisticated, you will still be required to conform.
I never saw "Crazy Asians" (2018).
Is it any good?
Ann Althouse said...
"I'm interested in this story because it's so unlike anything the American government would try to do —"
...yet. But if the wokeing dead get in charge, expect restrictions on everything in your life.
“ But if the wokeing dead get in charge, expect restrictions on everything in your life.”
I thought something like that when I was writing the post. Decided not to run with it.
“ But if the wokeing dead get in charge, expect restrictions on everything in your life.”
“I thought something like that when I was writing the post. Decided not to run with it.”
Bernie Sanders said that Americans only need one brand of each consumer good. Can you imagine that? A life in Politics does not teach you that branding is what supports quality? If there is no competition why would any product be good?
I suspect that where he was going was that there should be only one political party too.
Didn't Bloomberg limit or tax large sodas? Or was that the more recent regime?
It's just sumptuary laws back from the dead.
Is this like a Moonpie?
Two things jumped out at me:
1) Xi's complaint is spiritual, anti-materialistic: things will not make you happy.
2) What he seems to be saying has a substantial amount of truth. One of the great questions of our time is "So many people are so incredibly rich by historic standards. Yet they are not full of joy and appreciation. Often, quite the opposite. Why?"
A mooncake is quite unlike anything in the American food experience. They can be very expensive, even here in the Midwest. And even at the little market where I got mine this year, they place the fancy tin in a fancy matching gift bag so it's all ready for gift-giving. My favorite is mixed nuts with minced ham. The go-to standard is lotus nut paste with one or two salted egg yolks. I have one more quarter-slice of a lotus nut mooncake left at home. Then, the year-long wait for them to reappear in the market.
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