Hello! Welcome to this edition of CBN Friday Special. I’m Stephanie Li.
With the glow of lanterns, savoury and sweet mooncakes, a table full of autumn harvest and fruits, and family reuniting under a beaming full moon with its elegant soft hue, this is how many Chinese people like to welcome the Mid-Autumn Festival, arguably the second biggest Chinese traditional holiday of the year, after the Spring Festival.
(资料图片仅供参考)
It is celebrated on the night when the moon is at its fullest and brightest – on the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese lunar calendar, which falls on September 10 this year, which is tomorrow.
For thousands of years, the festival and the moon have struck a chord deep in the hearts of the Chinese people, who spend it with their loved ones.
Celebration activities vary in every part of the country. For example, in the country’s centuries-old capital Beijing, residents buy "Tuzi Ye", loosely translated into "the Rabbit Master" and enshrine it at home during Mid-Autumn Festival. The tradition is believed to have started in the final years of the Qing Dynasty. The fluffy, adorable toy rabbit is decorated with human-like features wearing armour and flags, resembling a fearless fighter in Peking opera who bravely protects the city and its people.
In traditional Cantonese culture, the fire dragon dance is a special form to pay tribute to the moon in a small corner in Hong Kong. The fire dragon dance can feature up to 300 performers, who parade a dragon made of straw stuck with glowing incense sticks through the narrow streets of Tai Hang village, on Hong Kong Island near Causeway Bay.
In the 19th century, Tai Hang was a poor fishing village populated by people of the Hakka minority. In 1880, as the legend goes, Tai Hang suffered a plague that was dispelled only after villagers made a dragon from straw, covered it with lit joss sticks and paraded it around the village. The dance became a yearly event and was inscribed on a national list of intangible cultural heritage.
During theMid-Autumn Festival, extended families get together and dine onauspicious foodssuch as pomelo, taro, water caltrops and lotus root, as well as seasonal foods such as pumpkin, chestnuts, duck and crab.
What"s unique about this holiday is that mooncakes are the star of the table.The quintessential food of the Mid-Autumn "Moon" Festival is the mooncake, a dense pastry traditionally made of lotus seed paste and salted duck egg yolk, usually seen in provinces and regions in South China.
A traditional Cantonese mooncake is usually shared among family members, so the plastic knives and forks that come with the cakes have made it convenient. But a new regulation to rule out excessive packaging this year has caused an unexpected minor annoyance to some Cantonese mooncakes eaters, as they found themselves a bit unaccustomed to the absence of plastic forks and knives that used to be packed together with the cakes.
As the requirements restricting excessive packaging became mandatory national standards to curb extravagance and eliminate luxury packaging on Aug 15, some mooncakes producers have removed the tableware and go green this year.
While some of the mooncake packaging is beautiful, it’s also excessive and has driven up prices. According to research, China"s packaging waste accounts for about 30 to 40 percent of urban household garbage. And most of the packaging waste was generated from excessive packaging, said State Administration for Market Regulation in 2021.
These days, there are thousands ofmooncake varieties- with fillings including red bean, minced pork, green tea, fruit, custard and even ice cream. New varieties come along every year.
Aunique kind of mooncake — filled with mature vinegar — recently attracted followers in Taiyuan, Shanxi province. Based on traditional production processes and fillings, including different nuts and dried fruits, mature vinegar is added, which greatly improves its flavour.The vinegar removes some of the sweetness and greasy taste while leaving no sour flavour.
In recent years, various regions have introduced innovative mooncakeflavoursbased ontheir local characteristics. Luosifen, a dish of rice noodles cooked with snails, is a signature street food in Guangxi province.Luosifen mooncakes arefilled with these local ingredients offering crowds a unique festival experience. Hubei province is famous for its crayfish, so each mooncake is stuffed full with fourcrayfish. Varieties of this mooncake include garlic, salt and pepper, and spicy crayfish options.
However, the number one premium seasonal delicacies in autumn, the Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, may not make it to tables this coming Mid-Autumn Festival due to a prolonged heat wave and drought in the middle and lower valleys of the Yangtze River, the major farming area for the crab.
The Yangcheng Lake hairy crab usually start to grow in early March, and are harvested in the autumn after five times of shedding, but the heat wave this year lagged the shedding process of crabs, and some crabs even stopped shedding after the fourth time.
Crab prices are surging in the upcoming holidays.Due to this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival falling about one week earlier than usual, and the crab yield is affected by high temperatures, leading to a shortage in the number of fresh crab. Most crabs currently on sale are relatively small in size compared with normal years, and that larger-size crabs will be selling at a much higher price.
We may not be able to enjoy delicious hairy craps this Mid-autumn Festival, but there’s still some exciting news. Chinese scientists have achieved a remarkable feat in their research of the moon as they have discovered and identified the sixth new lunar mineral, one day ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The China National Space Administration and the China Atomic Energy Authority jointly announced on Friday that the new mineral – Changesite-(Y) – was found by scientists from Beijing on surface samples returned by the country"s Chang"e 5 robotic mission. The Changesite-(Y), which falls in the category of lunar merrillite, has become the first lunar mineral ever discovered and identified by Chinese scientists, making China the third nation in the world, after the United States and Russia, that has achieved such feat.
Okay, that’s so much for today. Enjoy your favourite mooncakes and have a nice holiday. See you next time!
中秋将至，赏月、吃月饼、玩花灯等习俗从古代流传至今。而中国历史纵深、地缘广大，不同地区的中秋习俗各异，带有鲜明的地域特色。
供奉兔儿爷是老北京特有的中秋习俗，这一习俗已经有400多年的历史。如今兔儿爷已经是北京具有代表性的非物质文化遗产之一，成为北京重要的文化符号。兔儿爷的形象颜色多种多样，但万变不离其宗，多是兔首人身，有着一对神气的火焰眉，一双长长的耳朵，披着甲胄、插护背旗，手中拿着一只药杵，外形可爱却又不失英雄气。
大坑舞火龙是香港特别行政区香港岛北面沿海客家村落为驱瘟祈福每年定期举行的庆贺中秋节民俗活动，是香港四大非物质文化遗产之一。大坑的居民每年都扎做新的火龙，龙身分为32节，由珍珠草扎成，插满长寿香，由300多人轮流舞动。火龙表演结束，居民会将火龙身上的龙香分派给围观者，据说拿到龙香的人将会好运临头。
中秋佳节，月饼是必不可少的时令元素，其咸甜口味又成南方北方网民的争论焦点。简单地以口味划分，北方大部地区的传统月饼是以枣泥、果仁、豆沙为主的甜口月饼，而南方地区咸甜通吃。
南方月饼以广式和苏式为代表。广式月饼特点是皮薄、馅大，重油、重糖，油皮包裹冬蓉馅、豆沙馅和莲蓉馅等各种丰富馅料，香甜软糯。苏式月饼则取浓郁口味，油糖皆重，外皮酥松，层层叠叠。而北方代表京式月饼甜度及皮馅比适中，口感脆松。京式月饼传承宫廷风格，做工考究，制作程序极其复杂。
今年月饼市场推陈出新，月饼新口味层出不穷，各地根据自己的地方特色，推出了创新口味的月饼，月饼“咸甜之争”再升级。
在山西太原，一款加入手工老醋和果仁馅料调和而成的醋味月饼销售火爆。醋的香味中和了糖的甜度，解油解甜解腻，每天能卖出4000多个。广西则结合本地特产，推出螺蛳粉口味的特色月饼，馅料有酸笋、螺肉、果仁等。四川也顺势推出火锅月饼，馅料混合了红糖和火锅底料的汤汁，辣味与甜味层层交融。
除了口味创新，今年月饼市场的变化也体现在月饼包装上。今年8月15日正式实施的《限制商品过度包装要求 食品和化妆品》国家标准第1号修改单明确规定，月饼包装层数最多不超过3层，包装材料不得使用贵金属和红木，月饼不应与其他产品混装，包装空隙率不超过30%等。监管新规下，市场上的月饼包装更为环保简约。在广东，部分月饼商家响应新规，月饼礼盒取消塑料刀叉，此举引发网友热议。国家发改委相关负责人解释，发布公告的主要目的就是以月饼为切入点，推动月饼等大众消费品回归传统文化本源，提倡节俭、反对浪费，遏制传统节日相关商品“天价”现象，促进行业健康发展，引导形成良好社会风尚。
除了月饼，螃蟹也是受欢迎的应节食品。秋天正是阳澄湖大闸蟹最肥美的时节。但今年阳澄湖大闸蟹将缺席中秋节餐桌。60年一遇的高温季节让今年的大闸蟹出现了蜕壳慢、个头小、价格高等问题，而今年的中秋节恰恰来的特别早，远早于阳澄湖大闸蟹的开捕日期。根据目前的生长情况，阳澄湖大闸蟹将在9月23日前后正式开捕。由于成本提高和产量减少，或将导致大闸蟹价格上涨。
值得一提的是，就在中秋节前夕，国家航天局、国家原子能机构联合9日在京发布嫦娥五号最新科学成果，并在活动上宣布，中国科学家首次在月球上发现的新矿物，被命名为“嫦娥石”。据悉，“嫦娥石”是一种磷酸盐矿物，呈柱状晶体，存在于月球玄武岩颗粒中。这是人类在月球上发现的第六种新矿物，我国是世界上第三个在月球发现新矿物的国家。
Executive Editor: Sonia YU
Editor: LI Yanxia
Host: Stephanie LI
Writer: Stephanie LI, HUANG Yuyan
Sound Editor: HUANG Yuyan
Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni
Produced by 21st Century Business Herald Dept. of Overseas News.
Presented by SFC
编委: 于晓娜
策划、编辑：李艳霞
播音：李莹亮
撰稿：李莹亮、黄雨嫣
音频制作：黄雨嫣
设计：郑文静、廖苑妮
21世纪经济报道海外部 制作
南方财经全媒体集团 出品