More on Mooncakes and My First Blue Sky Day

Just to emphasize the silliness of the whole mooncake-giving culture in China, here are some stats as reported by China Daily, the English language newspaper controlled by the government. Approximately 250,000 tonnes of mooncakes were sold last year for Mid-Autumn Festival. The cost of all the mooncakes – a whopping $1.42 billion (11 billion RMB). They come in with all sorts of fillings and all a wide range of price points. In Chengdu, I saw advertisements for mooncakes with shark fin and bird’s nest (basically bird spit collected in caves – really expensive stuff). To impress clients, family members, friends, etc., the Chinese spent exorbitant amounts buying mooncakes, which can cost hundreds of dollars a box and which come in extravagant packaging.

According to the China Daily columnist, “consumption of mooncakes has one simple purpose – to maintain relationships.” It’d be more accurate to say “the exchange of mooncakes” as opposed to “consumption.” People basically give this stuff to each other even though I am certain that no one actually eats all the mooncakes he or she receives. In addition the writer added, “How many mooncakes one gets measures his intangible value. The more you receive, the more respect you have.” By this logic, I am pretty much valueless and wholly unrespected since I only received 3 boxes (and that’s already more mooncakes than any one person can actually consume!). It’s all just so wasteful and ridiculous!

And in exciting news - Beijing was absolutely gorgeous today. We had our first clear day since I arrived in China almost 2 months ago. For a change you can see the color of the sky (it's really blue!) and see things in the horizon. Definitely a momentous occasion in my mind.