"The small cake is like chewing the moon, with crispy and sweet fillings inside." This small cake, described by Su Dongpo, captures the simple Chinese love for mooncakes. It's long been more than just a Mid-Autumn Festival treat; it carries a millennium of cultural interest and a deep sense of patriotism.
The earliest form of mooncakes can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty's "Hu Bing." Legend has it that while Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Guifei were admiring the moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, they found the name "Hu Bing" unrefined. Seeing the bright moon in the sky, they spontaneously coined the name "Mooncake." By the Ming and Qing dynasties, the custom of eating and giving mooncakes had become extremely popular, becoming a symbol of Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations and reunion in every household. Thus, a small mooncake made its way from a royal pastry to the homes of ordinary people, bearing witness to the passage of time.
Today's mooncakes have long since broken free from the constraints of tradition, boasting a diverse array of flavors and forms. Classic Cantonese mooncakes, with their thin skin and generous fillings, and traditional flavors like lotus seed paste, red bean paste, and five-nut mooncakes, remain a beloved favorite for many. Suzhou-style mooncakes, renowned for their crispy crust, are known for their layered, crumbly textures. The savory and sweet flavors of fresh meat mooncakes are a true culinary delight. In recent years, new flavors like snowy skin mooncakes, lava mooncakes, and chocolate mooncakes have emerged one after another, along with even more imaginative creations like crayfish and snail noodles. These have both satisfied young people's curiosity and revitalized this traditional delicacy.
But regardless of the evolving flavors, the core meaning of mooncakes remains unchanged: reunion. On Mid-Autumn Festival night, under a bright moon, families gather around the table, cutting into a mooncake symbolizing wholeness. Sharing the sweetness, they share the warmth of reunion. For those living far away from home for work or study, receiving a box of mooncakes from friends and family, each bite is a harbinger of home, easing their longing and homesickness.
A mooncake, wrapped in the weight of history, embodies the innovation of the times, and holds the simplest Chinese dream of family reunion. More than just a food, it connects the past and present, the individual with their country, warming our taste buds and hearts every Mid-Autumn Festival.
