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Ryu
09-25-2002, 11:13 AM
Anyone here, celebrate the mid-autumn festival? I've celebrated once before with friends, and this will be my second time. (Yeah I know it's already past) but I'll be celebrating with friends on Oct. 1 :D Looking forward to great Chinese cooking!

Ryu

Chang Style Novice
09-25-2002, 11:19 AM
Boy, you sure are gullible, Ryu! They can't see the moon in China! China is on the other side of the earth, and the moon is above the USA. They didn't even know about the moon until they started coming to the west. They thought Marco Polo was crazy, talking about the moon.

Man, some people just don't have any common sense.

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :

TaoBoy
09-25-2002, 04:02 PM
LMAO @ CSN

:D :D :D :D :D

Ralek
09-25-2002, 09:09 PM
Ryu. Could you please tell me what the word "urasai" means? Thank you.

Ryu
09-25-2002, 10:38 PM
already been answered.

I can translate it into mandarin if you'd like, by the way. :D

Ryu

wooha
09-26-2002, 06:51 AM
My girlfriend gave me a couple of moon cakes if that counts for anything. The moon bits are a bit weird, but the rest of the cake was very tasty.

Fish of Fury
09-26-2002, 07:26 AM
had a couple of moon cakes too....
(I love mooncakes)

TenTigers
09-26-2002, 03:13 PM
I love moon cakes! We just got a new brand that doesn't have as much of the egg and more sweet filling. As a gwailo, my tastebuds are not used to eating a dry egg yolky center. I also eat an entire cake in one shot-great when downed with milk, while everyone else cuts tiny portions off,"just for taste". Then again, when I drink espresso, I ask for it in a normal cup,and "not one of them sissy-boy teacups"-um, I might also add, when partaking of sake at the local sushi bar, I usually end up at the end of the night with what appears to be a miniture bowling alley on the bar.

Ryu
09-26-2002, 03:24 PM
To be honest I actually like the center. Last year I was trying my dammdest to make them from scratch too..... I only ended up having to have my friend snatch the dough away from me and do it right. :(

This year will be better! I swear it. :D

Ryu

Stacey
10-17-2002, 04:41 PM
Anyone know when it is this year?

David Jamieson
10-17-2002, 04:42 PM
when the moon is right. And the time comes to pass... Then and only then will the moon festival be held.

peace

joedoe
10-17-2002, 04:48 PM
*Whooosh*. Is that the sound of the moon festival flying past? :D

mortal
10-17-2002, 07:16 PM
September 21, 2002 missed it.

Stacey
10-17-2002, 07:20 PM
oh well, thanx for the info

Mr Punch
10-17-2002, 07:36 PM
Er, what is the moon festival?!

Shadow Dragon
10-17-2002, 10:34 PM
Originally posted by Mat
Er, what is the moon festival?!

I think it coincides with O-Tsuki-Mi in Japan.

But it might be a bit off as the Chinese and japanese O-Bon are also held a slightly different times.

Cheers.

anton
10-18-2002, 05:29 AM
I like lotus paste moon cake! mmmmmmmmmmmm :p

SPJ
09-25-2007, 07:50 PM
It is the mid autumn festival today.

I am too tired from work.

so just ate some moon cake and shared some stories with friends.

--

:)

SPJ
09-25-2007, 07:51 PM
I was in phillie some years ago.

they had dragon/lion dance and free moon cakes.

they also had tai chi and southern fist performances.

some chinese folk songs and folk dance from kids of chinese school.

--

:)

SPJ
09-25-2007, 07:54 PM
it is a tradition holiday in china and taiwan.

no matter how far you are, you are supposed to travel back and be with your family.

if not, you are alone, some family may host you as a guest and celebrate together.

it is almost a small chinese new year.

:)

SPJ
09-25-2007, 07:58 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfsumFoA14o&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N02VLyAOY3M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqlHzkCZu4&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCVzBc6BMkM&mode=related&search=

:)

SPJ
09-25-2007, 08:16 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eTDc-OUaLU

some celebrated with tong bei demo.

ok.

:D:)

SPJ
09-25-2007, 09:28 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_ejGiQfI-U

"the moon represents my heart"

if we miss someone far away, just look at the moon.

we all do. dun we?

:D:)

Xiao3 Meng4
09-25-2007, 09:56 PM
Mid-autumn's pretty close to the equinox this year... fortuitous.

So, is it a man's face, a woman, or a rabbit that you see? :rolleyes: (that's me looking up at the moon)

Christian

mantis108
09-26-2007, 11:34 AM
Happy Mid-Autuum Festival to you all too. :)

Well, before the advent of modern science equipments, the sun and the moon (Yin-yang) were so important in Chinese daily life on so many level. But now oh well...

Mantis108

SPJ
09-26-2007, 08:49 PM
It is amazing that people may record the day that the moon will be closest to us or biggest and full each year over 3000 years ago.

There are many versions of legend that the archer Hou Yi shot down 9 of 10 suns from the sky.

He saved people with his power.

but he also was a violent ruler.

He may not live forever b/c people will suffer under his rule.

so the wife Chang Er took the exilir of eternal life and flew to the moon with the jade rabbit.

A power may be used to save life. A power may also be used to destroy life.

--

:eek::D:)

SPJ
09-26-2007, 08:52 PM
Many countries have plans to go back to the moon and build permanent stations on the moon.

--

:)

TenTigers
09-23-2010, 08:25 AM
Wishing everyone a happy Autumn Moon!
Enjoy your Moon Cakes!!!yum~!:)

Dragonzbane76
09-23-2010, 08:48 AM
favorite time of the year. :p

Iron_Eagle_76
09-23-2010, 11:33 AM
Harvest Moon was awesome last night here at home!

David Jamieson
09-23-2010, 07:18 PM
can't talk, eating yucky mooncakes...

SPJ
09-23-2010, 07:38 PM
I made my own mooncakes

the center piece was red bean paste.

the crust was more bread like with layers.

no egg yolk. I know people like to have twin yolk or triple yolk not me.

no peanut oil on the crust--

PRC are sending Chang Er 3 to land on the moon in 2013--

happy mid autumn fest

:)

David Jamieson
09-24-2010, 06:47 AM
I made my own mooncakes

the center piece was red bean paste.

the crust was more bread like with layers.

no egg yolk. I know people like to have twin yolk or triple yolk not me.

no peanut oil on the crust--

PRC are sending Chang Er 3 to land on the moon in 2013--

happy mid autumn fest

:)


I see what you did there... :p

GeneChing
09-12-2011, 02:15 PM
There's a box of mooncakes on the center desk in our office. As soon as no one is looking, Ima gonna grab me some.

SPJ
09-12-2011, 02:33 PM
Yes. eat some moon cakes and do not forget to watch the full moon, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Vw_x5Kvng&feature=share

funny story/legend telling.

:)

GeneChing
09-12-2011, 02:53 PM
She did some modelling for us back in the day. We still use her image for our got 氣 shirts in the magazine. Here she is with our regular got qi? shirt (http://www.martialartsmart.com/95w-036w.html). She was our Tiger Claw Shoes (http://www.martialartsmart.com/shoes-martial-art-shoes.html) Make an Impression model on page 83 of our Mar Apr 2005 (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/article.php?article=578)issue (that shoot was a personal fav of mine - anyone who has that issue can look it up and know why ;))

SPJ
09-12-2011, 02:55 PM
yes. Her face was familiar.

so I picked her video.

:D

David Jamieson
09-12-2011, 03:48 PM
Where I live, Chinese folk are ubiquitous. So the mall put on the best fireworks show I've seen in this burg!

holy crap it was awesome!

Thanks for the autumn moon festival firework show Chinese culture (and merchants of the local mall)! I'm glad it happened. :)

SPJ
09-13-2011, 10:29 AM
the moon was surely full and bright last nite.

I like the moon cake/yue bing with red bean paste/soft layered crusts. or hong dou sha (red bean sand)

do not like the egg yolk/lotus grinds (lian rong) with thin crusts. because they are almost always prepared with peanut oil

me have upset stomach from peanut oil.

--

:cool:

David Jamieson
09-13-2011, 10:32 AM
the moon was surely full and bright last nite.

I like the moon cake/yue bing with red bean paste/soft layered crusts. or hong dou sha (red bean sand)

do not like the egg yolk/lotus grinds (lian rong) with thin crusts. because they are almost always prepared with peanut oil

me have upset stomach from peanut oil.

--

:cool:

I'd like to know what motivated you to get all this into one post? :p

just kidding. :D

GeneChing
09-20-2013, 09:20 AM
...but it was a gorgeous moon this year. :)

Our office is overflowing with moon cakes. Last year, we didn't get any. This year, many of our friends dropped by to bring us some.


Excessive amounts of plasticizer found in Guangzhou moon cakes (http://shanghaiist.com/2013/09/19/excessive_amounts_of_plasticizer_found_in_guangzho u_mooncakes.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/benjamincost/mooncakeplasticreal.jpg

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival aka let's see how many moon cake scandals we can write about in one day! The latest concerns unsafe amounts of plasticizer discovered in eight brands of moon cakes in Guangzhou, Beijing Times reports.

The plasticizer is found in the PVC used to make the cake wrap, and can emit harmful chemicals if the moon cakes are too hot when packaged. If ingested, these chemicals can allegedly decrease sperm count in men, but also, ironically enough, accelerate sexual maturity in kids (who knew all Benjamin Button needed to do to fix his problem was stop eating Guangzhou moon cakes).

No rebuttal yet from the Guangzhou brands in question but Hong Kong moon cake companies have denied that their moon cake packaging contains any amount of plasticizer, while experts say claim that the levels of plasticizer found in the Guangzhou moon cake wrappers pose little health risk.

Fortunately long after the plasticizers have degraded, these interminable pastries will probably still be around, and taste the same as when they were packaged.

In the past excessive levels of plasticizer have been found in instant noodles, soy sauce, baijiu, bubble tea and more.

Syn7
09-20-2013, 09:34 AM
If that(and the many other recent examples) doesn't make you want to stay away from processed foods, I dunno what will. I'm getting to the point where I can't even eat out unless I just push the possibilities from my mind. People are nasty. I'm not a germaphobe, but I mos def don't want to ingest any more crap than I have to. I have many concerns about Chinese imports, but they are by no means the only ones on that list. I have issue with what goes on in my own back yard too. Granted I trust Canadian foods significantly more than Chinese imports. So weird to me that we would work so hard to create safer food supplies then start rolling back regulation now. Why now? It's sad what people will do for profit.

Jimbo
09-20-2013, 10:39 AM
When I lived in Taiwan, I was probably one of the few people I knew who openly liked eating mooncakes people would offer during the moon festival. Then a story came out in the news there that a maker of the cakes was caught re-using cooking oil, fat or grease or whatever from restaurants that was supposed to be disposed of. That was the end of mooncakes for me.

A couple years ago, I had to give up all wheat/gluten products, so that in itself has removed even more junk out of my diet.

GeneChing
09-28-2015, 10:41 AM
China didn't even get it. But at least they got a super moon. More pix if you follow the link.


LOOK: Supermoon over China marks an auspicious Mid-Autumn Festival (http://shanghaiist.com/2015/09/28/supermoon_over_china.php)

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/good_moon3.jpg

Pictures of last night's super cool supermoon taken from across China have flooded the internet as netizens celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival with a little moon gazing and photography.

Unfortunately, amateur photographers in China were not treated to the extremely rare blood moon lunar eclipse, like those in the Americas, Africa and western Europe, but we already got one lunar eclipse this year. No need to get greedy.

Hope everybody took it easy on the mooncakes this year and enjoy the pics:
http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/good_moon.jpg
Shanghai

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/good_moon2.jpg
Wuxi, Jiangsu province

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/good_moon4.jpg
Lu'an, Anhui province

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/good_moon5.jpg
Lu'an, Anhui province

http://shanghaiist.com/attachments/alexlinder/good_moon7.jpg
Huai'an, Jiangsu province

GeneChing
09-01-2016, 12:58 PM
Avoid high sugar, fat or sodium? They're cakes, dagnabbit. :rolleyes:


Hong Kong consumers warned to stay away from mooncakes with high sugar, fat or sodium content (http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/2012251/hong-kong-consumers-warned-stay-away-mooncakes)
Centre for Food Safety says it is particularly concerned about mooncakes with excessive levels of sweetener
PUBLISHED : Friday, 02 September, 2016, 12:03am
UPDATED : Friday, 02 September, 2016, 12:03am

http://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980x551/public/images/methode/2016/09/01/782d319c-7025-11e6-af03-e675d0741f8a_1280x720.JPG?itok=7LDklFch

Emily Tsang

Consumers have been warned to exercise caution when buying mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival and to choose those with low levels of sugar, fat and sodium.
The advice came as the Centre for Food Safety released test *results from 50 unnamed brands of mooncake. The centre warned in particular of those containing large amounts of sweeteners.
So-called ice-skin or snowy mooncakes contained the highest levels of sugar compared with other varieties, the study found.
The highest amount was found in a 60-gram snowy brand with a lemonade flavour. The sweetener took up42.7 grams per 100-gram serving – equivalent to eight sugar cubes, or half an adult’s *recommended daily sugar intake.
The second-highest sugar *level was found in a traditional mooncake containing 37.6 grams per 100 grams, followed by a Chinese ham mooncake (35.8 grams) and custard one (24.9 grams).
To offset the energy intake in one custard-flavoured mooncake, consumers would have to swim freestyle for 50 minutes or cycle for 40 minutes, according to the centre’s principal medical *officer Dr Samuel Yeung Tze-kiu.
Dietician Sylvia Lam See-way, a member of the government’s Committee on Reduction of Salt and Sugar in Food, said all types of mooncake had a very high level of sugar in them.
“In one day, consumers would be better off with either just a quarter of a traditional mooncake or one whole mini snowy mooncake,” she said.
The study also highlighted brands containing large amounts of fat and sodium.
The brand with the highest *sodium level contained 376 milligrams per 100-gram serving, plus 27 grams of fat.
Lam urged Mid-Autumn *Festival enthusiasts to choose brands containing low levels of sugar, fat and sodium. At least nine brands sampled in the study made such claims, meaning their sugar levels did not exceed five grams per 100 grams of serving.
She said the committee wanted the food industry to develop healthier recipes.
The centre also tested 130 mooncake samples for chemical, microbiological and nutritional content. They all passed the tests.

GeneChing
09-15-2016, 11:26 AM
THANKS BUT NO THANKS
The fruitcake of the East: Hong Kong will throw out a million mooncakes this mid-Autumn festival (http://qz.com/781802/the-fruitcake-of-the-east-hong-kong-will-throw-out-a-million-mooncakes-this-mid-autumn-festival/)
Hong Kongers throw out millions of uneaten mooncakes every year.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/rtx13mn5-e1473894431487.jpg?w=3200
Overflowing festivities. (Reuters/Aly Song)

WRITTEN BY Selina Cheng
September 14, 2016

Today is Mid-Autumn Festival in East Asia, the 15th day of the eighth month on the Chinese Lunar Calendar. It is the day in the year when you can observe the roundest, fullest moon, and also when many in Hong Kong are confronted with a nightmarish reality—too many mooncakes.
For those who aren’t familiar with the tradition, mooncakes are a savory, dense, and greasy Chinese delicacy, synonymous with the Mid-Autumn Festival. Families typically gather for dinner, eat mooncakes, then take late night strolls outdoors to enjoy the sight of the full moon. The Cantonese mooncake is a traditional pastry with thick lotus seed paste, wrapped around one whole salted duck egg yolk (or two), and covered with a thin crust that is baked often with lard.
- A "four-egg-yolks" mooncake, which contains four whole salted duck egg yolks with gummy lotus seed in one cake selling at HK$40 ($5), is displayed at a bakery in Hong Kong September 15, 2004.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/mooncakes.jpg?w=940
No thanks. (Reuters/Bobby Yip)

Families, friends, and colleagues are expected to offer mooncake gift boxes to each other prior to the auspicious date, even though they often do not want to receive them themselves. Re-gifting is common, but even then there’s a lot more mooncake being purchased than anyone really wants.

The tradition is not dissimilar to the western custom of giving, and re-giving, fruitcake during the Christmas holidays, but still being stuck with more fruitcake, as immortalized in this Edward Gorey illustration of Victorian holiday-makers throwing their stockpiles of fruitcake in a hole in the ice.

https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/fruitcake-christmas-cards-61.jpg?w=320
Fruitcake Christmas Card

Greenpower, an environmental organization in Hong Kong, has published annual reports over the past 12 years on mooncake consumption habits. 68% (link in Chinese) of the people they interviewed in 2014 said they would give out mooncakes, while 69% of the same group said they didn’t want to receive any themselves.
Frankly, nobody needs the insane amount of calories (as much as 800 calories per mooncake) and cholesterol contained in each mooncake. But there’s a social expectation to give them out as a festive presents, in return for a polite but insincere “Thank you,” before the unopened box is passed on to someone else. You can’t give them out anymore after the festival is over, so there’s a game of reverse musical chairs happening right now as everyone scrambles to not be left holding too many boxes.
Even so, Greenpower says a huge amount is wasted every year: the group estimated that households in Hong Kong will thrown out 1.04 million mooncakes (link in Chinese) in 2015, down from 2.12 million in 2010.

https://www.theatlas.com/i/atlas_ByxB8Uv3.png

The drop could be attributed to the rise of more fashionable mooncakes (Like Häagen-Dazs’ ice-cream mooncake) that people actually eat, or the trend towards people opting for healthier options like fruit baskets. The South China Morning Post once compiled helpful tips for dealing with the leftovers which include turning mooncakes into hairstyling paste, composting them, or simply shoving them down your throat anyway.

Gigi and I were just noticing this morning that no one brought us moon cakes this year. No luv, man. :(

GeneChing
09-15-2016, 02:12 PM
Starbucks Mooncakes: a beautiful and delicious take on a traditional product (http://en.rocketnews24.com/2016/09/15/starbucks-mooncakes-a-beautiful-and-delicious-take-on-a-traditional-product/)
Oona McGee 12 hours ago

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/19.jpg?w=580&h=435

Only available in certain countries for a limited time, these regional cakes come with a number of gorgeous details.

One of the key ingredients to Starbucks’ success as a global coffee house chain is their ability to adapt to different markets and devise menus that cater to local tastes. In China, there’s one fantastic edible on everyone’s minds in autumn, the delicious mooncake, and Starbucks is now delivering their own take on the traditional specialty to customers in the region.

Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is centred around lunar worship and moon watching. Celebrated on 15 September this year, the cakes are often given as gifts and shared between family and friends during the important Chinese festival.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/114.jpg?w=580&h=435

Starbucks is selling their version of the Chinese confectionery in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, with different designs and flavours available in each country.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/28.jpg?w=580&h=409

Our Japanese reporter Meg picked up a box from the Chinese mainland and was keen to try all three varieties of mooncake inside.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/38.jpg?w=580&h=421

The box was huge and featured stunning decorative elements that made it look like a picture book, with a 3-D Starbucks mermaid raising a cup of Joe to the moon with its fabled inhabitant, a rabbit, jumping through the sky.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/47.jpg?w=580&h=435

▼ The mooncakes featured the Starbucks mermaid, in red, green and brown varieties.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/161.jpg?w=580&h=435
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/58.jpg?w=580&h=374

continued next post

GeneChing
09-15-2016, 02:12 PM
While Chinese mooncakes usually appear with a crusted coating, these Starbucks cakes looked very different to the traditional varieties.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/67.jpg?w=580&h=435

▼ The red cake was a “Cheese Cranberry” flavour.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/131.jpg?w=580&h=580

▼ Inside, resembling the round moon, was a pulp filling that contained whole cranberries, which, when combined with the cheese-flavoured paste around it, made it taste like a western confectionary.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/72.jpg?w=580&h=458

▼ The South American Coffee Hazelnut was filled with flavourful aromas.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/141.jpg?w=580&h=435

The taste was like a milky cafe latte, with crunchy pieces of hazelnuts giving it a great textured mouthfeel.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/152.jpg?w=580&h=472

▼ The Brown Rice Powdered Green Tea was Meg’s favourite.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/84.jpg?w=580&h=422

Filled with delicious aromas, the fragrant green tea combined beautifully with the sweet flavours of the brown rice paste.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/94.jpg?w=580&h=464

Meg’s box, which cost 328 yuan (5,020 yen/US$49.17), was just one of three varieties available. The most gorgeous box in the middle was so popular it had sold out, despite its expensive price tag.

https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/103.jpg?w=580&h=435

Meg absolutely loved the Starbucks mooncakes, with their large size, beautiful packaging and limited availability making them one of the best souvenirs she’s ever bought for herself. She’s already counting down the days until she can buy the 2017 versions next year!

Photos © RocketNews24

Starbucks Mooncakes got it going on! :eek:

GeneChing
09-15-2016, 02:16 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DanEWsQ-zxc

Super Typhoon Meranti is no joke. :eek:

GeneChing
09-16-2016, 09:42 AM
Still no mooncakes in the office here. :(


China’s Luxury Mooncake Market Shifts Focus from Corrupt Officials to Indulgent Foodies (https://jingdaily.com/chinas-luxury-mooncake-market-shifts-focus-from-corrupt-officials-to-indulgent-foodies/)
Jessica Rapp @jrapppp September 15, 2016

https://jingdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/FPO_BEJ_886-1240x827.jpg
Four Seasons Beijing offered three new flavors in its Valrhona Chocolate Mooncake package this year. (Courtesy Photo)

This year, Chinese consumers can indulge just a little more for Mid-Autumn Festival. Traditionally a time for exchanging mooncakes filled with salted duck egg and white lotus paste, the holiday has taken a creative turn. Imported ingredients like chocolate or ice cream are no longer enough for hotel chefs—Four Seasons Beijing, for example, replaced their dark and milk chocolate fillings in their gourmet Valrhona chocolate mooncakes with ingredients that are richer and more complex: Earl Grey tea and blue flowers, matcha and raspberry, and salted caramel. Emilie Zhang, the hotel’s public relations manager, said they frequently survey their clients to determine which flavors to keep and what to change out based on new trends.

Keeping consumers’ taste buds happy has been especially important in recent years because people are actually eating mooncakes as opposed to gifting them as a formality or for bribery. China’s anti-graft campaign has discouraged employers from using state-owned company funds for extravagant gifting expenses, such as elaborate mooncake packages which have retailed for as much as $150 per four to six cakes that are filled with delicacies like abalone and foie gras.

Since sales started suffering from China’s anti-graft campaign in 2012, mooncakes have been making a vibrant comeback thanks to creative recipes and innovation. With the market left open for more unique mooncakes marketed to individuals and families, boutique bakeries have sprouted up both offline and online—throngs of chefs on Taobao sell homemade creations meant to entice buyers with exotic flavors, and five-star hotels have been jumping on the trend as well.

According to the China Daily, Shanghai’s mooncake market has been experiencing a “bumper year,” thanks to the innovative ingredients craze, citing The Peninsula Shanghai’s new upgrade to its traditional egg custard offerings, an iced durian-filled mooncake, as well as Hotel Indigo Shanghai’s wagyu marbled beef mooncakes, which sold better than its “classic” recipes. In Beijing, China World Summit Wing emphasizes online that it’s featuring “new flavors” for its “glamorous” mooncake boxes, and makes a point to comment on quality and imported ingredients. Its range of mooncake packages includes red wine and yogurt flavor and a durian flavor.

Still, there are hotels committed to offering their customers reliability, like The Peninsula Hotel Beijing, which opted not to change its flavors this year. Instead, it banked on giving return customers their favorites and offered the same four packages, with their most well-known flavor being an egg custard filling, a recipe that dates back to 1986. Egg custard could arguably be considered the “original” novel mooncake—the style originated from Hong Kong as a creamy replacement for the traditional salted duck egg filling.

“Recently, mooncake sellers and hotels have offered more and more new flavors to customers, and clients have more choices,” said a Peninsula PR representative. “But at the same time, there is one kind of customer that would like to have the option of purchasing the same flavors every year. The Peninsula mooncake is well-known in the world for its original flavor, so we would like to keep it for our clients.”

The strategy seems to be working for the hotelier. This year, it had a 30 percent increase in orders and sold out of mooncakes by mid-August.

Aside from recipes, technology has also played a role in sales of the traditional treat this year. The Peninsula launched a 400-box flash sale on WeChat for the first time this season to inform more social media followers and gain new customers. Waldorf Astoria Beijing also replaced its online sales with a WeChat shop for its mooncake box and has completely sold out.

It’s unclear exactly how many of these packages are being sold to employers versus individuals, but in Four Seasons Beijing’s case, the Valrhona chocolate mooncakes—which are usually a favorite with corporate clients—sold out this year. Zhang said the hotel did need to reduce the number of boxes from the year before, but attributed this to difficulty in delivering large orders and preventing the chocolate from melting.

The anti-graft campaign’s impact on the mooncake market is likely far from over, however. New government tax regulations went into effect in May, which prohibit hotels from issuing fapiaos, or tax receipts, for anything other than what the customer bought, Zhang said. Before this, a loophole gave hotels the option to write in a mooncake purchase as a hotel room or service. But the shift toward playing to customers’ tastes for trendy, new, and unusual flavor profiles seems to be, at the very least, keeping the festival delicacy afloat.

GeneChing
09-16-2016, 09:49 AM
I know, I know. I've been bemoaning not having any mooncakes this year. Truth is they are really expensive and nasty in a dietary way and I'm really trying to eat healthy nowadays. I'm more missing the ritual of them then the actual eating of them.


China’s Health and Wellness Craze Fuels Demand for Low-Cal Mooncakes (https://jingdaily.com/chinas-health-craze-fuels-demand-low-cal-mooncakes/)
Jessica Rapp @jrapppp September 12, 2016

https://jingdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mooncake-healthy3-1240x825.jpg
Mooncakes by baker Sara Li, who makes her own healthier version of the Mid-Autumn Festival delicacy. (Courtesy Photo)

A single, fist-sized portion of the traditional Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival treat, the mooncake, can cost as much as $12 on average, but what’s more striking is its calorie count: the dessert can contain between 400 and 1,000 calories. With an increasing number of wealthy Chinese consumers concerned about their health, hotels and restaurants are making an effort to transform mooncakes into a pleasure consumers need not to feel so guilty about eating.

Late last month, the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety issued a warning on the health risks of consuming mooncakes that were high in fat, sugar and sodium. After doing a study on more than 50 brands of mooncakes (brands not revealed), it was found that the recently popular snow skin mooncakes generally had the most sugar, with one serving carrying 42.7 grams. The 100-gram mooncake with the most sodium had 376 milligrams of it. The center suggested that Hong Kong consumers should eat one-fourth of the regular-sized mooncake, but for many in Greater China, mooncake consumption has always been an affair of limitations. Dubbed “China’s fruitcake,” mooncakes are often snubbed for being too sweet in a society that commonly avoids overly sugary foods.

Consumer habits like those of Yangbei He are thus fairly standard—she said she normally eats one to two mooncakes a year. “I feel like it’s easy to gain weight [from eating them], and the traditional mooncakes just taste so-so, so I’d rather save my calories for other desserts,” she said.

Yangbei said she does make exceptions for new and interesting flavors, of which there are plenty this year. Many luxury hotels and bakeries have resorted to filling their mooncakes with exotic ingredients to reignite consumer interest after the anti-graft campaign left luxury hotels struggling to make sales. This has left room for a span of exotic creations, ranging from the most decadent like chocolate lava cake, to the other end of the spectrum—gluten free, organic, or incorporating less fattening foods like pumpkin.

The growing health and wellness trend in the mainland has coincided with an increasing demand for the latter, according to Wei Wei Saw, director of communications at Kerry Hotel, Beijing. “We do notice that nowadays guests are favorable towards flavors that are less sweet and healthier,” she said. “As such, we do offer sugar-free options, such as the sugar-free pumpkin.” Four Seasons Hotel Beijing added a sugar-free chestnut mooncake to their menu this year, and other hotels have been resorting to offering packages of bite-sized mooncakes, such as the The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong’s mini egg custard mooncakes. Last year, some hotels even saw health-conscious bosses simply buying gym passes for employees.

Shirley So, co-founder of Beijing’s Glo Kitchen and Fitness said she has been seeing a lot of big orders, specifically from fitness and health care companies, for their healthy mooncakes. Glo replaces cane sugar with honey and the traditionally oily pastry with sweet potato flour. So said she thinks consumers in general “don’t really go out of their way to to choose healthier options” because many of them are simply eating what their companies gift them. But the option, at least, is there.

“There are definitely a lot more healthy mooncake choices,” she said. “It’s part of the healthy lifestyle movement.”

There are also consumers who want to be absolutely sure about what they’re putting into their body. Sara Li, who runs a bakery on Taobao that sells homemade hawthorne fruit jam, peanut butter, and chili sauce, started making her own mooncakes filled with her own red bean paste concoction this year. She said she may start selling them online in the future, but for now she only shares the no-bake desserts with family and friends.

“My parents and I do cut back for health concerns, if you compare it with our consumption years ago,” she said. “But this year, I made them myself instead, so there’s less sugar, oil and no additives.”

Yet, when it comes to conscious consumption, Joel Shuchat, founder of a Beijing-based boutique hotel, The Orchid, whose restaurant Toast produces mooncakes with lotus and duck egg, tahini fudge, and peanut butter chocolate fudge, has a different take on the matter.

“What’s the point of healthy mooncakes?” he said. “Like, who cares? The point is edible.”

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GeneChing
09-16-2016, 11:05 AM
A lovely box just arrived for our office. NOT LOW-CAL. Not Starbucks. No bribes included.

We've cut them up and shared them. It's a very tasty selection.

Mmmmmmmmmm.

Happy Moon Festival All!

Jimbo
09-16-2016, 12:54 PM
When I was living in Taiwan, I actually like eating mooncakes, when they were offered. I suppose lots of people did not. I liked them until there was a news story in Taiwan about a mooncake company that was using recycled lard/fat taken from behind restaurants. It was one company that was known about, but I never ate another mooncake after that.

Of course, now I wouldn't be able to eat one at all, as I'm been gluten-intolerant for the past five-plus years.

GeneChing
09-15-2017, 08:52 AM
Anyone ever had Peninsula mooncakes? Are they that good? $66K HK = $8441.90 USD. That's a lotta cakes.


Fake Peninsula mooncakes yield arrests and HK$66,000 haul (http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/2111351/fake-peninsula-mooncakes-yield-arrests-and-hk66000-haul)
Production source still being investigated after customs officers posed as consumers
PUBLISHED : Friday, 15 September, 2017, 3:15pm
UPDATED : Friday, 15 September, 2017, 10:37pm
Clifford Lo

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The Peninsula hotel has become the latest brand to fall victim to counterfeiters as more than 200 boxes of mini-egg custard mooncakes bearing its forged trademark were confiscated by Hong Kong customs on Thursday.
A genuine box of the mooncakes described as a “bestseller” and marked with “Sold Out” retailed for HK$338 on The Peninsula Hotels website, but the fakes were priced at HK$368 in a Sheung Shui shop and sold for HK$310 per box on the internet.

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Fake products were mingled with the genuine ones at the shop. Photo: K. Y. Cheng.

Customs officers seized 213 boxes of the fake brand-name product after undercover agents posing as consumers were deployed to buy from the shop and browse through an online platform. The haul had an estimated market value of HK$66,000.
Five Hongkongers – three men and two women – were arrested for the sale of the counterfeit mooncakes, according to the Customs and Excise Department.

After receiving online orders, the boxes of fakes were handed over to buyers at MTR stations PEGGY TAM PUI-YING, CUSTOMS OFFICIAL
The Post understands three boxes of the counterfeit products were mingled with about 50 genuine boxes of mooncakes for sale in the Sheung Shui shop that also carries medicine and dried seafood.
The other fakes were seized at a shop in Mong Kok that was used as a warehouse.
“After receiving online orders, the boxes of fakes were handed over to buyers at MTR stations,” assistant superintendent Peggy Tam Pui-ying, head of Customs’ intellectual property general investigation division, said.

https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/15/9214c3c6-99f1-11e7-a089-5a7a21c623ca_1320x770_164337.JPG
Peggy Tam said the fakes were handed over at MTR stations. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

She said initial investigation showed the two parties were not linked.
Officers were still investigating the source of the fakes, but investigations showed they were not produced locally.
Tam said the results of an initial examination of the fakes showed no heavy metal was present in them but that further tests were needed.
The authority believed a very limited quantity had been sold in Hong Kong for Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on October 4.
“The fake brand-name mooncakes were put on sale recently,” Tam said. She urged consumers to shop through authorised dealers and reputable shops.
The five suspects were released on bail pending further investigation.
Under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, those who sell goods bearing a forged trademark face a jail term of up to five years and a HK$500,000 fine.
In the run-up to next month’s festival, customs officials have stepped up patrols across the city looking for counterfeit items such as lanterns.

src="https://cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/15/eff4c6ba-99e4-11e7-a089-5a7a21c623ca_1320x770_164337.JPG"
Fake lanterns were also targeted in the run-up to next month’s Mid-Autumn Festival. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

On Thursday, they arrested 10 people and seized more than 200 suspected counterfeit lanterns and 800 other dubious-quality goods such as stationery at local outlets. The haul was worth about HK$50,000.
The public may report suspicious activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline at +852 2545 6182.

Fake (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?57980-Chinese-Counterfeits-Fakes-amp-Knock-Offs) Moon (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!) Cakes.

GeneChing
09-20-2017, 07:53 AM
https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/2000x792/public/images/methode/2017/09/20/40d63d6a-9c2a-11e7-9b91-f74e36ea6345_4000x1584_170700.jpg?itok=Jbuk29V8
Hong Kong’s most creative mooncakes feature superfoods, truffle and matcha (http://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/travel-food/article/2111661/hong-kongs-most-creative-mooncakes-feature-superfoods)
This year, munch on mooncakes with a gourmet twist from Four Seasons, The Mira, Häagen-Dazs, Gaucho and The Cakery
BY KIM SOO-JIN
20 SEP 2017
3 SHARE

Some of the city’s most creative mooncakes this Mid-Autumn Festival feature unusual ingredients and delectable combinations. Can we even call these festive treats mooncakes? Regardless, we're dying to try them.

Four Seasons’ Lung King Heen

Eggs and truffles are a match made in heaven, if our brunch choices are anything to go by. Truffle and egg mooncakes might just be a winning combination – which is exactly what the chefs over at the Four Seasons’ Lung King Heen restaurant are betting on this year.

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/20/ae08d6cc-9c2a-11e7-9b91-f74e36ea6345_1320x770_170700.jpg
Lung King Heen’s truffle and egg mooncakes.

Chunky pieces of black truffle and white truffle oil are mixed with white lotus seed paste, adding an earthy, aromatic taste to the traditional mooncake. They also feature a traditional salted egg yolk and come wrapped in a skin of buttery filo pastry. These hand-crafted mooncakes are made without preservatives.

The Mira Hong Kong

COCO, The Mira Hong Kong’s café-patiserrie, celebrates Mid-Autumn Festival with a trio of tea-infused chocolate “mooncakes”. The circular delights come with decorative craters to mimic some of the galaxy’s most famous moons: Luna, the Earth’s very own moon, Callisto, discovered by Galileo Galilei, and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.

https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/20/7d9f97f0-9c2a-11e7-9b91-f74e36ea6345_1320x770_170700.jpg
Mooncakes from COCO, café-patisserie of The Mira Hong Kong.

Each tin box features three different flavours: an uji matcha-infused “cake” with 40 per cent white chocolate from Vietnam and white sesame; a Ceylon-infused cake with 40 per cent Ecuadorean milk chocolate and Japanese sudachi (sour green citrus); and a smoky Fujian Lapsang Souchong black tea-infused cake with 71 per cent organic dark chocolate from Latin America.

Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs’ ice-cream twist on mooncakes isn’t new – but who cares, as long as we get to eat ice cream? This year, Haagen-Dazs debuts a “rainbow collection” that looks more like a flower garden than a moonlit sky. Each chocolate-covered “mooncake” is shaped like a delicate rose. The set features nine roses in a range of pastel colours.

https://cdn3.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/20/2cc340e2-9c2b-11e7-9b91-f74e36ea6345_1320x770_170700.jpg
Haagen-Dazs’ rainbow collection ice cream mooncakes.

Each flower hides within its chocolate crunch shell a different flavour. Flavours include: chocolate, summer berries and cream, vanilla, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake, blueberry, cookies and cream, caramel biscuit and cream, and yuzu citrus and cream with mango purée.

Gaucho

To celebrate this Mid-Autumn Festival, Gaucho is reinventing one of its best-known desserts, dulce de leche cheesecake, into a mooncake.

https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/20/0480b696-9c2b-11e7-9b91-f74e36ea6345_1320x770_170700.jpg
Dulce de Leche mooncakes by Gaucho.

The Argentinian steakhouse is incorporating lotus seed paste, egg and golden syrup into the recipe to retain the traditional flavours of the mooncake.

The Cakery

We all know that mooncakes are high in calories and fat. But if they come stuffed with superfoods usually found in a health store, then we’re considering them a healthy choice!

https://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/09/20/4a44d820-9c2a-11e7-9b91-f74e36ea6345_600x_170700.jpg
The Cakery’s 2017 mooncakes.

The Cakery – known for its gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free and refined sugar-free options – is offering four flavours (black sesame, red date, fig and orange, and osmanthus and matcha) of mooncake that incorporate a range of superfoods, including pumpkin seed, linseed, coconut oil, buckwheat groats, and cinnamon.

Maybe wellness lovers could even consider it a worthy substitute for a pre-gym energy bar.

Serious moon cakes

GeneChing
09-26-2017, 01:37 PM
https://scontent-sjc2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/21994326_10155879813964363_3259986409954989042_o.j pg?oh=733267e7c4114cc20052f7f266e6a4b5&oe=5A4E6E5C

Master Tian Chongfang (2015 WildAid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?57416-WildAid-Tiger-Claw-Champion&p=1284106#post1284106) & Drunken Style (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68489-Drunken-Style-Championship&p=1284354#post1284354) Champion) brought us our first tin of moon cakes this year.

GeneChing
10-02-2017, 07:43 AM
I got nothing on Never Say Die (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?70487-Never-Say-Die) but it beat out both Jackie's The Foreigner (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68698-The-Foreigner) and Donnie's Chasing the Dragon (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69767-Chasing-the-Dragon) (and Orlando's S.M.A.R.T. Chase (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69719-S-M-A-R-T-Chase-Fire-amp-Earth), which we do care about because Orlando is cool and rocks Feiyues (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?41187-Tiger-Claw-brand-Feiyue&p=1013333#post1013333)) for the Moon Fest (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!) movie rush, so I guess I should check it out.


China Box Office: Martial Arts Comedy Opens to $46M, Topping Jackie Chan's 'The Foreigner' (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/china-box-office-martial-arts-comedy-earns-46m-topping-jackie-chans-foreigner-1044772)
2:46 AM PDT 10/2/2017 by Patrick Brzeski

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'The Foreigner'

Local comedy 'Never Say Die' outperformed Chan's STX-backed action thriller, which earned $21.9 million on Saturday and Sunday.
Martial arts comedy Never Say Die came out swinging at the Chinese box office over the weekend, opening with $46.2 million on Saturday and Sunday.

The slapstick hit relegated Jackie Chan to a rare second-place finish, as his STX-produced action thriller The Foreigner opened with $21.9 million over the same two days.

Sunday was the start of one of China's so-called "Golden Weeks," a lucky succession of national holidays that results in most Chinese employees getting a full seven days off work. In recent years, this reprieve has translated into brisk business at Chinese multiplexes. In response, Chinese regulators have taken to blocking Hollywood movie openings during the holiday, putting the focus on Chinese culture while giving local studios a boost.

Never Say Die was produced by Beijing theater group Mahua Fun Age, the creative force behind last year's comedy smash Goodbye Mr. Loser ($226 million). Never Say Die tells the story of a boxer and a journalist who mysteriously swap bodies after they are zapped by electricity, sending the duo spinning through a series of slapstick misadventures. The film is an adaptation of a hit Mahua stage comedy of the same name. Directed by Song Yang and Zhang Chiyu (the director pair behind the play), the film stars Ai Lun and Ma Li, two of the leads from Mr. Loser.

Directed by Martin Campbell and co-starring Pierce Brosnan, The Foreigner finds Chan in "serious Jackie Chan" mode, playing a humble London businessman whose mysterious past erupts in a revenge-fuelled vendetta when his teenage daughter dies in a terrorist attack. The English-language film earned just shy of $2 million on Imax screens over the weekend. Respectable word of mouth suggests the movie will hold onto second place throughout the week. A U.K.-China co-production, The Foreigner is set to open in North America on Oct. 13.

Chasing the Dragon, a slick martial arts drama starring Hong Kong favorites Donnie Yen and Andy Lau, landed in third place with $14.2 million. It was followed by Sky Hunter, a patriotic air force action flick directed by and starring Li Chen, which earned $13 million. Fan Bingbing, Li's real-life fiance, co-stars as the romantic lead.

Although Hollywood movies are blocked from opening over National Day, one other familiar Western face did pop up on Chinese screens over the weekend. S.M.A.R.T. Chase, a Chinese road race thriller produced by Shanghai-based Bliss Media and starring Orlando Bloom, also debuted Saturday. The film hit the track with a sputter, however, taking just $1.5 million for the frame.

GeneChing
10-02-2017, 12:18 PM
Some of my friends went. They said it was packed.


Autumn Moon Festival brings crowds to Chinatown’s Grant Avenue in SF (http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Autumn-Moon-Festival-brings-crowds-to-12243505.php)
By Steve Rubenstein Updated 2:59 pm, Saturday, September 30, 2017

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/66/31/73/14261977/5/920x920.jpg
Aaron Ng sticks his head out from the costume as hundreds of people await the opening ceremony of the annual Autumn Moon Festival in San Francisco. Photo: Mason Trinca / Mason Trinca / Special To The Chronicle / ONLINE_YES
Photo: Mason Trinca / Mason Trinca / Special To The Chronicle

Chinese lions that couldn’t wait for Chinese New Year did their Chinese lion thing down Grant Avenue on Saturday to kick off a festival that tries just as hard as its big brother to be fun and frantic.
It was the opening day of the weekend Autumn Moon Festival and thousands of festivalgoers crowded shoulder to shoulder amid the booths, dancers, beauty queens and vendors on Grant Avenue, there being no other way for thousands of people on Grant Avenue to fit.
Greg Wai, whose job was to be at the front end of a two-man costumed lion that danced its way down the thoroughfare, said it’s a big responsibility to be a lion’s head.
“You’re portraying curiosity, fear, joy, hunger, playfulness,” he said. “And you do it in time to the drum, the cymbals and the gong. There is structure to being a lion and there is freedom. It isn’t easy.”
Wai has worn the lion head for 17 years on behalf of the Yau Kung Moon sports association. When he was breaking into the craft, he played the lion’s rear end, the traditional butt of jokes as well as of lions. Wai is beyond all that.
“If there were no rear end,” he said, “there could be no front end.’’
Tourists snapped pictures and snapped up souvenirs. Also for sale were moon cakes, the traditional confection of the moon festival. Like the moon, it’s round and, unlike the moon, it has bean paste inside.
At the Koi Palace bakery booth, vendor Matt Ng was selling large moon cakes for $8 and small ones for $3. He had 4,000 of them, because it’s bad luck to run out of moon cakes at the moon festival.
“Ours are low in sugar, with no pork fat,” he said. “They’ll keep in the refrigerator for six months.”
But, he said, the best time to eat an autumn moon festival cake is autumn, not six months after autumn.
At another booth, Kelly Tan from the Community Youth Center was helping kids make Chinese lanterns by folding red paper rectangles into quarters and fastening them together with staples and Scotch tape. Chinese paper lanterns are millenniums old, she said, even if staplers and Scotch tape aren’t.
“A stapler lets you do it faster,” she said.
The red paper rectangles turned out to be leftover money envelopes from Chinese New Year. At that holiday, people give each other money in small red envelopes. But there are always leftover New Year’s money envelopes to turn into lanterns at the moon festival, Tan said, because giving away money isn’t something everyone is in a position to do.
Chinatown regulars stopped by other booths to spin lucky prize wheels. There was no shortage of lucky wheels to spin. The cops had one, the auto club had one, a radio station had one and two casinos had one apiece. The prizes were key chains, whistles and stickers, and the lines to spin the wheels stretched down the avenue and around the corner. A young woman whose sash said she was Miss Asian Global stood around, posing for pictures and smiling nonstop, even though she had yet to win a key chain or sticker.
Nearby, a traditional Chinese fortune teller named Wanugee was giving away free fortunes. Take a seat and pick out seven small mahjong tiles, he said, and all will be revealed.
A reporter picked out seven tiles and Wanugee looked at them, frowned and said the reporter’s hopes and desires were unrealistic and that January would be very tough, because of the north wind tile he had selected.
“Better pick another tile,” Wanugee said, which seemed like do-overs but, when the pearl tile came up, Wanugee said January might work out after all.
On Saturday, festivalgoers had their choice of a half-dozen dance groups from China, Indonesia and Hawaii, along with a dragon. On Sunday, the festival will conclude with spiritual music, more lions, some taiko-drumming grandmas — and another dragon.
Throughout the daytime Moon Festival proceedings, the star of the show — the moon — was absent.
“Technically the moon is there,” said Lisa Kwong, who was handing out stickers at the San Francisco Fire Department booth. “You just can’t see it. But it’s up there all right.”

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF

I was a lion (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?43034-Lion-Dancing) butt. I know what he means.

GeneChing
10-04-2017, 11:17 AM
China’s 'Super Golden Week': 710 Million People on the Move (https://thediplomat.com/2017/10/chinas-super-golden-week-710-million-people-on-the-move/)
During the 8-day holiday, half of China’s population will be traveling at home and abroad.
By Charlotte Gao
October 02, 2017

https://thediplomat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/thediplomat-256356394_a9d9bb61f8_b-386x252.jpg
Image Credit: Flickr/Jakob Montrasio

About half of China’s 1.4 billion people will be on the move during “super golden week” — the 8-day holiday encompassing both the National Day holiday and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Thanks to the Lunar Year calendar, this year the Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with the National Day holiday, extending the usual vacation period from October 1 to October 8.

China National Tourism Administration said they expected about 710 million people to travel during the 8 days, while 49.8 percent of the total, nearly 350 million, would traveling by wheels. As to be expected, the first day and the final day of the holiday period will see the highest traffic peaks.

Since 2012, China has implemented a toll-free holiday policy which allows free passage of passenger cars with seven seats or fewer on toll roads, bridges and tunnels during four major public holidays — Spring Festival, Qing Ming Festival, Labor Day and National Day. The policy, although highly welcomed by the majority of private car owners, has also brought about more traffic jams nationwide during the holidays.

Information from China’s Ministry of Transport showed that traffic on highways in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai became congested around 6 a.m. on October 1 as city-dwellers hit the roads out of town.

As of October 2, multiple highways have been suffering from serious traffic jams and thousands of passengers have been trapped on the roads for hours on end. The South China Morning Post reported that the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Expressway, which connects Guangzhou, Dongguan and Shenzhen, has seen the “most serious” traffic congestion in years, and 90 percent of local coach services have had to halt their business. Numerous traffic polices in various cities posted on their Weibo accounts about the local traffic situation and suggested drivers take alternate routes. Meanwhile, drivers and passengers stuck in the traffic jams also took to Weibo to complain, posting pictures of congested roads accordingly.

Terrible traffic, however, won’t deter Chinese from traveling for the holidays.

China National Tourism Administration forecasted that domestic tourism revenue will reach 590 billion yuan (around $84 billion) this year, and cities like Sanya, Beijing, Kunming and Shanghai will be the most popular destinations.

Early in National Day — October 1, marking the 68th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China — more than 115,000 people gathered at Tiananmen Square in Beijing to watch the raising of the Chinese national flag.

China’s “super golden week” has also triggered a global tourism boom, particularly in China’s neighboring countries such as Thailand, Singapore and Japan. A Chinese travel service website published a report recently estimating, based on its own booking data, that more than 6 million Chinese people will travel overseas to 88 countries and regions all over the world. Ironically, the political factor also somewhat plays a role when Chinese people decide on their tourism destinations. For example, South Korea is likely to miss out on a big share of the Chinese tourism revenue, as China recently banned travel agencies from selling package tours to Korea due to the tensions over the THAAD missile defense system.

Coincidentally, it's Fleet Week here in SF (https://fleetweeksf.org/).

GeneChing
10-05-2017, 03:58 PM
Like a finger pointing to the moon...


How to See the October Harvest Moon—First in Almost a Decade (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/10/when-is-harvest-moon-october-space-science/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20171005news-harvestmoon&utm_campaign=Content&sf119190761=1)
The lunar orb rising on Thursday night marks the closest full moon to the fall equinox. Here’s why that matters.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/content/dam/news/2017/10/04/harvest-moon/01-harvest-moon-october.adapt.590.1.jpg
The harvest moon hangs amid the New York City skyline in 2016.
PHOTOGRAPH BY GARY HERSHORN, GETTY

By Victoria Jaggard
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 5, 2017

For sky-watchers in the Northern Hemisphere, the October full moon is pulling off a celestial trick that will be a real treat.

On Thursday night, the sky will be aglow with this year’s harvest moon—the first time a full moon bearing this moniker has fallen in October since 2009. Technically, the moon reaches its full phase on October 5 at 2:40 p.m. ET, which means the harvest moon will be in effect when the lunar orb glides above the horizon at 7:21 p.m. ET.

So why do we call this spectacle a harvest moon, and why is it special?

Civilizations around the world have long used the phases of the moon to keep track of time, and according to lunar tradition, each month’s full moon gets a special name. These names vary by location and regional folklore, but many are based on that particular full moon’s seasonal characteristics.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the harvest moon is the closest full moon to the fall equinox, which usually happens on or around September 22. That means the harvest moon usually occurs in September. But this year, the September full moon appeared on the 6th, separating it from the fall equinox by 16 days. The October 5 full moon arrives only 13 days after the fall equinox, making it the closer pairing.

While it’s been a while since we last saw an October harvest moon, the phenomenon isn’t really that rare, says Ernie Wright, a specialist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Scientific Visualization Studio in Maryland.

“The previous one was in 2009, but the one before that was 2006, and the next one will be in 2020,” he says. Based on the timing of the equinox and the regular 29.5-day cycle of the moon, a harvest moon can happen on any date between September 7 and October 8. That means the probability of an October harvest moon is roughly one in four, he calculates.

LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT
Still, any given harvest moon can be a beautiful sight, thanks to the moon’s behavior in the autumn months.

The moon’s orbital path is slightly tilted with respect to Earth’s orbit, so the lunar disk changes its position in the sky with each moonrise. Over the course of a year, the moon pops above the horizon about 50 minutes later each day, on average.

But for several days in a row around the fall equinox, the moon rises only about 30 minutes later in the northern U.S. and just 10 to 20 minutes later in much of Canada and Europe. It sounds like a small shift, but it brings noticeably brighter nights: During this time, the full moon rises almost as soon as the sun sets, first appearing as a plump, orange-colored orb right around dusk. (Find out more about the moon illusion and why the moon always looks bigger near the horizon.)

With little darkness between sunset and moonrise, farmers can work later into the night harvesting crops—the likely origin of this full moon’s name. According to a monthly email about the moon sent by NASA’s Gordon Johnston, the name “harvest moon” hails from Europe, where it’s been used since at least the early 1700s. It’s also been called the travel moon, dying grass moon, or blood moon in various Native American traditions.

This year, the October 5 full moon also heralds Sharad Purnima in India, a Hindu harvest festival held around the first full moon in the lunar month of Ashwin, which marks the end of monsoon season.

“The harvest moon is a full moon, but not one that really provides any specific unique-viewing opportunity—other than that you might have great observing from a pumpkin patch,” says Andrea Jones, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter public engagement lead at NASA.

She adds that NASA will be celebrating this year’s International Observe the Moon Night on October 28, when our cosmic companion will be in its first quarter phase and only half-lit.

“We encourage everyone everywhere around the world to look up at the moon that day and take the opportunity to learn about and celebrate lunar and planetary science, exploration, and the personal and cultural connections we all have to our nearest neighbor in space,” Jones says.

Victoria Jaggard is the lead editor for online science news, with a special focus on astronomy and paleontology.

GeneChing
10-11-2017, 11:55 AM
Our Publisher Emeritus Gigi Oh and Tiger Claw (https://www.tigerclaw.com/home.php) President Jonny Oh were at the Moon Festival celebration at the Chinese Embassy in DC. At Gigi's request, I just posted some photos of them on our Moon Festival facebook album (https://www.facebook.com/pg/Kung-Fu-Tai-Chi-Magazine-135964689362/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10155922271909363).

GeneChing
08-06-2018, 08:52 AM
I love the term 'mooncake madness'


Mooncake madness descends as cross-border trade in delicacies swells (https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2158209/mooncake-madness-descends-cross-border-trade-delicacies)
Agents buy up mooncake coupons and resell them for profit, as hungry customers struggle to get their hands on the seasonal delicacy

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 04 August, 2018, 2:31pm
UPDATED : Saturday, 04 August, 2018, 2:31pm
Mandy Zheng
https://twitter.com/MandyZheng5477

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Hong Kong’s annual mooncake craze is already in full swing, as customers queue up for coupons for the delicacy at Maxim’s Cake stores across the city.

While coupons offered at the stores sold out in two days, resellers have inflated prices dramatically, from the initial offering price of HK$228 to about HK$330 per coupon, according to shopping agents from mainland China.

Mooncake coupons give a discount on the price of a box of mooncakes, and ensure buyers can pick up their desserts the day they first become available.

Sharon Tang, an insurance broker who has lived in the city for five years, says she has seen the coupon resale market boom in recent years.

“When you see WeChat posts about Hong Kong mooncakes five or six times a day, you start wondering: ‘why they are so [popular]?’” adds Tang, who also works as part-time buyer. “It’s all about marketing strategy.”

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Hong Kong mooncakes are popular on mainland China. Photo: Felix Wong

Tang, who is in her 20s, says she did not line up at stores or place orders online this year. Instead, she bought about 15 coupons at HK$330 each from “a friend working at a professional buying agent team”, who managed to get them even before they began selling at Maxim’s stores.

“It’s not possible to snap one up online or at the store, because there are just too many people. You need to find other ways,” Tang says, adding that she resold the coupons to friends and relatives.

And prices among the resellers continue to rocket, Tang says. “Three days ago I bought some, and yesterday when I checked, the price had risen another HK$10.”

Maxim’s, the local restaurant chain famous for its cakes and dim sum, produces mooncakes that are especially popular among mainland Chinese customers. A particular favourite is the lava custard mooncake: a box of six normally sells at HK$368, but with a coupon customers are entitled to a 60 per cent discount.

HKU graduate Mike Li, 23, describes the zeal of mooncake hunters as “too crazy”. Having lived in Shenzhen since graduation, Li comes to the city once a week to shop for a small group of clients he established during his college years. Like Tang, he purchases mooncake coupons from professional agents, who told him “not to bother lining up because it’s absolutely impossible to get one”.

The same agents also warned him that conflicts had broken out between locals and mainland Chinese customers. “They sent a video to our group chat recently, apparently showing a Hong Kong grandpa calling the police to complain about mainlanders snatching all the mooncakes,” Li recalls.

Li, who is ahead of the mooncake curve, bought more than 40 mooncake coupons at the lower price of HK$285, and plans to use them all to buy mooncakes for his customers, charging HK$340 per box, netting a profit of HK$55 per deal.

“A lot of people come to me after seeing online ads for Maxim’s cakes and dim sum. Most of them don’t know the original price, so they don’t have a sense of whether it’s expensive or not,” Li says.

Zephyr Liang, a university student based in Beijing, says: “I feel that more people around me are buying mooncakes from Hong Kong this year because they have developed a high reputation on social media, becoming so-called ‘web celebrity food’.”

Every year, the 22-year-old foodie orders three boxes of Maxim’s mooncakes on Taobao, Alibaba’s online shopping centre, from agents in the city. “I know some mooncakes with Hong Kong branding are actually made in mainland China, but I prefer the ones produced in Hong Kong. Somehow they just taste different,” Liang says.

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People buying mooncakes at Tai Tung Bakery in preparation for the Mid Autumn Festival last year. Photo: Felix Wong

“Last year there were so many fake ones, so this year some buyers even live-streamed themselves queuing up outside stores,” Liang says.

“It’s terrifying, how some retailers lie and sell fake products,” she says. “I just wish I was from Hong Kong.”

For its part, Maxim’s is predictably delighted that its products are so popular. Speaking to the Post about the situation, a spokesperson explained the apparent shortage of cakes: “the supply of our Lava Custard Mooncake is limited and it is available for sale and redemption by phases.”

Maxim’s did not respond to an inquiry from the Post about how many coupons they have sold this year so far, or how many people queued up in their stores across the city.

The craving for mooncakes, however, could be problematic when it comes to maintaining a balanced diet, says nutritionist Kathy Ng Yiu-fan.

For example, a white lotus seed paste mooncake with two yolks – which commonly appears in Hong Kong households during the Mid-Autumn Festival – contains six teaspoons of oil and nearly 800 calories, Ng explains, adding that it is “almost equivalent to the entire recommended daily fat intake for a single adult”.

Ng suggests customers go for “healthier mooncakes with a lower level of fat and sugar”, such as snowy mooncakes, which only contain half the amount of fat of traditional types.

GeneChing
09-24-2018, 09:34 AM
The Mid-Autumn Festival Starts Today. Here's What to Know About the Harvest Holiday (https://www.yahoo.com/news/mid-autumn-festival-starts-today-043745017.html)
Time
Eli Meixler
September 23, 2018

An age-old harvest tradition begins today with East Asian communities around the world celebrating the first full moon of fall.

Based on the lunar calendar, the Mid-Autumn Festival corresponds with the bright orange glow of the Harvest Moon. Many people take off work to gather with their families, light lanterns, enjoy mooncakes and gaze at the luminescent night sky. To mark the seasonal holiday, Google created an autumnal Doodle featuring tea, mooncakes and the reflection of a full, bountiful moon.

As celebrations kickoff, here’s what to know:

What is the Mid-Autumn Festival?

Known by various names throughout Asia, including Moon Festival and Harvest Moon Festival, the mid-autumn ritual was popularized more than a thousand years ago during China’s Tang dynasty (618–907 CE).

While it has no fixed date on the Gregorian calendar, the holiday is traditionally celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month in the East Asian lunar calendar. It corresponds with the first full moon after the Autumnal Equinox. This year, celebrations start on Sept. 24.

The holiday is also associated with the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e. As legend has it, Chang’e overindulged on the “elixir of life” and ascended to the moon. She is fated to remain there, accompanied by her jade rabbit and a lumberjack.

This week, festival-goers will offer fruit, wine and mooncakes to the wayward goddess in hopes of ensuring an abundant harvest.

Where is it celebrated?

Major celebrations take place in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Many in the East Asian diaspora also observe the holiday, with families in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere gathering to mark the autumn thanksgiving festival.

In Vietnam, where the holiday is known as Trung Thu, children play games, don masks and march in nighttime lantern parades.

In Korea, the holiday is known as Chuseok, and has a strong association with heritage. Many people return to their hometowns to visit the graves of their ancestors, which they clean before making offerings.

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dance team performs the Fire Dragon Dance to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in Hong Kong on Sept. 23, 2018.

How is it celebrated?

One of the most common ways people celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival is by enjoying mooncakes — a dense sweet pastry that is baked or steamed and then cut into wedges and accompanied by tea. Traditionally, mooncakes are filled with with lotus paste and salted egg yolk. Other varieties contain red bean or date paste, as well as nuts, fruits and seeds.

Modern mooncakes also cater to contemporary tastes: the treats are now available in flavors like taro, green tea, chocolate and ice cream. This year, Guinness even released its own flavor.

Many communities also celebrate by making and lighting paper lanterns. Traditionally, lanterns were handmade and painted, and illuminated with candles. Today, most versions use electric bulbs. More ornate lanterns feature rattan or wooden skeletons that supports shapes like animals, stars, planets and more.

Some neighborhoods also celebrate by hosting lion and dragon dances, where dance troupes parade through the streets to bestow luck on local residents.

However you celebrate the harvest holiday, have a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

FYI: Chinese is 中秋節 Zhōngqiū Jié :cool:

GeneChing
09-03-2019, 09:22 AM
Taipan mooncakes pulled from shelves in mainland China after founder’s son denounced for supporting Hong Kong protests (https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3025377/taipan-mooncakes-pulled-shelves-mainland-china-after-founders)
Company’s signature mooncakes taken off sale after state media denounces Garic Kwok over Facebook posts that ‘ridiculed the government and police’
Blacklisting comes at busiest time of year for mooncake makers and one mainland importer said it would take a big financial hit as a result
Zhuang Pinghui
Published: 5:31pm, 2 Sep, 2019

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Garic Kwok apologised for the Facebook posts. Photo: Weibo

Mainland Chinese retailers have stopped selling a popular Hong Kong brand of mooncakes after state media denounced the son of the founder for supporting the protests in Hong Kong.
Taipan Bread and Cake, which is best known for its snowy mooncakes, appears to have been taken off two of the mainland’s biggest e-commerce sites Tmall.com and JD.com after Garic Kwok, a company director, was criticised in an article published in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece, on Monday.
On Monday morning, searches for the brand results in “no relevant information” on Tmall.com, and the store could not be found on JD.com.
Tmall is operated by Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post. Both Tmall and JD have not responded to requests for comment.
Mooncakes are traditionally eaten during the Mid Autumn festival, which falls later this month, so this is the peak season for mooncake sales.
A staff member from Yingming Kailai Technology and Trade Development Company, which imports the cakes for mainland supermarkets and Tmall, said the product had been removed from the shelves of stores in Beijing. The items have also been taken off sale in other major cities such as Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Liu Shuting, who is responsible for store sales in the capital, said all the firm’s products had been withdrawn and the company was losing a lot of money.
“I can’t control what Mr Kwok said. I think the products are fine but we will have to suffer a big financial loss because of what he said,” Liu said.

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Snowy mooncakes are popular at this time of year. Photo: Facebook

The blacklisting follows an attack in party mouthpiece People’s Daily that criticised Kwok’s Facebook posts for supporting the “activities of those dressed in black”, and “forwarding pictures to ridicule the government and police, which has aroused public anger”.
Listed as evidence were Kwok’s posts on Facebook late last week, which included a drone picture of a protest that he described as “Hongkongers forming a pro-democracy human chain across the city” and another picture that said people who supported the Hong Kong police must “have a lack of empathy … and are inferior, selfish and arrogant”.
People’s Daily’s article has been widely recirculated by other mainland media, including the nationalist tabloid Global Times.
Kwok apologised and deleted the posts, but could not stop the criticism from snowballing.
“What I said and shared in Facebook is personal and not related to Taipan Bread & Cakes. I hereby apologise if they have caused misunderstanding or offended anyone,” Kwok posted on Friday.
The apology was shared by the brand’s account on Weibo, accompanied by another statement that Kwok’s remarks did not reflect the company’s stance.
Both apologies were badly received by mainland internet users, who criticised them for being insincere and insisted on a boycott.
“So he basically said, I am against the mainland but I am not against making money from mainlanders,” said one Weibo user.
“We don’t accept apologies from anyone or any organisation that erred on major issues of principle. I am warning you, if you don’t agree that you are a Chinese, just get out of China with your products and money,” wrote another Weibo user.
Hong Kong is currently in its 13th week of anti-government protests, which have triggered a nationalistic backlash in mainland media and online.
Many brands and celebrities, from bubble tea stores to luxury brands, have come under fire for their perceived stance on the issue.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Mooncakes pulled after firm’s boss denounced

THREADS
Happy Autumn Moon !!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-04-2019, 12:47 PM
wth?

i'm only posting the NetShark story, not all the facebook posts. You can follow the link if you're that curious.



Bryan Ke·September 3, 2019·3 min read
Oreo Mooncakes Actually Exist and They Are Being Sold in Asia (https://nextshark.com/oreo-mooncakes-vietnam/?fbclid=IwAR2dCQrf8qPIsYcwMNSmnnCopsJMmElxLsCFlmnN s73XO7cIwUAt3Jhn5FE)

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The existence of Oreo mooncakes, an Americanized take on the traditional Asian pastry, has shocked Facebook users who were curious to try the unique desserts.

This American twist on the traditional mooncake is available at the Saigon Center Mall in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, according to the comments under Sophie Tran’s Facebook post.

Each package comes with two pieces of Oreo Mooncakes.

On the outside, it looks like a giant chunky Oreo.

It is unclear if the sweet treat is entirely made of Oreo or if they added other ingredients into the mix. Tran described the Oreo Mooncake as “very sweet.”

“It tastes like what you imagine a chocolate moon cake to taste,” she said in her response to a Facebook user.

Traditionally, a mooncake consists of a filling made from either red beans or lotus seed paste wrapped in a thin crust. Some variants may include egg yolks or salted duck eggs.

Orea mooncakes have existed for a few years as an exclusive product sold in Asia during the mid-Autumn Festival with past flavors like Brownie Chocolate, Double Chocolate with Milk, Strawberry Jam, and Custard and Pineapple Jam.

The same variant this year has also popped up in Singapore as well. According to Mothership, the Oreo Mooncakes can be bought for 23.50 Singaporean dollars ($16.90).

Each box contains four different flavors of the traditional pastry: brownie chocolate, double chocolate with milk, strawberry jam and cappuccino. However, it appears the packaging differs in each region as shown in the short unboxing clip posted by Tran.

The product was made available via FairPrice’s website, but the listing appears to be taken down as of the time of writing.

Featured Image via Facebook / Sophie Tran

GeneChing
09-05-2019, 08:34 AM
Chinese importer says entire stock of Taipan mooncakes will be destroyed after backlash against Hong Kong baker (https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3025883/chinese-importer-says-entire-stock-taipan-mooncakes-will-be)
Manager of trading company says ‘huge amount’ of Taipan Bread and Cakes brand pastries were returned after mainland media storm over bakery director’s pro-protest Facebook posts
Zhuang Pinghui
Published: 5:39pm, 5 Sep, 2019

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An importer for Taipan Bread and Cakes, the Hong Kong baker known for its “snowy” mooncakes, may have to destroy returned stock after a social media controversy. Photo: FACEBOOK

A mainland Chinese importer of a popular Hong Kong mooncake brand caught up in a protest controversy said it would have to destroy stock because it could not cope with the volume of goods being returned.
Wu Haotian, general manager of Yonghuasheng Trading, told the Southern Metropolis News that “a huge amount of mooncakes” made by Hong Kong-based Taipan Bread and Cakes had been sent back by retailers after a director of the pastry company was denounced in mainland media for supporting anti-government protests in the city.
“The amount is so great that we haven’t calculated exactly how much have come back yet,” Wu said on Wednesday.
He said his company had talked to mainland partners about cutting their losses.

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Taipan Bread and Cakes director Garic Kwok faced a mainland media backlash after Facebook comments about demonstrations in Hong Kong. Photo: Weibo

“Those returned orders cannot be sent back to Hong Kong,” he was quoted as saying. “The only solution might be to destroy them eventually.”
Phone calls to Wu at Guangzhou-based Yonghuasheng Trading on Thursday went unanswered.
On Monday, Taipan mooncakes were pulled from shelves in mainland stores, supermarkets and online shopping sites after bakery director Garic Kwok was criticised for comments he made on his personal Facebook account last month.
One post included an aerial photo of a protest that Kwok described as “Hongkongers forming a pro-democracy human chain across the city”. Another post said supporters of Hong Kong police must “have a lack of empathy … and are inferior, selfish and arrogant”.
Mainland media, including Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, attacked Kwok as “supporting activities of those dressed in black” and “forwarding pictures to ridicule the government and police”.
The businessman deleted the offending posts on Friday and apologised, distancing his business from his personal views.
Taipan, known for its “snowy” mooncakes, said on Weibo on Friday that Kwok’s views were not those of the company.
But the damage to its reputation and business on the mainland was done.
On Saturday, mainland retailers began demanding distributors withdraw Taipan products. First, two major online retailer sites – JD.com, and Tmall.com, which is operated by Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post – pulled the goods from their websites.
Later that day, Taipan products were cleared from supermarkets and shopping malls across China.
Yonghuasheng Trading said on Sunday that the company had not been aware of Kwok’s posts and, as a Chinese company, Kwok’s remarks did not represent it.
“All the goods were bought with good money. Every box of mooncakes was declared to customs and tax was paid … I hope consumers understand us,” the company said.
On Monday, Wu posted a message saying “I am Chinese” and a Chinese national flag emoji on his WeChat account.
Months of protests in Hong Kong have triggered a nationalistic backlash in mainland media and online. Many brands, from bubble tea stores to luxury brands, and celebrities have fallen under their spotlight for their position on Hong Kong’s protests.

THREADS
Happy Autumn Moon !!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!)
Hong Kong protests (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?23536-Hong-Kong-protests)

GeneChing
09-06-2019, 08:02 AM
Plant-based alternative meats for Chinese food – dim sum, hotpot, mooncakes and more – set for launch (https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3025665/plant-based-alternative-meats-chinese-food-dim-sum-hotpot)
Created to be the ‘Chinese version of Impossible Foods’, Zhenmeat offers plant- and fungus-based protein products tailored for Chinese cuisine
Founder Vince Lu says there is a big gap in China’s plant-based meat market as producers target vegetarians, not the general public who consume meat
Elaine Yau
Published: 6:15pm, 4 Sep, 2019

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Vince Lu, founder of plant-based alternative meat company Zhenmeat, showcasing mooncakes made with his company’s products.

Lean, muscular and sharply dressed, Beijing-based entrepreneur Vince Lu Zhongming has come a long way from the overweight and aimless university student he was a few years ago.
While studying materials science in the US at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Lu struggled with what to do with his life. He was eating a lot of processed meat and gained 20 kilograms (44 pounds) in a semester, leaving him unhappy with his self-image.
A near-death experience sprang him from his funk: he lost control of his car while driving in freezing temperatures in Illinois and it crashed.
“It was the worst accident I have ever experienced,” Lu says. “I was rescued with no injuries, but was told I had cheated death. Since then, I have been filled with gratitude. I want to value life and give back to society.”

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Lu before he lost weight.

The crash prompted him to get back into shape, revert to a healthier diet and become a regular gym goer. He studied protein properties to learn how to better fuel his workouts. After graduating he set up a start-up called Fuchouzhe, which makes protein bars to boost nutrition and sports performance.
Based on Fuchouzhe’s success, he went further. He launched a plant-based meat start-up – Zhenmeat – with the goal of developing it into a Chinese version of US-based Impossible Foods.
With African swine fever prompting widespread pig culls and rising calls for reduced meat consumption in China, overseas substitute meat producers are salivating over the huge China market.
According to a report by The Good Food Institute released in May, the market size of China’s domestic plant-based meat industry in 2018 was about 6.1 billion yuan (US$850 million), 14.3 per cent higher than the previous year. The US market size that year was US$684 million, up 23 per cent over 2017.
Although less than 10 per cent of Chinese participants surveyed as part of the report identified as vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian (fish but not meat eaters), 86.7 per cent had consumed plant-based meat products.

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Plant-based meat mooncakes from Zhenmeat.

US plant-based meat firm Beyond Meat plans to start distributing in China in the second half of this year. Also planning a mainland China launch later this year is Hong Kong-based Right Treat, which developed pork alternative Omnipork from peas, soy and mushroom proteins. After entering the Hong Kong market last year, US-based Impossible Foods plans to launch its products in mainland China within the next two years.
Lu’s Beijing-based start-up Zhenmeat is stealing a march on these overseas rivals, rolling out its products this month.
“Running Fuchouzhe allows me to understand protein’s nutritional properties and supply chains. China’s breakneck economic growth has led to a big demand for quality protein,” he says.

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Peppers stuffed with Zhenmeat products being served in a Chinese restaurant.

Ahead of the launch tomorrow (September 5), Lu has been touring China to promote Zhenmeat’s products, which include plant-based sausage and steak, and faux meat mooncakes and meatballs.
In an April talk at the Food and Beverage Innovation Forum in Shanghai, Lu described the products as a mixture of plant- and fungus-based protein including pea, mushroom, soy and brown rice protein, with pea protein being the main ingredient.
Zhenmeat sources organic peas from Canada. Peas have high nutritional value and contain eight amino acids – more than soybeans, Lu says, adding the other sources of protein in the products ensure they are comprehensive in nutrition. People need 18 kinds of amino acids, which single sources of beans don’t provide, he says.

I am 180cm tall but weighed 100kg, which was quite terrible. Within a year of my diet switch, I lost 20kg. Plant-based protein is the food of the future
Vince Lu
While Impossible Foods’ Impossible Burger uses soy protein, pea protein is increasingly being embraced as a main ingredient for plant-based alternative meat producers. Beyond Meat uses pea instead of soy protein. California-based Ripple Foods, meanwhile, produces pea-protein alternative dairy products.
“There’s a big gap in the plant-based meat market in China as the current Chinese plant-based meat manufacturers mostly serve the vegetarian market instead of the general public who consume meat,” Lu says.
“The traditional vegetarian faux meat [served in Chinese Buddhist restaurants] has a heavy taste of beans. The taste, texture, colour and smell does not resemble that of real meat. The success of those American companies [like Impossible Foods] has inspired us to make plant-based meat that tastes like real meat.”

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Protein bars from Fuchouzhe.

Lu credited the success of Impossible Foods to its use of heme, a molecule containing iron responsible for making plant-based meat taste like real meat.
“Heme is found in animals’ blood and muscle, and also plants. No mainland meat alternative producers use heme in their products, so Chinese consumers are sacrificing the gastronomic satisfaction coming from eating meat when they consume Chinese plant-based products,” Lu says.
Impossible Foods has secured the patent for its use of heme in its meat substitutes, so Zhenmeat is studying how to replicate heme using its own technology, which may take up to three years.
“Currently, our products use natural flavour extracts and spices to imitate the taste of meat. Our products have higher protein content than real meat. The quality fats in our products come from coconut oils,” Lu says, adding that without heme, his products can attain only 70 per cent of the desired target for taste and texture.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2019/09/04/d40dce04-ce2d-11e9-9cec-db56b3c139e7_972x_173950.JPG
Lu sampling Zhenmeat products with a Chinese chef.

Zhenmeat has so far secured five million yuan from Chinese investors. Unlike overseas plant-based meat producers which offer mostly burger patties and other Western food offerings, Lu says his products will target Chinese cuisine.
“Our products will be sold online and offered in various Chinese restaurants including dim sum, Sichuan and hotpot eateries. We have no plans to expand outside China,” he says.
Lu is convinced the business will do well, having personally benefited from cutting out meat.
“I am 180cm tall but weighed 100kg, which was quite terrible. Within a year of my diet switch, I lost 20kg. Plant-based protein is the food of the future.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: for substitute meats, the stakes couldn’t be higher

THREADS
Dim Sum - dian xin (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?69387-Dim-Sum-dian-xin)
Happy Autumn Moon !!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!)
Shaolin diet, vegetarianism and stuff (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?61187-Shaolin-diet-vegetarianism-and-stuff/page53)

GeneChing
08-14-2020, 09:11 AM
https://media.timeout.com/images/105678572/1372/772/image.jpg
Photograph: Courtesy InterContinental Grand Stanford

Intercontinental's Whisky Chocolate Mooncake is back for this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival (https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/news/intercontinentals-whisky-chocolate-mooncake-is-back-for-this-years-mid-autumn-festival-080420)
Take advantage of the early bird special of up to 35 percent discount for orders made on or before August 31
By Time Out Hong Kong Posted: Tuesday August 4 2020, 8:26pm

This year, Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong has launched an array of premium mooncake collections from classic flavours to innovative whisky infused chocolate creation.

The hotel's coveted Whisky Chocolate Mooncake ($428/box of four) is back this year, and it's sure to satiate whisky buffs and foodies alike. The signature mooncake features four different types of single-origin chocolates from Ghana, Ecuador, Vietnam, and Grenada. Each of these carefully chosen chocolates contains varying levels of cocoa and distinct characters that, when blended with the specially aged Speyside whisky, produces a unique whisky tasting experience. The whisky used for the mooncakes is aged in sherry-seasoned mini barrels at Tiffany’s New York Bar for six weeks to develop a more in-depth profile to the dram.

https://media.timeout.com/images/105678573/image.jpg
Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong's premium mooncake collections

Aside from the chocolate mooncakes, the Mini Lava Custard mooncake ($318/box of six) created by Executive Chinese Chef Leung Fai Hung is also making its debut this year. The mooncake features a velvety and luscious custard filling using premium butter and salted egg yolks from Gao You in Yangzhou City.

Mini Lava Custard mooncake

For those who prefer traditional flavours, there is also the classic White Lotus Seed Purée Mooncake with Double Yolk ($388/box of four) made using silk white lotus seed purée with savoury salted egg yolks.

https://media.timeout.com/images/105678574/image.jpg
These festive delights come in an elegant traditional lantern design packaging that is perfect as a gift for loved ones or colleagues. Place your orders today via Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong online shop and take advantage of the early bird special of up to 35 percent discount for orders made on or before August 31. The mooncakes will be available for redemption from September 11 to October 1. Elaine Soh

I just realized we have two threads on the Moon Festival:
Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!) & Happy-mid-autumn-festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival). Maybe I should merge?

Also, there's my fav thread: Let-s-talk-Whisky! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?59392-Let-s-talk-Whisky!)

GeneChing
08-14-2020, 09:11 AM
https://media.timeout.com/images/105678572/1372/772/image.jpg
Photograph: Courtesy InterContinental Grand Stanford

Intercontinental's Whisky Chocolate Mooncake is back for this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival (https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/news/intercontinentals-whisky-chocolate-mooncake-is-back-for-this-years-mid-autumn-festival-080420)
Take advantage of the early bird special of up to 35 percent discount for orders made on or before August 31
By Time Out Hong Kong Posted: Tuesday August 4 2020, 8:26pm

This year, Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong has launched an array of premium mooncake collections from classic flavours to innovative whisky infused chocolate creation.

The hotel's coveted Whisky Chocolate Mooncake ($428/box of four) is back this year, and it's sure to satiate whisky buffs and foodies alike. The signature mooncake features four different types of single-origin chocolates from Ghana, Ecuador, Vietnam, and Grenada. Each of these carefully chosen chocolates contains varying levels of cocoa and distinct characters that, when blended with the specially aged Speyside whisky, produces a unique whisky tasting experience. The whisky used for the mooncakes is aged in sherry-seasoned mini barrels at Tiffany’s New York Bar for six weeks to develop a more in-depth profile to the dram.

https://media.timeout.com/images/105678573/image.jpg
Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong's premium mooncake collections

Aside from the chocolate mooncakes, the Mini Lava Custard mooncake ($318/box of six) created by Executive Chinese Chef Leung Fai Hung is also making its debut this year. The mooncake features a velvety and luscious custard filling using premium butter and salted egg yolks from Gao You in Yangzhou City.

Mini Lava Custard mooncake

For those who prefer traditional flavours, there is also the classic White Lotus Seed Purée Mooncake with Double Yolk ($388/box of four) made using silk white lotus seed purée with savoury salted egg yolks.

https://media.timeout.com/images/105678574/image.jpg
These festive delights come in an elegant traditional lantern design packaging that is perfect as a gift for loved ones or colleagues. Place your orders today via Intercontinental Grand Stanford Hong Kong online shop and take advantage of the early bird special of up to 35 percent discount for orders made on or before August 31. The mooncakes will be available for redemption from September 11 to October 1. Elaine Soh

I just realized we have two threads on the Moon Festival:
Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!) & Happy-mid-autumn-festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival). Maybe I should merge?

Also, there's my fav thread: Let-s-talk-Whisky! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?59392-Let-s-talk-Whisky!)

GeneChing
10-01-2020, 10:28 AM
The original article has trailers.


From Jackie Chan’s Vanguard to Kung Fu Mulan, eight movies showing in China during golden week (https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3103625/eight-movies-chinas-golden-week-holiday-jackie-chans)
This year’s golden week box office will show how well China’s movie industry has recovered from the pandemic
Legend of Deification is an early winner, chalking up US$11.7 million in advance ticket sales for its opening day on October 1
Elaine Yau in Beijing
Published: 5:45pm, 30 Sep, 2020

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1200x800/public/d8/images/methode/2020/09/30/0017545c-0221-11eb-88c7-25dcd0ae6080_image_hires_183016.jpg?itok=Lg0cuafF&v=1601461833Jiang Ziya in a still from animated film Legend of Deification, one of eight movies in the cinematic line-up for golden week.
Jiang Ziya in a still from animated film Legend of Deification, one of eight movies in the cinematic line-up for golden week.
Legend of Deification, the animated movie co-produced by the same company that made last year’s box office champion Nezha , is set to become the top grossing film on China’s national day holiday on Thursday. According to China’s largest ticketing app, Maoyan, Legend of Deification has so far chalked up 80 million yuan (US$11.7 million) in advance ticket sales for its opening day, which is also the start of the country’s “golden week” national holiday.
Ranked second in Thursday’s advance ticket sales is patriotic movie My People My Homeland, which took in over 65 million yuan. Jackie Chan vehicle Vanguard, which opened a day earlier than Legend of Deification and My People My Homeland, reaped over 47 million yuan for advance ticket sales for Wednesday and Thursday.
The Chinese film industry sees advance ticket sales for a film’s opening day on Maoyan as a credible gauge of audience response to a production and how it will fare at the box office in China.
The week-long October national holiday in China usually brings rich pickings for studios, which fall over themselves to bring their best films to the big screen. Last year, golden week brought in 5 billion yuan in box office takings, more than double the 2.2 billion yuan of the previous year.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2020/09/30/c165e972-021f-11eb-88c7-25dcd0ae6080_1320x770_183016.jpg
Jackie Chan and Miya Muqi in a still from Vanguard.
With the coronavirus outbreak largely under control in China, mainland cinemas have been reopened for two months. On September 25, the cap on seating capacity at cinemas was raised to 75 per cent.
Industry analysts predict golden week this year will bring in 4.5 billion to 5 billion yuan in ticket sales, similar to last year’s figure, proof of the recovery of China’s cinema sector from the pandemic. Below are the eight movies which will be shown on the mainland during the golden week holiday.

Legend of Deification
The runaway box office success of Nezha has boosted the public’s expectations for Legend of Deification, co-produced by One and All Animation Studio, and Enlight Media which also produced Nezha last year.
Like Nezha, which revolves around adventures of the eponymous mythological figure in Chinese folklore, Legend of Deification focuses on the exploits of Jiang Ziya, the mythological Chinese noble who helped kings Wen and Wu of the Zhou dynasty to overthrow the Shang dynasty.
After overthrowing Shang, Jiang is at the peak of his career. About to be crowned the chief of all gods, he commits a mistake and is demoted to human status. Without his magical power, and ostracised in the human world, he embarks on a journey of salvation and self-discovery to reclaim his former glory.

My People My Homeland
Produced by Zhang Yimou and with Ning Hao as chief director, the film adopts the same format as My People, My Country , last year’s golden week box office champion. My People My Homeland is an anthology film comprising five chapters, each with a different director.
Featuring A-list stars including Huang Bo and Shen Teng, the stories portray the love of mainlanders for, well, their homeland.

Vanguard
Hong Kong action film director Stanley Tong Kwai-lai and Jackie Chan team up in their sixth collaboration. Chan plays the chief of an international security team tasked with rescuing a hostage who has been kidnapped by mercenaries.
Chan revealed to the media before that he nearly drowned in an accident when filming Vanguard. Since Chan and Tong started to work together in the early 1990s, they have made several hugely successful films, including Police Story 3: Super Cop and Rumble in the Bronx.

Leap
Released on September 25, Leap has so far earned 200 million yuan in ticket sales and 10 million yuan in advance ticket sales for Thursday. The 200 million yuan in sales puts it in ninth place on the list of 2020’s top 10 mainland films.
Directed by Hong Kong director Peter Chan Ho-sun, Leap tells the story of the Chinese women’s national volleyball team over the past 40 years. Gong Li plays Lang Ping, the current head coach of the team. It traces how the team became world champions and defended the title in international competitions.

Coffee or Tea?
Produced by Peter Chan and directed by Xu Hongyu, the comedy stars heartthrobs Liu Haoran, Peng Yuchang and Yin Fang. This is an uplifting yarn about three young men who give up city comforts for the rustic life in a 1,000-year-old village in Yunnan. Beating all the odds, they set up an e-commerce business there and strike up friendships with the locals. The film will be released on October 4.

Kung Fu Mulan
To be released on October 3, this mainland animated version of beloved Chinese traditional hero Hua Mulan comes hot on the heels of the disastrous showing of Disney’s live-action remake. This is the first mainland animation about the historical figure.
The Mulan in this animation differs from the Disney’s Mulan, which stuck to the traditional image of the filial and patriotic warrior.

Let Life be Beautiful
To be released on October 5, this movie, based on true events, portrays a young man who battles leukaemia with optimism and bravery. Faced with much uncertainty, he perseveres in pursuing his goal and dreams.
Playing the stricken young man is 14-year-old Rong Zishan, who became a household name overnight in China recently for his starring role in hit TV series The Bad Kids. Rong’s performance as a pathos-filled student grappling with a broken family and a murderer on his back earned rave reviews from critics. In spite of being a child star, he has already worked with several famous directors, including Jia Zhangke in 2015’s Mountains May Depart .

Kikujiro
Released in Japan in 1999, and written by and starring Japanese film icon Takeshi Kitano, Kikujiro has taken over six million yuan in ticket sales since its September 25 release on the mainland.
Rated 8.8 out of 10 on Douban, China’s equivalent to IMDb, the movie revolves around the adventures of a primary student who, having been raised by his grandma, decides to go to Toyohashi in Aichi Prefecture to look for his mother on his own.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/d8/images/methode/2020/09/30/7e949b22-0222-11eb-88c7-25dcd0ae6080_1320x770_183016.jpg
Takeshi Kitano (left) and Yusuke Sekiguchi in a still from Kikujiro (1999). Photo: Office Kitano
After arriving in Toyohashi, the helpless child runs into a kindhearted woman who asks her layabout husband (Kitano) to help him out. The man and the kid then embark on a journey of self-discovery together.

Threads
Happy-mid-autumn-festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival)
Legend-of-Deification-Jiang-Ziya (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71621-Legend-of-Deification-Jiang-Ziya)
Vanguard (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71202-Vanguard)
Kung-Fu-Mulan (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71880-Kung-Fu-Mulan)
covid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71666-Coronavirus-(COVID-19)-Wuhan-Pneumonia)

GeneChing
10-05-2020, 09:17 AM
Oct 1, 2020 7:52pm PT
China Hits Highest Single-Day Ticket Sales of the Year, Notching Its Second-Biggest National Day Earnings Ever (https://variety.com/2020/film/asia/china-box-office-national-day-jiang-ziya-1234789945/)

By Rebecca Davis

https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/jiang-ziya-2.jpg?w=600
Courtesy of Well Go USA
The Chinese box office hit its highest single-day tally of the year so far on Thursday, reaching $107 million (RMB728 million), more than 10 times what North American cinemas made in the whole of last weekend. That sum marks China’s second largest Oct. 1 National Day box office in history, a feat achieved even as cinemas continue to operate at just 75% capacity.

Thursday was this year a dual holiday coincidentally marked by both the Mid-Autumn Festival and the first day of the week-long National Day vacation, typically one of the busiest times for cinemas.

Meanwhile, to compare, the total gross for North American over the latest three-day weekend period was just $9.26 million. Relative levels of movie-going are of course tied to progress in battling the pandemic: China logged just 11 new coronavirus cases nationwide on Wednesday, whereas the U.S. logged 43,114.

Leading China’s box office Thursday was Enlight’s hotly anticipated animation “Jiang Ziya: Legend of Deification,” a sequel of sorts from the same cinematic universe as last summer’s breakout animation hit “Nezha,” which went on to become China’s second-highest grossing film ever.

It opened strong at number one with $52.7 million, according to data from industry tracker Maoyan — setting a record for the highest single-day ticket sales for an animated title in China of all time. It also opened Thursday in select U.S. theaters, distributed by Well Go USA.

In second was the patriotic film purpose-made for the National Day holiday, “My People, My Homeland,” which grossed $39.3 million on its opening day. Produced by Beijing Culture, the omnibus film is executive produced by Zhang Yimou and features shorts from top directors Ning Hao, Xu Zheng, Chen Sicheng, Yan Fei, Peng Damo, Deng Chao and Yu Baimei.

The Jackie Chan-starring actioner “Vanguard,” directed by Stanley Tong, came in third on its second day in theaters, with earnings of $8.25 million bringing its two-day cume up to $16.8 million. The film is also set to open Friday in the Ukraine and later this month in Russia via distributor Trinity CineAsia, which also holds rights in the U.K. and Ireland.

Peter Chan’s “Leap,” which opened last week, came in fourth with $6.34 million, while “The Eight Hundred” held its own in sixth, earning $265,000 on its 42nd day in theaters.

A propaganda documentary of the 2019 National Day military parade, a blowout to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, debuted Thursday in seventh, earning $134,400. It was produced by China’s only military-affiliated film studio.

Threads
Happy-mid-autumn-festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival)
Legend-of-Deification-Jiang-Ziya (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71621-Legend-of-Deification-Jiang-Ziya)
Vanguard (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71202-Vanguard)
covid (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71666-Coronavirus-(COVID-19)-Wuhan-Pneumonia)

GeneChing
09-21-2021, 07:38 PM
I just realized we have two threads on the Moon Festival:
Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!! (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?58432-Happy-Autumn-Moon-!!!) & Happy-mid-autumn-festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival). Maybe I should merge?
In honor of 2021, I just merged these two threads.

GeneChing
09-27-2021, 12:21 PM
Follow the link to see the video


Martial arts dance - Shaolin kung fu (http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202109/20/WS61480bbba310cdd39bc6a607.html)
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-09-20 12:19

This program presents the wonderful picture of dancers entering the world of murals and competing with monks, and shows the rich culture of Shaolin kung fu. It takes murals from Shaolin Temple in Central China's Henan province as its prototype, resurrected murals via XR technologies.

Mainly filmed in the Shaolin Temple, the show featured four different scenes, namely, "Wind, Fire, Forest and Mountain", to present the magic of Chinese kung fu. The inheritance and development of kung fu is also shown through interactions between dancers, monks and today's youth.

It's part of Henan Satellite TV's special program for the Mid-Autumn Festival, "Mid-Autumn Wonderful Tour".

Threads
Yet-another-Shaolin-Modern-Dance-crossover (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?68295-Yet-another-Shaolin-Modern-Dance-crossover)
Mural-painting-in-Shaolin-Temple-showing-monks-practicing-kung-fu (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?71137-Mural-painting-in-Shaolin-Temple-showing-monks-practicing-kung-fu)
Happy-mid-autumn-festival (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival)

GeneChing
09-06-2022, 11:35 AM
Meet the Bakers Giving Mooncakes a Modern Twist (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/mooncake-flavors)
When it comes to these treats, trends trump tradition.

BY CLARISSA WEI
AUGUST 31, 2022

https://img.atlasobscura.com/MURcmGSa1mYOQD_p2vUpJrvsrwk4NCmPs3n_RBxhty4/rt:fit/w:1280/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8yYzY5MDVhOS03/ODBlLTRhZTItYTgz/NC00ZmFiOGNkNjQ2/OGMyYzVlZTFiNThh/Mzg4NzE3OTJfVEhD/IG1vb25jYWtlIGZs/YXZvdXJzLmpwZw.jpg
Mid-Autumn Festival means mooncakes. THE HOUSE COLLECTIVE
In This Story

LIKE MANY OTHERS AROUND THE world, Hong Kong college student Phoebe Chan found herself cooking at home a lot when the global pandemic hit in 2020. “One day, I was making individual beef Wellingtons, and thought they looked quite like a mooncake,” she says. “So I put them into a mooncake mold and it just worked.”

She shared a photo of her invention on Instagram, where it went viral. With the blessing of her family, Chan paused her studies and started up a mooncake business, Phoebe’s Kitchen. Just two years since her very first mooncake, Chan’s whimsical creation is now stocked at high-end supermarkets around Hong Kong. She’s even partnered up with Grand Hyatt Hotel to create a special rendition filled with Angus beef, Parma ham, and truffles.

Needless to say, beef Wellington mooncakes are an immense departure from the traditional Cantonese-style mooncakes that she grew up eating. “The majority of my clients are teenagers, because they are more into creative stuff,” says Chan. “It’s boring giving lotus-seed mooncakes every year.”

https://img.atlasobscura.com/7Hzymh2Dt3RXZFBhbAZW3kb4wnVeEdSncpLVl7oFmtk/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy81MmEwMjRkMi0y/NTUzLTQzOWUtYWY3/Yi01YmFiMjFjMmQ4/YTcyOGRiMmJhN2Q4/ZjcxZjJmNzhfTVcg/LSBCZWVmIDIuanBn.jpg
Phoebe’s Kitchen mooncakes come filled with beef, or even salmon. COURTESY OF PHOEBE’S KITCHEN
Mooncakes are the signature dish of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, an annual Asian folk holiday celebrating the fall harvest. In China, celebrants built altars offering food and incense to the moon. At its fullest during the fall, the size of the moon signified the beginning of autumn. Over thousands of years, the custom of celebrating the Mid-Autumn festival radiated out throughout the world with the diaspora, and so did mooncakes.

The pastry is usually purchased in boxes and gifted to friends, family, and business acquaintances, as a symbol of gratitude and generosity. Recipes vary by region. In Cantonese-speaking societies, the classic mooncake is hockey puck-shaped, filled with lotus-seed paste and salted egg yolks. Shanghai and the surrounding province of Jiangsu specialize in flaky round pastries stuffed with either savory chunks of pork or sweet red bean paste. Taiwan’s mooncakes are usually flat, chalky white discs flavored with mung bean paste and dried ground pork.

While traditional mooncakes still dominate, a new cohort of chefs and entrepreneurs are redefining the pastry. There’s now elegant chocolate ice cream mooncakes in Taipei, mooncakes infused with Earl Grey tea in Hong Kong, and in Malaysia, mooncakes spiked with aged whisky.

Whereas traditional mooncakes drew from locally available ingredients, these new renditions have no historical or symbolic ties any region. Instead, they are created for their wow factor—intended to both shock and delight.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/A4svUdd-ktVWMdOzjn5BkLo1Cerv58Rdgv4f0nYUnhM/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy9kOWU2ZDExOS05/ZmQ1LTQ1N2MtOTVi/OS0yNjdlOTk4OWQ5/YTAyMTc4NjdjODI0/MmE4NWFmYTZfbW9v/bmNha2UuanBlZw.jpg
Ice-cream mooncakes suit Taiwan’s warm climate. COURTESY OF YU CHOCOLATIER
“You always want to bring the coolest mooncake to the party,” says Edmund Tan, co-founder of The Ice Cream Bar in Malaysia. “There’s a competitiveness to it.” For the last three years, Tan and his wife Lim Shiew Li have been selling boozy ice cream mooncakes infused with a shot of Johnnie Walker, which they say is a guaranteed way to spice up any Mid-Autumn gathering.

“Consumers nowadays are not looking for tradition,” Tan says. “We are looking for new forms of excitement, new forms of innovation. When you bring that mooncake to a party, do people light up? Or do the people go, ‘Oh, another mooncake.’”

Once a pastry baked in small batches by agrarian households to mark the beginning of autumn, the mooncake only became a gifting commodity in the late 50s and 60s. As Hong Kong transformed into an international financial hub, mooncakes gained a special social cachet. Propelled by the booming economy, mooncakes were so sought after back then that Hong Kongers would pay them off in monthly installments. Designers created bespoke packaging keep an edge up on the competition, while hotels and bakeries started infusing the mooncakes with quirky flavors like egg custard and mochi.

Decades of relentless reinvention has resulted in a host of eclectic, elaborate mooncakes. In fact, some brands spend months nailing down the design and flavors.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/yjti0JxtBfZoiqw2myTqjZ_7qvSW4Fo4_ZvZWtQSR6g/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy8xYTk0YTQ5MDk4/NDcxYzU4MmJfbW9v/bmNha2UxLnBuZw.png
Lady M’s 2022 mooncake package is shaped like a lantern. COURTESY OF LADY M
“It’s a long process and we try to think at least one year in advance,” says Ken Romaniszyn, the CEO of Lady M, a luxury confections brand with locations in Asia and North America. This year, Lady M is selling limited-edition packages of purple yam custard, Earl Grey, and coffee caramel-flavored mooncakes in a spinning lantern adorned with golden rabbits. “It lights up on the bottom. You can turn it on and it actually spins,” he says.

Romaniszyn first launched Lady M’s mooncake bundles six years ago in Hong Kong. Back in the day, there wasn’t much competition. Their only rivals, he notes, were the mooncakes sold in elegant tin boxes by upscale hotel chains like the Peninsula or the Mandarin Oriental. “But now you have bakeries like us who are participating in this festival, and I think we’ve really elevated the game,” he says. “We’re trying to make delicious mooncakes, but the presentation is equally as important.”

There’s an ambitious thoughtfulness to the design process. While mooncakes themselves are meant to be devoured, the containers they come in will long outlast the confections. It’s imperative that they stand out. At The House Collective, a luxury hotel chain in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, the pastries come in actual treasure chests—inspired by toy boxes belonging to Chinese emperors from the Qing Dynasty. “People like to collect it,” says Jaime Chua, the assistant director of marketing at The House Collective. Each box is adorned with faux jade amulets made with recycled glass bottles and used uniforms from the hotels. There are even four separate box designs, each one inspired by the architecture of a different House Collective hotel.

https://img.atlasobscura.com/1fKC4dhUjVTZuB1oQvTK6U-00GLjOCDqwVLlbLILKvY/rs:fill:12000:12000/q:81/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL2Fzc2V0/cy9jMjIyNmYxOC0y/ZGM4LTQ5NTctOWE3/YS05ZTQ2YWNhZjFk/Zjk1MWM0NzM0MWI0/YWQyMjc4NWFfVGhl/IFRlbXBsZSBIb3Vz/ZSBtb29uY2FrZS5q/cGc.jpg
Hotel chains, such as The House Collective, make special sets of mooncakes for the holidays. COURTESY OF THE HOUSE COLLECTIVE
But for some, the reinvention of the mooncake is not just a marketing ploy, but rather a necessary upgrade. “In Taiwan, it’s actually very hot during the Mid-Autumn Festival,” says pastry chef Yu Hsuang Chang of Yu Chocolatier, a Taipei-based chocolate shop. “The traditional mooncake is dense and greasy. Not that it’s not good, but it can be a bit overwhelming.”

For the last four years, Yu has been rolling out ice cream mooncakes for the festivities—round frozen discs, stuffed with either a chocolate cake or a strawberry vanilla sponge with cheese from Normandy, all enveloped in a delicate chocolate shell. “I wanted to do a version of a mooncake that could be pleasing in the hot weather,” he says.

And it works; Every year, his ice-cream mooncakes sell out. Like many other mooncake designers around the world, Yu believes that innovation is what keeps the holiday interesting and fresh. “Traditions were new when they first began, as well,” he says.

Salmon mooncakes? I'm all in.

GeneChing
09-25-2023, 08:59 AM
What to know about the harvest moon, the last supermoon of the year (https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/09/25/fall-harvest-moon-how-to-watch/)

By Amudalat Ajasa
September 25, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/3MDOWBRSN2KDJGW6BXTRRMDAEI_size-normalized.jpg&w=1200
The full harvest moon rises behind downtown buildings in Kansas City, Mo., on Sept. 9, 2022. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
2 min

For some, leaves changing from lively greens to crisp oranges, pumpkin spice cravings and cozy sweater weather mark the beginning of autumn. While these are all iconic fall staples, skywatchers get an extra treat. The harvest moon, the conclusion of this year’s four-part supermoon series, will start lighting up the sky on Thursday night.

Want to know how your actions can help make a difference for our planet? Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter, in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.
The moon will look a pumpkin-y orange and red — which seems oddly fitting — but that isn’t a unique trait to this month. All full moons appear orange — and we have 13 each year.

What is a supermoon?
Supermoons are full moons that occur when the moon is at the closest point of orbit to Earth. Supermoons can appear up to 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than the smallest-seeming full moon, according to NASA. This will be the last supermoon until next August.

Why is it called a harvest moon?
The harvest moon, also known as the corn moon by Indigenous groups in the Northeast, historically signals the time of year when different summer crops are ready to be harvested. Farmers have also relied on the light from September’s full moon to harvest their crops late into the night.

“It’s close to the full harvest, so it’s a full moon that happens around the time of the fall harvest,” said Noah Petro, a scientist with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Project at NASA.

Where and when can you see this moon?
While this year’s harvest moon will appear to be a bit larger and brighter because of its supermoon status, it’s simply the closest full moon to the autumn equinox.

The autumnal equinox, which results in nearly an equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes, signals the astronomical turning of seasons — meaning cooling temperatures are finally on the way after this blistering summer. This year, the harvest moon will rise about a week after the autumn equinox, from Thursday night into Friday morning. The moon will be at it’s fullest at 5:57 a.m. on Friday.

We are all separated by distance but united by the moon and, luckily, this is a moon that everyone will get to see. It will be full from sunrise to sunset.


While the harvest moon will begin to grace skies on Thursday, don’t fret if you miss it. Skywatchers, and harvesters, will be able to see a near full moon in the days leading up to its monthly peak and in the days after, according to NASA ambassador Tony Rice.

“You can go at least a day in either direction, maybe two in each direction, and it’s going to look just as full to most people,” Rice said.



By Amudalat Ajasa
Amudalat Ajasa covers extreme weather news for The Washington Post and writes about how extreme weather and climate change are affecting communities in the United States and abroad. Twitter

Hi-Moon-we-are-back!!! (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?44620-Hi-Moon-we-are-back!!!)
Happy-mid-autumn-festival (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival)

GeneChing
09-29-2023, 10:08 AM
Taiwan's oversized yolk pastry to celebrate Moon Festival (https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5006963)
Foodies can purchase the pastry at 13 locations
1802
By Lyla Liu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2023/09/24 16:07

https://tnimage.s3.hicloud.net.tw/photos/2023/09/24/1695542700-650fedac7193b.jpg
Taiwan's supermarket launches an oversized yolk pastry weights 3.7 kilograms. (Facebook, Neihu RT-mart photo)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's RT-mart launched a 50-times-larger-than-usual yolk pastry for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The giant pastry, which weighs around 3.7 kilograms and uses 53 salty yolks, was first spotted at the Neihu branch of RT-mart by a netizen who shared a photo on Facebook. The photo quickly went viral, with many people inquiring about how to buy the pastry.

In response to the demand, RT-mart has begun selling the giant yolk pastry at 13 branches. The pastry is made with a crispy husk made with butter and stuffed with adzuki bean paste, according to Super Taste.

The secret to the delicious dessert is the well-selected salted duck eggs, which are marinated for over 30 days in Pingtung in southern Taiwan. The bean paste filling also uses a reduced sugar formula and adds butter for a less sweet and greasy taste.

The giant yolk pastry is priced at NT$2,500 (US$78) and takes four hours longer to make than a regular yolk pastry.

https://image.taiwannews.com.tw/photos/2023/09/24/1695542416-650fec908191d.jpg
The oversize pastry is priced at NT$2,500. (Facebook, Neihu RT-mart photo

My blood sugar just shot through the roof just lookin at this.

GeneChing
09-29-2023, 10:11 AM
Burger King Taiwan launches bunless burgers for Mid-Autumn Festival (https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5009625)
Eatery calls on consumers to 'shed the starch burden and go all-in with meat'
2734
By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2023/09/28 13:29

https://tnimage.s3.hicloud.net.tw/photos/2023/09/28/1695876102-65150406378d2.jpg
Burger King's bunless burgers. (Burger King Taiwan image)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — To coincide with Mid-Autumn Festival feasts, Burger King Taiwan has unveiled four bunless burgers for a limited time.

To cash in on Taiwan's Mid-Autumn Festival barbecue craze, Burger King Taiwan on Sept. 20 said that from Sept. 21 to Oct. 10 it would feature four new bunless burgers. The sandwiches include the Bunless Double Beef, Bunless Quad Beef, Bunless Double Chicken, and Bunless Chicken Crisp.

In its advertisement for the new burgers, it used slogans such as "Mid-Autumn meat beatdown," "Going without bread is the craze," and "No meat, no fun" and called on consumers to "shed the starch burden and go all-in with meat."

The eatery said, "Whether it's a fire-grilled beef patty sandwich or a crispy fried chicken patty sandwich, paired with seasonal vegetables and cheese, it's so satisfying and delicious, and you can eat to your heart's content!"

Traditionally, Taiwanese celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival by eating moon cakes and pomelos. However, in recent decades barbecuing on sidewalks and in parks has become widely popular across the country.

Reports of Taiwanese grilling meat in scenic areas began to surface in the late 1970s, but in 1986 Wan Ja Shan Brewery added fuel to the fire with TV commercials for its barbecue sauce, reported the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan. The campaign is well known for its slogan, "When one family grills meats, 10,000 families enjoy the aroma."

The burgers are availabe at most of the fastfood chain's restaurants from 10:30 a.m. until 30 minutes before closing. However, some branches do not offer the burgers and availability at each store will depend on supply.

https://image.taiwannews.com.tw/photos/2023/09/28/1695878295-65150c971bf2d.png
Burger King advertisment for its bunless burgers. (Burger King Taiwan image) Didn't know about the BBQ trend...

Happy-mid-autumn-festival (http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?48173-Happy-mid-autumn-festival)
Fast-Food-Nastiness (https://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?65208-Fast-Food-Nastiness)

GeneChing
09-29-2023, 10:13 AM
10 taboos to avoid on Mid-Autumn Festival in Taiwan (https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/5008839)
Be kind to rabbits, stay away from oceans and rivers, and avoid pointing your finger at the moon
8378
By Sean Scanlan, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2023/09/27 11:54
https://tnimage.s3.hicloud.net.tw/photos/2023/09/27/1695786693-6513a6c5ba7c5.jpg
Tips to enjoy Mid-Autumn Festival. (Pexels photo)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the four major holidays celebrated in Taiwan, with particular customs and traditions that are followed as the event takes place this Friday (Sept. 29).

The holiday is often celebrated by families and friends coming together to enjoy a meal with moon cakes and tea. According to fortune teller Xiao-Meng (小孟) of Pure Mo (清水孟), there are ten taboos to be mindful of when celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, per UDN.

1. Do not tease rabbits.

According to folklore, Chang'e (嫦娥) loved rabbits and took one with her when she went to the moon. The Jade Rabbit now resides on the moon making elixirs. Be gentle with rabbits, lest they seek revenge by appealing to the Jade Rabbit.

2. Men should not worship the moon.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, men are advised not to worship the moon lest they become affected by the moon's gravity, which can lead to poor quality sleep.

3. Avoid the sea and the river.

The Mid-Autumn Festival coincides with a full moon, which can lead to high tides that can become dangerous with wind and rain. Therefore, it's advised to stay away from the beach around the Mid-Autumn Festival.

4. Women should not worship the Kitchen God.

There is an ancient saying that “men should not worship the moon, and women should not worship the Kitchen God,” during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Kitchen God (灶神) is thought to be a masculine god, while the moon is a feminine god. Therefore, men were advised not to worship "yin" and women were advised not to worship the "yang" to avoid upsetting evil spirits.

5. People in poor health or who have suffered a miscarriage should not admire the moon.

The full moon is a festival with heavy “yin” energy, which can be easily transmitted during this time. This means that people in poor health should not enjoy the moon.

6. Don’t point your finger at moon gods.

The Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the moon, and according to folklore, Wu Gang (吳剛) and Chang'e (嫦娥) both live on the moon. Therefore, it's not recommended to point your finger directly at the moon, which may be taken as a sign of disrespect for these gods.

7. Avoid eating moon cakes and fruits that are not round.

In ancient times, moon cakes were round in shape and represented family unity and harmony. Thus, one should avoid eating moon cakes or fruit that are pointy, such as water chestnuts, as this is likely to lead to quarrels or conflicts. At the same time, ancestors and gods should be worshipped with round fruit which represents perfection.

8. Women should avoid covering their foreheads.

A woman’s forehead is thought to be a shape similar to the moon. Therefore, during the Mid-Autumn Festival, hair covering the forehead should be pulled back or lifted up to receive blessings.

9. When admiring the moon, do not go under a banyan tree or a place with heavy gloom.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the full moon is obscured by clouds, it's not advisable to go to places with excessive “yin” energy to avoid a bad aura.

10. Avoid swimming at night.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon will be reflected in swimming pools as well as in the ocean at night, so it is not advisable to swim outdoors to avoid being disrespectful to the moon gods.
Well, I guess my rabbit teasing plans for today are postponed...:rolleyes: