Chinese have a cordial affection for the moon, and the custom of eating mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival also has a long history. Do you know? A small mooncake also contains the characteristics of the times, and from the mooncake molds of different historical periods, you can see the folk customs of different eras; The taste of mooncakes in different eras bears witness to the changes brought about by social changes to people's lives. In fact, the mooncake is like a ukiyo-e in the shape of a full moon, reflecting the characteristics of different eras.
Looking at the shape, the mooncake cake noodles have Chang'e running to the moon, dragon and phoenix chengxiang, and jade rabbit pounding medicine; Appreciation, the mooncake filling is divided into double yellow lotus paste, bean paste jujube paste, five kernels and hundred fruits... Today, let's go from "shape" to "taste" together, enter the time tunnel of mooncakes, and taste the touching feelings of home and country in the development history of mooncakes.
Five large mooncakes. Infographic
Mooncake molds first originated in the Song Dynasty
To make mooncakes, molds are indispensable. Mooncake molds first originated in the Song Dynasty, but the mooncake molds that have been passed down to this day are mostly from the Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republic of China, and they are also known as "living woodblock prints".
In the Hainan Provincial Museum "Between Immortals" Hainan style exhibition hall, three Qiong-style mooncake molds from the Republic of China period are placed. Qiong-style mooncakes are more delicate and small, and the mold volume is correspondingly smaller. These three wooden molds are carved with delicate and clear patterns, including two round molds engraved with "lotus seed" and "egg yolk lotus seed", and a double-sided mooncake mold, one side is a fish shape that symbolizes more than one year, and the other side is a longevity peach shape that represents health and longevity.
A wooden mold of mooncakes displayed in the Hainan Provincial Museum. Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Zhang Mao
Chen Erhui, docent of the Hainan Provincial Museum, introduced that these Qiong-style mooncake molds were collected by the Provincial Museum from the Haikou Arcade Old Street rich in Nanyang style, and are cultural relics of the Republic of China.
In the old days, many people would make mooncakes at home, and most of the mooncake molds were homemade, with a variety of forms and rich patterns, containing people's yearning for a better life.
In the home of the elderly Huang Yuelian in Xinzhou Town, Danzhou City, there are all kinds of Qiong-style mooncake molds. These molds are carved with a variety of exquisite patterns, such as the moon, the jade rabbit, the lotus, the butterfly, the goldfish... Every pattern is beautiful and lifelike.
Huang Yuelian began to make mooncakes when she was young, and stopped until she was seventy-seven years old because of her inconvenience. In each mold is a story about the Mid-Autumn Festival. Huang Yuelian's grandson Xiaoyang said that in the past, after the beginning of autumn every year, her grandmother began to work hard to make mooncakes. During the day, the stove is supported, firewood is chopped, flour milled, pickled melon strips, mooncakes are made at night, the dough wrapped with filling is put into the mold, and a press, button, and a sound are made, and a complete mooncake comes out.
A wooden mold of mooncakes displayed in the Hainan Provincial Museum. Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Zhang Mao
Under the moonlight, the sound of clasping one after another, when the moon is setting in the west, all the mooncakes are made and waiting to be baked. Xiaoyang said that grandma would specially make butterfly-shaped and shrimp-shaped mooncakes for each grandchild, which symbolized auspicious, peaceful and healthy growth.
The pattern on the mooncake mold is like a mirror reflecting the Mid-Autumn Festival culture. Retaining these exquisite molds also retains the artistic folk life of the people and the imprint of the times of traditional culture.
In September 2022, the Guangzhou National Version Pavilion held the "Reunion - Cantonese-style Mooncake Culture Special Version Exhibition", which displayed a mooncake mold made in 1906 by the Yue Palace Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine.
This "Jade Rabbit Pounding Medicine" mooncake more than a hundred years ago was not the size of today's standard mooncake, but 35 cm long and 29 cm wide, and the diameter of the middle round cake was also 25 cm, which was as big as an Italian crepe. The upper right corner of this mold is engraved with the words "Guangxu Dynasty Second Year System", showing jade rabbits pounding medicine under the laurel tree, Chang'e dancing on the moon palace lanai, and surrounded by flowers, grass and wood patterns for decoration, and the carving design is rich and elegant. From this mooncake mold, it can be seen that during the Qing Dynasty, mooncakes were already a grand food to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Fu Zhiren, inheritor of the Qiong-style mooncake making skills of the Hainan Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Project, said that the mooncake is like a specific cultural symbol, the round shape symbolizes reunion, reunion, family well-being, and the pattern of the mooncake mold conveys a more specific image, rabbit-shaped, shou peach-shaped, double-fish-shaped, lotus-shaped and other patterns, which have expressed people's wishes for prosperity and auspiciousness, peace and reunion from ancient times to the present.
The mooncake pattern condenses the Chinese aesthetic
Mooncake mold is one of the materialized carriers of Chinese folk traditional aesthetic consciousness, and its shape and theme are influenced by folk customs and regions to varying degrees, paying attention to "the picture must be intentional, the meaning must be auspicious". Today, most mooncake production has been replaced by mechanized assembly lines, and in a few places, the wooden mold cake making method is still retained.
"Xing's Dongfeng Mooncake" is one of the oldest local mooncake brands in Wanning, and it is a childhood taste remembered by Wanning for generations. This brand of mooncakes comes from the Dongfeng Tea House on Hongzhuan East Road, Old Street, Wancheng Town, which still retains traditional production techniques.
A wooden mold of mooncakes displayed in the Hainan Provincial Museum. Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Zhang Mao
"We make these mooncakes one by one." He Zifan, the person in charge of Dongfeng Tea House, said that many mooncakes have been updated, but they are still adhering to traditional recipes and handmade, paying attention to retaining the hearts of old neighbors with old tastes.
The mooncake mold pattern of Dongfeng Tea House is not complicated, and the traditional ornamentation is coupled with the filling name of the mooncake. Interestingly, many people in Wanning like to eat a large mooncake as a family, and the large mooncake made by Dongfeng Tea House is very popular in the local area.
The mold of the big mooncake is engraved with dragons, phoenixes, full moon and other auspicious patterns, at the earliest, the pattern on the mooncake was carved by hand, and later the mold was applied to save man-hours, He Zifan said: "When making large mooncakes, you need to use a rolling pin-like small wooden stick to continuously roll out to compact the cake in the mold." ”
Over the years, Hainan folk mooncake production has never lacked imagination and innovation, and the emergence of some new varieties is breathtaking. In Qionghai, many manufacturers try to make vine mooncakes, and also make special mooncake molds, and engrave the word "" on the mold, which is a "heavy taste" choice for outsiders who do not understand the niche ingredient of vine.
Mooncake mold is not only a tool, but also a utensil that some people rely on to survive. Chen Guan, a mooncake chef at Hainan Crystal Palace, said that when he went south in 1989 to "break into the sea", he was carrying six mooncake molds of different sizes, which he found professional masters to make in Wuchuan, Guangdong. For a long time, more than 100,000 mooncakes were pressed out of this mooncake mold, supporting the family's livelihood. Although the hand-pressed mooncake mold cylinder has replaced the traditional mooncake mold, Chen Guan prefers to put the raw materials in the mold and make pure handmade mooncakes by pressing and beating.
"I began to learn to make mooncakes from Master at the age of sixteen, and I have been making mooncakes for more than 30 years, and the mooncake mold is like our partner, and the mooncakes made from it have temperature and love." Chen Guan proudly said that this has a unique sense of ritual of a mooncake chef.
Whether it is mold pressing or mechanical assembly line production, the meaning of reunion and happiness contained in mooncakes themselves will always be a timeless emotion in the hearts of all Chinese. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, the family eats mooncakes and admires the full moon together, and behind the exquisite and delicious mooncakes are exquisite and unique tools, but also the continuation of family and hometown memories.
Mooncake flavors are renewed
With the development of society, people's demand for mooncake flavors has also been changing. At present, in the market, traditional taste, fruit taste, and new taste are "tripod". Especially in the past two years, the market of new flavors has shown the characteristics of rapid acceptance and significant increase in market scale, and many "new favorites" have emerged in the Hainan mooncake industry, such as Pandan mooncakes, coconut mooncakes, vine mooncakes, and many people who like to taste early have placed orders to taste new flavored Qiong-style mooncakes.
"Pandan is fresh, creamy, so delicious!" In the past two days, Ms. Zhao, a citizen of Haikou, has distributed two boxes of poranite egg yolk mooncakes, and she can't wait to open the box to taste it. The golden crust was shining with a touch of emerald green, and the inside was "inlayed" with a whole egg yolk, and she was pleasantly surprised by the mooncake with a blue flavor.
Handmade mooncakes at Lijia mooncake shop in Hongsha Community, Jiyang District, Sanya. Photo by Hainan Daily reporter Wu Wei
Not only Ms. Zhao, but also the mooncakes with the flavor of Banlan captured the taste of many people as soon as they were launched. A bakery manager said: "The fragrance of the pandan is very special and has been recognized by more and more people, and we have launched the pandan mooncake for the first time this year, and the market response has been very good." ”
Looking back, in fact, the pattern of mooncakes has been constantly renewed, the varieties are increasing, and the traditional mooncakes in various regions are also "crossed" in various places, making the appearance, taste and taste of mooncakes more unique.
"About 30 years ago, taro mooncakes appeared on the market, and we were very curious when we saw this." Liu Zhaocheng, a Haikou resident, recalled the change in the taste of mooncakes, and the one that impressed him the most was the mooncakes with taro filling, saying that although there are many new flavors of mooncakes on the market now, they are not as amazing as when he ate his first bite of taro mooncakes.
After "00", Chen Chuanhao fell in love with Liuxin mooncakes, "Liuxin mooncakes have a soft skin, full of flowing hearts in the mouth, and a unique salty and sweet aroma, a combination of Chinese and Western, small and exquisite." ”
In recent years, mooncakes have not only made new articles in appearance and taste, but also played new tricks in connotation, and many mooncake brands have chosen to develop across borders in a "co-branded" way.
On September 14th, the National First-class Museum China (Hainan) South China Sea Museum and Hainan Longquan Group, a time-honored Hainan brand, jointly launched two co-branded cultural and creative mooncake gift boxes, "Haisi Huacai" and "Whale Joy Gathering", which not only innovated the taste of mooncakes, but also incorporated the characteristics of the South China Sea marine and cultural relics with Chinese aesthetic style in terms of packaging.
Haise Colorful mooncake gift box. Photo courtesy of the South China Sea Museum, China (Hainan).
Inspired by the Nanhai Museum's "Same Origins and Different Origins - Collection of Qing Dynasty Export Art Exhibition", the packaging is derived from the museum's cultural relics "Ming black lacquer inlaid screw four-layer small bumper box", the design takes into account both beauty and practicality, not only as a packaging box, but also as a jewelry box or storage box. The inspiration for "Whale Gathering" comes from the South China Sea Museum's "South Sea Whale Spirit - Cetacean Specimen Exhibition in the Museum", and its inner packaging incorporates the concept of "blind box" and popular science design.
Zheng Yaoyang, general manager of Hainan Longquan E-commerce Co., Ltd., said that in recent years, many new brands have tried to co-brand with traditional culture, and as a well-known time-honored enterprise in Hainan, Longquan Group hopes to continue to innovate and improve quality based on inheriting the classic old taste, and constantly combining people's preferences.