Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节
Today, the 13th September 2019 is the actual Mid-Autumn Festival day - the fifteenth day of the eight moon in the lunar calendar.
All Chinese around the world is celebrating this day by exchanging moon cakes with one another, some home-baked, but mostly commercially done - exported from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
There is no necessity here for us to delve into the meaning and the significance of this festive because these have been well documented on the internet. Suffice it to say here that such a festival highlights just one of the many bonding events of the Chinese-cultured (yellow-skinned) race. The world’s population stood at 7.53 billion as of 2017 and the Han Chinese living in China numbered 1.417 billion as at the same date, 2017. The figure for overseas Chinese had been quantified in the year 2012 as 50 million. The five leading countries with overseas Chinese then were: Thailand 9.3 million, Malaysia 6.6 million, United States 5.2 million, Indonesia 2.8 million and Singapore 2.5 million. Taken together, and projecting these figures into the present day, the Chinese race as a percentage of the total population is around 18.75%, roughly one in five.
The points to be understood here are these:
(1) The Chinese, as a race, no matter whether they speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew, Shanghainese, Singlish, Thai, Malay, or Indonesian, are tied to one written script and one unwritten culture, coming together as one, at least five times a year - Chinese New Year 春节, Lantern Festival 元宵节, Ching Ming 清明节, Dragon Boat Festival 端午节, Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋节.
The top ten festivals celebrated in China: http://www.chinawhisper.com/top-10-chinese-festivals/
(2) Chinese may have conflicts with each other at various periods in history and these are relatively minor incursions or expressions of differences of outlook, but once there is a major conflict as with another race, as an instance, the Chinese often stay united as one. They may choose silence as a mode of expressing anger but they do have a united and unique way of thinking, reflecting upon the many thousands of years of Chinese civilization.
and (3) more importantly, it may be a surprise to many that the western concept of universal suffrage has never been popular within a Chinese concept of harmonious living. The concept of unity within the family units often takes precedence over self-interest.
That being said, let us sit back and relax, enjoying the mooncakes that we bought from Tai Ping Chinese Supermarket and have sips of Chinese tea (Oolong or Pu’er).
Have a Happy Mid-Autumn Festival Day. https://youtu.be/Y8oEGUPylXU
The Chinese version + the Thai version + the Maori version of this article, as translated from Google will soon be posted elsewhere within this website.