Expats join GDToday to celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival with mooncakes

On the afternoon of September 13, GDToday cooperated with the LN Garden Hotel to host a mooncake-making workshop, bringing together locals and expats in Guangzhou to celebrate the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.

Participants and staff taking a group photo at the workshop (Photo: Axin)

The workshop started with an introduction to the culture of Mid-Autumn Festival by the host, followed by Chef Huang Yongkang, a master of pastry from LN Garden Hotel, providing a detailed explanation of mooncake-making steps.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is celebrated annually on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. It honors the full moon, which serves as a symbol of unity and harmony, with families coming together to admire the moon and share mooncakes.

Over 20 participants took part in the workshop to make their own mooncakes filled with lotus seed paste and egg yolk. Among them were many expats living far from their families and friends abroad.

Laura Vázquez Requena, an international student at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, arrived in China just a week and a half ago and attended the event to try mooncake making for the first time. After learning about the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Chinese moon culture, she found the idea of sharing the same moon with loved ones very touching, and it reminded her of her mother.

"My mom is always saying, 'Anytime you look at the sky, there are some places where it is bright and some places where it is going to be night, but it's going to be the same sky'," Requena told GDToday.

Requena and the mooncakes that she made (Photo: Axin)

Different from Requena, Clea Odelia, who is now studying at the same university as Requena, has already had many experiences with mooncakes. As a Chinese Indonesian, Odelia grew up celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival with her family, often reuniting to share mooncakes.

Odelia, on the right of the picture, is in mooncake making (Photo: Axin)

Despite her familiarity with the tradition, Odelia participated in the workshop to explore different methods of mooncake-making. "I find it fascinating that everyone has their own way of making mooncakes. The way your parents teach you is often different from how teachers show you," Odelia explained.

"And they would pass down their own knowledge of (mooncake making) to the new generations. I feel like it's something that we all need to do as well," said the girl.  

After receiving and packing up the baked mooncakes, the participants enjoyed an exquisite dim sum set that perfectly blended taste and presentation, concluding the event around round tables—another symbol of reunion and harmony in traditional Chinese culture.

The exquisite dim sum set served at the LN Garden Hotel (Photo: LN Garden Hotel)

Reporter | Chen Siyuan

Photo | Axin

Video | Ou Nanying

Editor | Nan, James