The Mid-Autumn Festival — celebrated by giving — and once in a while eating — stodgy mooncakes falls on September 25 this year. Xinhua reports:
Shanghai joined Beijing and Guangzhou yesterday in sending mooncakes to Chinese peacekeepers working in war-torn countries.
The three cities all started to mail the traditional sweet at 3:30pm yesterday via the county’s EMS postal service…
…”There are more than 2,000 Chinese peacekeepers abroad now who have been away from home for an extended period,” said Hu Shiyun, a spokesman for Shanghai Post.
…”All the Chinese soldiers abroad said they were eager to eat the mooncakes from home at the festival, so we decided to mail the special dessert to all of them this year,” Hu said.
China to date has dispatched more than 7,000 people to take part in 16 peacekeeping missions with the UN.
Eight Chinese soldiers have been killed during China’s 16-year peacekeeping history, which has included stints in Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Lebanon.
Poor peacekeepers.
Mooncakes are China’s answer to Christmas fruitcake: a festive food that nobody actually enjoys eating. In fact, mooncakes are most useful as a means to hide bribes: you give the bribee a really expensive box of mooncakes, which he then takes to a mooncake buying company that gives him cash with no paper trail. The mooncake buying company then sells the mooncakes for repackaging for next year’s Mid-Autumn festival. This option is probably not available to peacekeeper soldiers in Lebanon.