Talk:Mooncake

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:27, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Snowy mooncakes and Taipan

I moved this from the main page:

"Snowy mooncakes was created by Hong Kong baker, Taipan Breads & Cakes Company Limited. Since it was launched in 1989, the snowy outlook and the refreshing taste of this revolutionized festive products has won the heart of customers, satisfying their "less sugar, less fat" taste requirement. Its sales and popularity were striking not only to the Hong Kong mooncake market, but also the bakery industry.

These non-baked, chilled mooncakes, since it was launched, Taipan has introduced three generations of snowy mooncakes. The first generation is lotus seed paste based filling. The second generation is green bean paste based filling and the third generation is cream cheese based.

Since the launch of "Taipan Snowy Mooncakes" 17 years ago, snowy mooncakes have become increasingly popular among customers and one of the best-selling products during the Mid-Autumn Festival. According to a survey by MDR in 2005, the market share of snowy mooncakes in the Hong Kong mooncake market has increased to nearly 40%, a significant presence despite the monopoly of traditional mooncakes in the past. The success is described as a legend in Hong Kong consumer market. The greater significance is laid on its revolutionary impact to the entire Chinese bakery and mooncake markets, which presents the industry players with insights - even a traditional product can be rejuvenated with new features and new market opporturnities. The renewed growth that it has brought about to the mooncake market has opened up a new era to the whole bakery industry."

Why was the information there replaced with this? Furthermore, can this really be verified that Taipan B&C lauched the mooncakes? Sjschen 21:31, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Snow-skin or Ice-skin

The chinese term "冰皮" means either "ice-skin" or "cold-skin", as such I name the section Ice-skin moon-cake. Is this wrong?Sjschen 21:37, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Of course, ice is cold, but 冰 means ice, cold means 冷. However, snow sounds nicer.--95.116.242.202 (talk) 22:10, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

Mung Bean

There two type of this paste one known as Black bean paste made from mung bean and caw pan or chaw pan the form and color of this caw pan are red powder. other type are made from Plaint mung bean with not added caw pan known as green bean paste.Daimond 14:10, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

BLACK BEAN PASTE OR RED BEAN PASTE

I not agree to in filling type red bean paste than latter talk about black bean paste as history record black bean paste come first than other filling come after that. so the common knowlege are black bean paste than red bean paste come later example in Indonesia only few this year we know about red bean paste, but black bean paste already known from old times.

red beanpaste are popular in japan and come throught out anime circular, but black bean paste known since the china people go aboard from china mainland to other country since ancient times.Daimond 14:11, 16 September 2006 (UTC)

Although the paste is rather dark brownish, the Chinese call it 红豆沙 (red bean paste).--95.116.242.202 (talk) 22:06, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

Symbolism

Mention is made in the article about the symbolism of mooncake and the mooncake festival being lost through commercialisation, but no mention about what the actual symbolism is, can some one please clarify the deeper cultural meanings behind the confection, the giving/recieving of them, and a brief overview of the festival itself? Satur9 20:11, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Most common types

It's self evident that the Cantonese variety is the most common - hence why the lead picture is a Cantonese mooncake. Here are some articles talking about the most common varieties of mooncakes being Cantonese, Suzhou, and Northern/Pekingese: the General Administration of Quality Suprevision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China divides mooncakes into Cantonese, Suzhou, and Northern varieties; Xinhua News Agency says the three most widespread varieties are firstly Cantonese, followed by Pekingese (in Northern China), Suzhou-style (in Eastern China), and Yunnan-style. A blog post to add some anecdotal evidence. Also an article from Taipei Times. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 09:37, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

How is it "self evident"? The fact that a photo of a Guangdong (Cantonese) mooncake is at the top of a wikipedia article is not evidence that "The Cantonese style mooncake is the most commonly seen throughout China and outside".

General Administration of Quality Suprevision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China merely divides mooncakes into three broad types: Suzhou, Guangdong and Northern (in that order). It does not state that "The Cantonese style mooncake is the most commonly seen throughout China and outside".

Xinhua News Agency again just lists some types: "Beijing, Guangdong, Suzhou, Taiwan, Yunnan, Hong Kong, Chaozhou etc", (in that order). It then goes on to discuss the various types, nowhere does it say "The Cantonese style mooncake is the most commonly seen throughout China and outside".

As you know, blogs don't count as verifiable evidence.

Taipei Times seems to be talking about mooncakes in Taiwan, not "throughout China and outside".

I think simply listing and describing the various types in alphabetical order is better, assertions such as "The Cantonese style mooncake is the most commonly seen throughout China and outside" are difficult to to verify and one could argue that they're unverifiable, has someone been to every city, town and village in China to document what types of mooncakes are seen? LDHan 18:47, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

The Xinhua article says: "广式月饼是目前最大的一类月饼，起源于广东及周边地区，目前已流行于全国各地" - Cantonese mooncakes are the "largest" type of mooncakes, etc. This is evidence for China.

The Taipei Times article says Cantonese mooncakes are the most common type in Taiwan.

As to the situation overseas, we have sources [1], [2], [3] talking about the popularity of Cantonese mooncakes overseas, and (in the last source) the "underdog" status of Suzhou mooncakes in China and outside.

The blog page is not for citing - it is to add anecdotal evidence to what is established by the RSs cited.

Look, you know Cantonese moon cakes is the most common type.

The problem with listing things alphabetically is that the minor/uncommon/rare types get placed ahead of the major types - which is misleading and confusing to readers who might be here, say, to find out what type of mooncake they're seeing in the stores.

Saying it is "most commonly seen" is not an assertion that it is the most commonly seen in every village, city, or town - it is a statement in the aggregate - and it is supported by the web sources I've quoted here. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 04:55, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I am not talking about every city, town and village in China individually either, I'm talking about China as a whole and also the rest of the world. What all the above links suggest is not that "The Cantonese style mooncake is the most commonly seen throughout China and outside" but actually that of all the main types of mooncake, the Guangdong type is the type most commonly seen outside its place of origin, but that does not make it "the most common type". For instance I doubt that in the northern China as a whole the Guangdong type is more common than the local types of mooncakes, even in southern China it might not be, considering that Guangdong is only a small part of southern China.

If readers want to find out what type of mooncakes they're seeing in shops, they're far better off simply asking the shop assistants what types of mooncakes they are selling. As you know wikipedia is international and the location of the reader should not be assumed, an alphabetical listing would avoid making judgements as to what types are "major", "common" etc. LDHan 17:36, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

"Cake" is just as literal as "biscuit".

I don't speak Chinese, but I have to differ with the infobox that says that the "literal translation" is "moon biscuit". Multiple sources (including translate.google.com) translate 餅 as "cake", not "biscuit". --Isaac R (talk) 21:44, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

"biscuit" was a recent usage of the word as chinese first saw western biscuit only a couple of century ago. most of the bake dried food are refer to as 餅. it is fair an over-generalized term.

饼 alone doesn't mean biscuit but 饼干 （干 means "dry"）. 饼 is not cake either but 蛋糕. 饼 alone is something like a pancake or everything else flat made of dough.--95.116.242.202 (talk) 22:02, 30 September 2012 (UTC)

History

"Under the Song Dynasty (420), the day was officially declared for Mid-Autumn Festival." What's that '420' doing there? Is that supposed to be a date? That doesn't fit into the timespan of the Song Dynasty... When was it actually declared? --Niten (talk) 07:04, 3 October 2009 (UTC)

Japan

In Japan, the mooncake is also known as the Japanese Pancake or Martabak Jepang (Japanese: 日本 の パンケーキ) or Bakpang.[9]

This cannot possibly be true. "Martabak Jepang" doesn't follow Japanese phonotactics; "日本 の パンケーキ" says "nippon no pankeeki", not anything like "martabak jepang". Perhaps there is a dish somewhere else that goes by this name? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.141.1.96 (talk) 18:23, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Martabak Jepang is Okonomiyaki, basically a (seafood) omelette. Martabak (arabic: Murtabaq) can best be explained in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murtabak . Its usually freshly fried, thus "similar" to the Okonomiyaki. 118.136.10.0 (talk) 16:14, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

Citation Tag

I wasn't certain why the Citation tag was here in the first place. Having lived in Southeast Asia for 11 years, I've consumed my fair share of mooncakes. I had the privilege of visiting Taiwan and there, we purchased a few boxes of mooncakes. And yes, this article is spot on. Mooncakes rock!!!!!--Ronewirl (talk) 02:37, 30 October 2012 (UTC)

The Mooncake Culture Development in China since 1990s

Before 1990s, mooncakes were just one of many bakery products available in food stores in China all the year round. Toward the end of the 20th century, the mooncake culture started to change. Now the mooncakes are available only shortly before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the prices have sky-rocketed to absurdity. A box of 4 mooncakes, for instance, can cost as much as US$2000. There have also been mooncakes reportedly made of gold and silver intended for gifts.

I think there should be a section about this recent development of the mooncake culture in China. --Roland 01:04, 28 August 2013 (UTC)

Fortune cookies

I have temporarily added this:
On the other hand, as the fortune cookie originated in either Japan or the USA, there may in fact be no link to mooncakes.
but suggest that the entire text on fortune cookies be removed from this article as irrelevant, unsupported, and uninteresting. —DIV (120.19.1.177 (talk) 13:27, 22 September 2016 (UTC))

Issues Regarding to Citations

Hi, I am a new member of the Wikipedia community. As I was reading this article (good job by the way!), it came to my attention that the links of citations 1 and 7 won't open. Please update the citation section. Thank you! --Dotydorado (talk) 20:07, 26 October 2016 (UTC)

Calories

The article states prominently that an average mooncake is approximately 1,000 calories (4,200 kJ) per 100 grams. This is ambiguous and misleading - There are many different types of mooncakes with many kinds of fillings and also many types of crust. I'm look at several different mainland Chinese mooncakes from different bakeries and all of them are in the range of 1,700 to 2,300 kJ per 100 gram serving - Still a heavy treat but much less than what the article states. This might be thr true caloric information for a pure lotus seed paste mooncake, but as another part of the article points out, white beans are used as a cheaper filling these days. White bean paste (or red or mung bean paste) is much lower in calories than lotus seed paste. --124.119.152.216 (talk) 10:17, 21 September 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

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Emoji (🥮)

Surely there's a case for including the emoji in the page somewhere?

Added with Emoji v11.0: https://unicode.org/emoji/charts-11.0/emoji-released.html

2A02:C7D:1033:8D00:34A2:A0E9:3630:7E1E (talk) 15:43, 21 September 2019 (UTC)