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Mooncakes In Asian American Culture

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After generations, mooncakes came to hold a slightly different meaning to the Chinese in America, but nevertheless, the traditional pastries are valued as a piece of their Chinese culture as they continued to clash with those in America. Asian American have slowly lightened their adherence to the traditional versions as their choice of mooncakes and for many, having mooncakes just became a formality during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even though mooncakes do not hold the same values as those in China, mooncakes are still nonetheless deemed important especially when they came under attack by American culture in 2007. Asian Americans in California came into conflict with the state’s health officials when they wanted to impose regulatory …show more content…

With appearance being the first aspect that is taken notice of any food, chefs from both the East and West have taken the initiative to alter the presentation of mooncakes. To attract more consumers, some simply changed the color of the mooncakes, from the traditional golden brown to a rainbow variety of colors. With the increasing number of fillings, colors of the skin are often used to help denote flavor. For instance, a dark green is used in Starbucks’ matcha green tea flavored mooncake (Starbucks Mooncake). Brighter colors like purples and pinks have also been used purely for aesthetics, which functions as another way of keeping mooncakes interesting. While less common, some have also ventured out to include multiple colors on a single mooncake. Although certain colors can ward off consumers, for example, like with an unnatural deep blue colored mooncake, the inclusion of different colors helps mooncake industries keep up with constantly changing societal demands. Even with the dramatic changes to the traditional mooncakes in the last couple decades, the chefs of the round pastries seek to maintain at least one original characteristic of the staple of the Mid-Autumn Festival as a sign of respect. Some may choose to change the filling, the shape of the pastry, or even both, but …show more content…

The mooncake industry has a surprising back story regarding its packaging as it makes billions of dollars each year. In a research done by Sohu Business, it was found that while only 20% of the costs go towards making the actual mooncakes, China spends about $122 billion dollars on the production of mooncakes as a whole annually, with the value of packaging materials reaching upwards of $45 billion dollars in 2009. The large amount of money spent by the Chinese reflects the continued importance of the pastries in more recent years. Also, by 2009, China’s packaging material waste accounted for a third of the country’s solid waste (Sohu Business). Even though the amount of waste created from the packaging of mooncakes is an incredibly large amount, it is a result of mooncake industry continuing their efforts in keeping the popular pastries a billion-dollar

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