The Legend of Chang'e, The Moon Woman

The Mid-Autumn Festival, or Moon Festival is a very important celebration and tradition in China. During this celebrations people eat moon cakes, hang lanterns, float lanterns, solve riddles, perform, and dance.

The moon cakes eaten symbolize the moon and the floating lanterns symbolize Chang’e floating to the moon. Chang’e is the wife of Houyi a great archer. There are many variations on the legend of the Moon Festival. All legends begin with ten suns scorching the earth causing people everywhere to die.

Version 1: Houyi, a great archer, is called by the King of the land to shoot down nine suns, but leave one to shine light on the earth. After Houyi has accomplished this great feat, the King gives Houyi two pills of immortality, one for him and one for Chang’e, Houyi’s wife. Chang’e hides her pill in her jewelry box and Houyi hides his pill in his room. One day when Houyi goes to the mountains a student of Houyi barges into Chang’e’s room and demands that she give him the pill of immortality. Refusing, Chang’e tried to fight off the youth, but he was to strong. Knowing that she could not win the fight, Chang’e swallowed the pill. She immediately began to float, she stopped on the moon after escaping from the violent student. She is still on the moon, kept company by a jade rabbit who brews medicine for the gods.

Version 2: Houyi, a great archer, is called by the King of the land to shoot down nine suns, but leave one to shine light on the earth. As a gift of gratitude, the King gives Houyi a Pill of Immortality. Houyi goes home and hides the pills in the rafter. He leaves the house to prepare his soul for the consumption of the pill. Chang’e, his wife, sees a shaft of light coming from the beams. She looks through the beams and finds the pill. Curiosity over comes her and she swallows the pill. At once she floats out of the room. Her husband loves her too much to shoot her out of the sky. She lands on the moon and still lives there today.

Moon cakes eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival symbolize the moon where Chang’e lives today. They are made out of bean paste, pineapple, coconut, and fruits and sometimes have an egg yolk in the middle.

The floating lanterns symbolize Chang’e floating to the moon. The floating lanterns are often big and have characters written on them. Their floating mechanism is much like that of an air balloon.








This picture I took at a party that our apartment complex held at a teahouse on the edge of the nearest street. Inside the teahouse, lanterns and riddles hung through the main rooms. Many people look at the riddles (written in characters on the pink slips of paper) and an old man points at one he probably just figured out. The man next to him, and the people on the left hold other riddles. Once someone figures out a riddle, they can take it to a back room and receive a prize for their cleverness.






This picture is at a big party held by Beijing Da Xue (Beijing University). The party was held in a large auditorium where people performed for their classmates and teachers. Dance groups, choires, actors and comedians performed. This particular party was held to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival party and the 60 anniversary of the Peoples Republic of China.

The Begenning of Globalization

Globalization may have become more rapid in recent years, but it is definitely not solely modern phenomenon.



Macau, a Chinese peninsula, was a Portuguese colony until 1999. Portuguese and Chinese influence are both prominently evident in Macau. I took this photograph in a square in the historic heart of Macau. The architecture of the building in the background is notably European, while the parade sculptures and drum are obviously Chinese.

The inflatable pagoda on the left is set up for the Mid-Autumn Festival, as are the barely noticeable lanterns in front of the building. There is a market behind the inflatable pagoda that has a stunning variety of shops. Ice cream shops from around the world litter the streets. Haagen-Dazs faces LemonCello, a Chinese ice cream shop that serves square cones and pyramid shaped ice cream. Mango and lemon smoothie stalls are everywhere. Clothing shops owned by small Chinese women squat in back allies, just across the street from glimmering, air-conditioned stores with names like Bauhaus and 27-3. Creaking signs swing above wooden doors leading to small rooms full of beautifully carved Chinese furniture. Men holding sheets of hard meat, break pieces off with metal tongs and offer the glistening treat to the crowds of people swirling by.

The people themselves are very diverse. Many tourists come to Macau to gamble and see the historical sights. German, Indian, French, Spanish, American, Chinese and native Macau people wander across the small peninsula. Native Macau inhabitants have a very good grasp of English as well as their native language, Cantonese. They also can get by in Mandarin and many speak Portuguese.





Many tourists travel to Macau to gamble, bringing with them different perspectives and cultural ideas. Macau is filled with flashy casinos, like the Grand Lisboa. At night, rainbow lights flash across the Grand Lisboa, lighting up the streets below. Stanely Ho decided to reap the benefit of belonging to Portugal and being so near to mainland China. By creating a peninsula full of casinos, Stanely Ho made Macau a frequent vacation area for foreigners and mainland Chinese. Travelers did not only bring money and prosperity with them to Macau, but also cultural ideas. Lebanese, Korean, Japanese, American, and Indian restaurants sprung up to please the hoards of tourists. The Macau tower, offering the highest bungee jump in the world at 233 meters, is an example of other attractions created. Starting in the 1600, when Portugal claimed Macau, and still continuing today, Macau is a collage of cultures and a concentrated example of globalization.

Burning Incense: A Symbolic Action of Reverence

This alter, outside a household door, is full of burnt sticks of incense and ashes. This altar is probably dedicated to the family’s ancestors. The burning of incense when related to ancestors is not a form of worship, but it a symbol of reverence and respect in China.


These large sticks of incense are burning in a metal pavilion outside of a temple on the island of Coloane. While I was looking at the temple, a native woman came in and gave a man inside of the temple 100 RMB, about 12 dollars. The man then gave her a stack of colored paper. She took the papers and knelt on a padded stool as the man poured a little oil into two glass lanterns. She whispered a prayer then walked out of the temple to a large metal stove. She thrust the stack of papers into the stove and covered them with white coals. She then chanted quietly to herself while bouncing on the balls of her toes and lifting and dropping her arms. The temple is a place of worship and also a tourist attraction. In the picture above a Chinese tourist peers into the smoky temple and looks at the fruit covered table. A little girl in a yellow dress is walking behind him on her way to put incense in a basket out side the temple doors.

Artifacts- Characters and Calligraphy

Chinese characters and calligraphy embody the individuality of China. Chinese characters are found everywhere, from street signs, to books, to ancient writings. They are unique and beautiful. Young and old practice many different styles of calligraphy, and characters are the standard form of writing for all dialects. This particular room full of calligraphy is in an old 40 room house. This house, with its intricately carved walls and beautiful style belonged to a General during the Opium Wars. It is now open as a sort of museum, and visitors wander through the 40 rooms without a single guard to yell at them for touching priceless furniture. In this room, I believe someone was practicing their calligraphy, then left his baseball cap on the table while going out for a break

Ritual- Noodle Making

Noodles seem like a typical, everyday food, which in fact they are. Noodles are enjoyed all across China, available anywhere with a wide variety of dressings, sauces and meats. How noodles are made though, is completely out of the ordinary. Making noodles contains a sparkle of magic and very able hands.


This picture shows a young man in a restaurant on the Da Peng peninsula, about an hour and a half in a taxi and and two and a half hours by bus, from our apartment. Noodle making is typical all across China, and even more heavily practiced in the North of China. There are multiple ways of making noodles. Above, the man is making thin cylinder noodles. He can also make flat noodles and shaved noodles. To make round noodles he kneads the dough into a long thick band, then stretches it by twisting and twirling it. To make individual noodles he stretches the dough, slaps it against the table and folds the dough, then repeats the process. After a couple of folds he twists the top of the dough of and walks outside where a pot big enough for a child to sit in boils. He drops the noodles into the water then begins to make flat noodles. To shave noodles he lumps dough onto a sort of rolling pin, then takes a piece of flat metal with a curled edge and shaves bits of the dough into the pot.


At the “shi tang”, the law school cafeteria where we usually eat there is a noodle man as well. This noodle man does not make his noodles in front of us but brings them premade and boiled, then he fry’s the noodles with peanuts, chives, and sprouts.