Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Love and Mooncakes

I took this picture this morning of our helper and our little guy.  They are sitting on our sofa as she is reading him a little book in Chinese.  There are so many things I could say about this picture.  Reading books to children is not a big part of Chinese parenting culture but our helper has embraced it big time.  Our little guy loves books and he loves being read to.  Our helper sees no limitation in our little guy.  The fact that he has Down Syndrome doesn't bother her.  She sees his potential and constantly says how intelligent he is.  That is how cultures change.  Person by person by person.  She has loved our little low status special needs guy with her whole heart.  Now her whole family does.  That is how you change a cultural viewpoint on special needs.  Person by person, with love.




Yesterday was the Autumn Moon Festival and that means Mooncakes.  Mooncakes are kind of China's equivalent to a fruit cake. You either love them or hate them.  This year, the Chinese teacher's at the international school decided to teach the kids how to make moon cakes.  It was during my prep time so I ran down to check it out.





Elisabeth was there so I got some good pictures of her.



This is the moon cake mold.


More moon cakes- some not yet cooked.


Close up of the uncooked and some cooked.


Pretty patterns on top.  The grapes and pears are traditional fruit for the holiday.



The oven that they were cooked in.  Yes, that is a standard sized oven in  China.  I have one in my kitchen, too.  They are small but pretty efficient.  It just takes a while to get everything cooked.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Neat post about moon cakes. We watched a Ni hao Kai Lin cartoon about it yesterday and that's about as far as we got with the celebration...

India said...

interesting about the traditional fruit... here in taiwan, it's pomelos; no grapes, no pears. must be the climate!

She Goes Public said...

I just like the name. Mooncakes. Awesome.