The Mid-Autumn Festival is a special time for many NYU Shanghai students. For some, it signals nostalgic memories; for others, it’s an exciting new tradition merging food with community. But no matter what, Mid-Autumn Festival always means mooncakes! Six NYU Shanghai students share how they celebrate it.
Camila Rose Pena De Lumen ’28
Hometown: Jersey City, USA
Major: Integrated Media and Business
Favorite mooncake: Ice cream
Languages spoken: English, Tagalog, Spanish, Mandarin
As a kid, Camila Rose Pena De Lumen ’28 first learned of Mid-Autumn Festival from her high school Mandarin teacher who told stories of Chang’e and Houyi’s reunion while she and her classmates played games. At NYU Shanghai, Mid-Autumn Festival has become a community event. On last year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, she gathered a group together to visit the Bund. “Seeing it with friends, it felt like getting to know more people and bonding with a diverse group of people,” she said. For her, the holiday symbolizes get-togethers and peace.
Chen Kehan ’28
Major: Business and Finance
Hometown: Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu
Favorite mooncake: Matcha ice cream with no skin
Languages: Chinese and English
For Chen Kehan ’28, Mid-Autumn Festival has always been marked by reunions and family gatherings. “My father would come back to celebrate the festival with us and enjoy the full moon view and moon cake together,” he said. Last year, he shared mooncakes with his American-born Chinese roommate from Chicago.“I think it meant a lot to him because he missed his family, too,” he said. “It can, to some extent, carry his love for his family.” As for this year, Chen plans to fly to Tianjin to visit his cousin.
Name: Erdemdelgerekh Battogtokh ’28
Major: Computer Science;
Favorite mooncake: Cheese
Hometown: Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar
Languages: English and Mongolian
As a kid growing up in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Erdemdelgerekh Battogtokh ’28 said the Mid-Autumn Festival was very similar to the way Lunar New Year in Mongolia is celebrated. She recalls paying visits to her grandparents’ house to eat yeven, a round pastry made from ingredients like barley flour, butter, and sugar and stamped with designs. She has fond memories of stacking all of the sweets and sitting around a table with her family drinking milk tea and talking.
“I like to observe how people are enjoying the day with their loved ones,” she said. “This is not just about mooncakes but rather how you are spending time with your family.”
This year, Battogtokh won’t be with family, but plans to visit Beijing or Shenzhen with friends. “I'm going to go outside and travel and experience everything,” she said. “I'm trying to fill that emptiness this year.”
Hakob Khachikyan ’28
Hometown: Yerevan, Armenia
Major: Business and marketing
Favorite mooncake: Mung bean
Languages: Russian, Armenian, English
For Hakob Khachikyan ’28, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a new experience– growing up in Armenia, he had little exposure to Chinese culture. As a first-year student last year, he celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival for the first time and found he enjoyed mooncakes with sweet mung bean filling. “It was nice to share the experience with my friends who were also learning about it for the first time,” he said. He said there’s something understated about being able to connect with others while trying something new. “It’s a bonding experience and you learn more about the culture, and it was fun to learn more about it from my Chinese national friends.” This year, he plans to travel with friends within China to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival, and of course, eat a mooncake.
Zhou Xinyue ’27
Hometown: Shanghai
Major: Finance
Favorite mooncake: Salted egg yolk
Languages spoken: Chinese, Shanghainese, English
Born and raised in Shanghai, Zhou Xinyue grew up celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival with family. During her first year at NYU Shanghai, she remembers distributing two boxes of mooncakes to her international friends in the dorms. “Before college, [eating] mooncake is common for us, but in freshman year everything is new and it was my first time to introduce a common food to people,” she said. “It felt good they received this mooncake that they’ve never had before.” This year Zhou is studying away at NYU Abu Dhabi, her first time being away from family for Mid-Autumn Festival. She plans to gather with friends and hopefully eat a mooncake or two. “I feel like as you get older, start living in dorms or abroad, there is gradually less time spent with family,” she said. “So [the holiday] serves as a reminder or opportunity to spend time with the family, and it is a precious time for me.”
Jaymos Wang ’28
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Westbury, NY
Favorite mooncake: Salted egg yolk
Languages: English, Cantonese
Growing up as Chinese-Malaysian American in New York, Jaymos Wang ’28 remembers the joy of tasting all the different types of mooncake flavors. “I just remember stuffing my face with mooncakes, we always got them as gifts,” he said, and recalled walking around the neighborhood with his family to hand them out to neighbors. As he grew up, his feelings about the holiday developed. “I didn’t like this activity at first,” he said. “But when I started thinking about my own heritage as an American-born Chinese at the beginning of high school, I started questioning: why do I do these things, why is my last name Wang.” It’s these questions, Wang said, that sparked his initial curiosity toward the traditions connecting him to his heritage. “Today, Mid-Autumn Festival is a way to remember my roots and share memories with people I care about and be more transparent,” he said. This year, he plans to buy mooncakes and give them to his neighbors in the dorms.