Zhuang Village’s Folk Customs Meet Mid-Autumn Festival

In Anma Township, Yizhou District, Hechi City, Guangxi, the Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for people to come together and celebrate with traditional customs. One of these customs is the making of ancient mooncakes, which represent peace, happiness, and well-being.

Tan Ailan, a 90-year-old woman from Anma Township, has been making mooncakes for 70 years, using skills that have been passed down for generations. She is not alone in her efforts to preserve traditional customs. Wu Shan’e, who lives in Yizhou District, has also been hand-making the intangible cultural heritage “Little Pony” for many years.

Wu Shan’e introduced that “Niao Ma Zai” is a folk custom of the Zhuang ethnic group, which is popular in many places of Guangxi. During every festival, people pound glutinous rice flour into rice balls, and mold them into animal shapes with their hands. After steaming and coloring, they become “little horses” of various shapes.

As more and more young people become interested in intangible cultural heritage, businesses have launched theme activities during the Mid-Autumn Festival to tap into the ritual sense of the festival. In a new Chinese tea shop on Xinyang Road, young people participated in the engraving craft salon during the Mid-Autumn Festival, drinking tea and learning skills, and making relief paintings.

Daozi, the person in charge of the Liuzhou Hanfu Activity Group, introduced that Mid-Autumn Festival activities are showing a diversified trend. In addition to the traditional moon worship ceremony, people are more inclined to create role-playing scenes. Merchants invite performers to wear Hanfu to play the roles of “Fairy Sister”, “Chang’e”, “Peddler” and other roles to parade, attracting consumers with interactive experiences.

Daozi said that the Hanfu parade performance combined traditional culture with role-playing. The actors walked off the stage and interacted with the public at close range for filming, which not only satisfied the public’s desire to share but also spread the Han clothing culture.

In addition, during the parade, performers often use props to increase interactivity. During this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, Daozi personally learned to make props such as the intangible cultural heritage rolling lanterns, and introduced the rolling lanterns through dance performances to help the audience understand Chinese traditional culture.

Intangible cultural heritage elements have become a new way for businesses to attract customers. Creating intangible cultural heritage fish lantern exhibitions and setting up traditional Chinese style markets, diversified cultural experiences are attracting more young people to participate and promoting intangible cultural heritage consumption.