The Mid Autumn Festival or Tet Trung Thu

            

            Happy Mid Autumn, my lovely readers.  Today is the 15^th day of the 8^th lunar month, meaning people who follow the lunar calendar are celebrating the harvest and the moon goddess Change’e.  One version of the Chinese legend goes as follows:

            Houyi, an archer of legend, saved the earth by shooting down nine of the suns (sons of the Jade Emperor) with his arrows and aim.  Following this, he gained many followers and, regrettably, became a tyrant.  In his greed, he stole an elixir of immortality from a goddess.  When his wife drank it to save the people from his never-ending tyranny and greed, she promptly began to feel light.  After grabbing a rabbit to be her companion, she floated up to the moon.  Houyi’s wife was Change’e. 

            Today, the Mid Autumn Festival is often celebrated to worship the moon, or ask Change’e for prosperity.  There are many smaller traditions included in the festival, like the consumption of mooncakes 

or lantern making.  

Other traditions are more regional.  In Fujian Province, for example, they play Bo Bing, or mooncake gambling.  Bo Bing is a game played with dice in a ceramic bowl.  There is also swinging in Chaoxian province.  

            The Mid Autumn Festival isn’t only celebrated by Chinese youth though.  As it is a lunar calendar holiday, Vietnamese celebrate it too.  For the Vietnamese, or at least, those living in New Orleans, The Mid Autumn Festival is now celebrated for children where once it was a harvest festival.  The kids have a lantern making competition with prizes available, and the adults can pay more attention to the local musicians and dancers performing on the stage.  Good food is had by all, as the night wears on.  If you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly suggest it.

*Cited sources include 

China Daily:

<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2015-09/27/content_21992312.htm>

and Kathy Kilbourn in Louisiana Folk Life:

<http://www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/creole_art_vietnamese_folk.html>

First Stop: Seoul Fashion

            Up and coming on the global fashion stage are experimental designs from South Korea.  I mean, Japanese fashion gets a lot of attention for the Lolita style and Chinese designers have been in the media for their highly sculptural designs, but for wearable and experimental fashion, Seoul is at the forefront. 

For example, take these designs from Seoul fashion week winter 2016.  The designer here only played with the color schemes and lengths of his pieces, using short pants, monochrome cream, and a short jacket with a high collar in one outfit, and a similar outfit in black and color, but with a long jacket with lapels, yet it still seems innovative to me.

 

This set, from up and coming designer Munsoo Kwon, showcases the long coat with short pants look as well, but also demonstrates more experimentalism in pattern and texture.  Here, he pairs a green wool jacket with pinstriped pants and what appears to be a fleecy shirt covered in the letter “Z”. 

            At my visit to K-con this year, I had the luck to run across a small fashion brand located in South Korea called The Random Hypothesis.  Their handmade shoes are both comfortable and adorable, but the size of the company drives up the price point.  In addition, each pair of shoes is unique, having and oxford or sandal style and coming in a wide variety of patterned and textured fabrics.  Narae Yoon, the CEO, seems to have an eye for interesting design, and wearable shoes.  Maybe we’ll see here at Seoul Fashion Week some day.

(Please note, this is not an image of my shoes, but mine might make an appearance later on.)

An Introduction

            Hi, こんにちわ、안녕하세요, 大家好.  May I introduce to you, Tingri to Tokyo. My name is Dani, and I will be your guide on this tour of modern youth culture in South Korea, Japan, and China, though I may talk about more than just those three on occasion as well.  Most of the topics covered should be fairly light, but questions of identity (or politics, etc.) can get pretty heavy.  In these – and in any other case as well – this humble author would love to hear the thoughts of the readers. 

            Now that the broad overview is over, I should probably introduce some of the specific bits I want to talk about. 

I)              Popular Culture – This is probably the area with the most exposure to interested parties overseas

II)            Traditional Culture – The interplay of the old and the new fascinates me, and traditions like holidays can be lots of fun too!

III)          Food – Recipes can go a long way in helping stave off culture shock, or high grocery bills.

IV)          Language – There's just... so much diversity.  I mean, East Asia is home to both the most complicated and most simplistic writing systems on the planet, and that's not even getting into the spoken language bits.

            Please post any questions in the comment section.  I will answer as many as I am able. 

PS: Today is the Comb Festival in Kyoto.  In celebration, here's a history through hairstyles.