Zing Muse – More than 84 million Chinese internet users are debating whether it is appropriate to eat moon cakes whole or cut them.

Which flavor of mooncake is the best or worst is not the main topic on Chinese internet users’ minds ahead of the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. In fact, the debate that has been gaining traction on social media in China revolves around the most appropriate and polite way to eat mooncakes.

More than 40,000 people joined the debate with the hashtag “Should mooncakes be cut into pieces to eat?” More than 84 million people commented on the topic, according to CGTN.

A Weibo account even conducted an online survey, in which 37.3% of people chose to cut the cake before eating, while the remaining 59.2% preferred to eat it whole.

Some opinions assert that the preference for eating mooncakes is influenced by the region. For example, people in southern China like to cut the cake into small pieces to feel the flavor more clearly, while people in the north often eat the whole cake.

This explanation comes from regional characteristics, according to which people in northern China are more straightforward, while people in the south are often reserved and know how to enjoy a slow life.

However, many people disagree with the above “geographical hypothesis”, they believe that the way a person eats mooncakes depends on the size of the cake, some opinions mention the correlation between eating habits and age.

The account @Zongtongshaonv explained on Weibo that she likes to cut the cake into many pieces so that the whole family can try all the flavors in one box.

While @Zuoshanpocaomei mentioned the way of eating corresponding to the type of cake: “A cereal cake can be cut into many small pieces. However, this method cannot be applied to thousand-layer mochi mooncakes because the cake crust is easy to crumble. Some Cantonese mooncakes are too sweet, so even though they are small, people still divide them into pieces”.

There are countless ways to eat a mooncake, depending on personal preferences. According to CGTN, the Chinese market mainly consumes four main types of cakes: Cantonese, Chaozhou, Suzhou and Beijing.

Linda (community)