我为博饼狂

       旅居厦门22年的美籍教授潘威廉最喜爱的闽南民俗活动要数中秋博饼。每逢中秋佳节，老潘家必定博饼。明月当头，亲朋好友齐聚一堂，碗中的骰子叮当作响，其乐无穷！

       作为福建第一港口城市，与宝岛台湾隔海相望的厦门是一个历史悠久的文化名城。经过数百年的历史沉淀，前人为厦门留下了无数文化财富，地方瑰宝仍在世人的手中不断传承。无论是承载着闽南文化变迁与发展的闽南方言，还是形形色色的地方曲艺及传统民俗节庆活动，都渗透在厦门人日常生活的一点一滴当中。

    Many Chinese claim that the greatest achievement of Koxinga (Zheng Chenggong) was liberating Taiwan from the Dutch, but I disagree. I think his chief accomplishment was his supposed invention of the mooncake game, which has become our family’s favorite Chinese tradition.

    Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese festival that falls on the 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar. It is a perfect occasion for family members to gather together to eat mooncakes and watch the harvest moon, when it is the brightest and roundest of the year. Unique to Xiamen and southern Fujian，the mooncake game involves participants rolling six dice for a chance to win prizes in categories of ascending size.

    Our family has delighted in Koxinga’s mooncake game on Mid-Autumn Festival for the past 22 years. Prizes used to be cookies and actual mooncakes -- which can range from bite-sized to a 3,500 kilogram monstrosity created by Nanning chefs in 2001. Our two sons loved the game so much when they were little that they made cardboard mooncakes and played it year round.

    Fortunately, prizes are more practical nowadays -- items like toothbrushes and towels. In fact, our family has become so used to winning hoards of toothpaste that if we ever miss a Mid-Autumn Festival in Xiamen, we will be in danger of losing our teeth.

    I suspect that some of Xiamen’s laowai， especially new arrivals, may be as homesick as Koxinga’s troops were in Taiwan, but the cure is coming. This Mid-Autumn Festival, as the brightest moon of the year illuminates this enchanting island and the night resounds with the sound of laughter and dice ringing in porcelain bowls, chances are that those laowai will be playing the mooncake game in the homes of Chinese friends and colleagues. 

    By Bill Brown （American）