Mid Autumn Festival will fall on this Sunday. Family reunion and a feast are the plans for many people. Mothers will prepare moon cakes, boiled taros, chestnuts and fruits for the gathering at the full moon night as they did every year. Going to parks to enjoy the lantern shows is still hot choice for many families. However, the moon cakes are made by machines and not by hands anymore, the lanterns in children's hands are plastic and not paper ones. Modernization changes our ways of celebration and some old craftsmanship and culture are fading swiftly and silently.

Cake Tin Curving

In Daxin Rd stands the only surviving traditional cake tin shop in Guangzhou- "Yutong". The tins are made of pear wood. And pigs in the cage, fishes and other traditional patterns represent prosperity, rich and other good wills. Sophisticatedly made, the tin can help the cake maker to control the amount of flour. "This (technique) is our secret!" Master Yu, the boss of Yutong, said proudly.

A hundred years ago, there were four famous cake tin shops in Guangzhou. Their hand-made tins had once made the moon cakes and other cakes adorable and attractive. However, now most of the cakes in local markets were made by machines and Yu's shop survived the modernization wave only because he focused on export to South East Asian countries.

However, it takes more than ten years to learn how to make a good tin, none of Yu's children want to learn this traditional craftsmanship, and also they do not want to inherit the business. "The art is fading" said Yu.

The last silk lanterns

Lighting a lantern or going to the lantern show is a traditional Mid Autumn Festival activity.

"For children, the plastic lantern with bulb and battery are safer than the traditional candle ones." a young mother said. What's more, the plastic ones are much cheaper than the hand made paper ones, let along silk ones.

As no factories will produce the silk for making lantern anymore, this traditional decoration will become a history soon. Ante Hong, silk lantern master, used up all the silks she stored to make dozens of lanterns. "These may be the last silk lanterns in Guangzhou" She said, "I have to find other materials to replace this silk, but there will no silk lantern next year."

Yue Opera in Restaurants

"Yue Opera in restaurants will disappear within a decade." said Mr. Huang Xuechao, head of the Diamond Yue Opera Troupe.

Enjoying Yue Opera with a cup of tea in restaurants in the afternoon was once an important entertainment for many local elderly. But…only the elderly. Many local youth has no interest in this old art form at all. As the old people do not spend much on foods, the restaurants gained little profit from these performances and then cancelled them.

Huang said, there are no more than 5 restaurants in Guangzhou offer Yue Opera performances now., the famous two are Datong Restaurant and Aiqun Restaurant. Other ones are very small in size. And few restaurants intend to add the performances. Huang worried that as the restaurants were always an important place for Yue Opera's development, the current trend will lead to the fading of this local opera.

Editor: Yan