China Exclusive: Winning youths' heart invigorates tradition

BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Thursday this year, has been celebrated by families reuniting under the full moon and eating mooncakes, the center piece of festive dishes.

Despite family reunions and mooncake sharing as well as many other traditional rites of the Chinese festival, in the run up to and during the annual festival the residents of southeast China's Fujian Province, no matter their age, continue with one custom -- "mooncake gaming."

Mooncake gaming dates back to the 17th century, when it was used as a way to predict the future. Players throw six dice and try and win a prize, usually a mooncake, as the name suggests.

Not many people play the game for its prognosticate element any more, more often than not, it is just a fun activity played between friends and family.

Born in Wuyishan City in north Fujian, Zhang Xiaojun attended Xiamen University, and graduated in 2010. This year, at his class reunion which fell just before the Mid-Autumn Festival, he tried his luck at the game. He won first prize, a voucher.

"Many of my classmates are from different regions, and I was introduced to mooncake gaming during my undergraduate study. I really missed playing it after graduation. So, when ever we meet up around the festival, we are sure to play a game. It is a lot more interesting than drinking or karaoke," said Zhang.

Zheng Yue from southern city of Quanzhou concurred with Zhang. Now studying in Italy, this year she introduced her European classmates to mooncake gaming.

"We prepared small gifts as prizes. They really liked the game and had lots of fun," said Zheng.

"Many festival traditions involve just a handful of people or are centered around the family. Mooncake gaming, on the other hand, is a great game to play during parties," said Wang Jianshe, a professor at Huaqiao University, Xiamen.

Many people are worried about the seemingly apathetic younger generation in China, who appear to either not understand or value many traditions, causing many to raise concerns over the preservation of Chinese culture.

"The younger generation are a crucial to the preservation of our traditions," said Wang, adding that perhaps Chinese festival traditions should be given a 21st century make-over to make them more attractive to millennials.

This year, Quanzhou government launched an online mooncake gaming, which will run for a month and over 300,000 people are expected to take part.

The public must value traditions as this will increase their confidence in Chinese culture, Wang said.