Binus dance troupe revives moon cake legend

Once a year, many bakeries, hotel restaurants and delis at shopping malls sell various kinds of moon cake.

There are many legends about the making of the delicacies made to celebrate the Chinese mid-autumn festival, also known as the Chinese moon festival, one of the most important traditions for the Chinese.

On Sept. 24, the Chinese literature department from the Faculty of Letters and Culture at Binus University, Jakarta, held a Mandarin's Day Mid-Autumn Festival, where the students presented a dance drama of a moon cake legend.

"There are several versions of the story behind the moon cake and the most popular is about Chang'e, the moon goddess," said Juliana Josephine, head of the committee for the event, on why the students performed The Legend of the Moon Goddess.

The play tells the story of a strong warrior Houyi and his beautiful wife Chang'e who lived happily together. At that time, the Earth had 10 suns that burned the crops and the people suffered because of the heat.

The Emperor of Heaven sent Houyi to destroy the suns. Houyi nailed nine suns down and left one for the benefit of the people, and he was treated as a hero. As his reward, the Emperor gave him an elixir from a goddess that could make a person immortal.

However, Houyi became arrogant and the upset Chang'e took the elixir and drank it. But the elixir worked in a different way on her: She began floating and flew far away.

She was unable to return to Earth, but she did not want to leave her husband, hence she stopped at the moon, which is close to Earth. When the full moon appeared in the night sky, the brokenhearted Houyi discovered that on the moon there was a silhouette of a woman that looked like Chang'e.

Heru Tian, the choreographer, is a member of the Southeast Asia Dance Troupe and has a license from the Chinese authorities to teach and choreograph Chinese dance. For the show, he trained 25 students from the Binus Chinese literature department in dancing and acting for about six months.

The drama consists of dances of the minorities (the opening dance shows several characteristic dances from different Chinese ethnicities), the warrior dance (a dance introducing Houyi and other warriors), the Ta Ge dance (a dance performed by Chang'e and other female dancers), the 10 Suns dance (the dance in which Houyi shoots the suns), the Fei Tian dance (the goddesses' dance, ending with a goddess giving the elixir to Houyi), the Flying to The Moon dance (a dance in which Chang'e began floating and flying to the moon), the Umbrella dance (a dance expressing Chang'e sadness for leaving Earth), and the Yang Ge dance (the finale with all the dancers).

Andini laoshi (Chinese for the word "teacher"), a lecturer and head of the Chinese literature department, said the Chinese believed that Chang'e was dancing on the moon during the moon festival, which falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.

"They get together, watch the full moon and eat moon cakes," she said.

"The moon festival can be romantic too. During the festival, lovers spend romantic nights together eating delicious moon cakes and drinking wine while watching the full moon. Even for couples who cannot be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together."

Most of the 639 seats in the Binus auditorium were filled by an enthusiastic audience. The show was open to the public, although attended mostly by Binus' lecturers, students, parents and relatives. Binus University rector Prof. Dr. Gerardus Polla, dean of the Language and Letters Faculty Dr. Andreas Chang, and a representative from the embassy of the People's Republic of China were among the audience.

"It was a great performance with an interesting story. The dances, costumes, and songs are all beautiful, despite the technical problem at the beginning of the show," said Marpat Rochani, a member of the audience commenting on the show.

There was a technical problem in the sound system that kept the audience waiting for several minutes, but after that, the show ran smoothly and was very entertaining. Beautiful makeup, colorful Chinese costumes, an ear-catching soundtrack, dramatic lighting and last but not least, great choreography successfully won the audience's hearts.