Afternoon guys! I’m a taiwanese. Just wanna tell you something you might not know but are curious about.
If you’ve been staying in Taiwan long enough, you’d notice that the Moon Festival is quite a big day for taiwanese. EVERYBODY will have a barbecue on that day - chances are most of us will even barbecue for a whole week.
However, this was NOT a tradition before. The idea of BBQing on the Moon Festival was actually originated from a commercial ad of BBQ sauce few years ago.
We all know it. And we’re still doing it… because it’s EXCITED!
What a successful marketing lol
I’ve put more details on this in an article, including 3 moon festival stories, feel free to check it out if you’re interested: http://pics.ee/14x21
That would explain why my neighbors were BBQing and why there were stacks of briquets in Costco.
Btw did you know Santa claus was a marketing tool from coca cola?
Because BBQ isn’t a particular Taiwanese habit. People get excited about things that they seldom get a chance to do.
In other countries where people have BBQ every weekend on their own backyard, BBQ is nothing worth getting excited about.
By the same token, Europeans get excited about lying under the sun and getting themselves tanned, while Asians usually don’t.
Mid-autumn officially became BBQ night in 1989. It’s not like people didn’t barbeque before this, it’s just in that fall the Kimlan company aired the barbeque sauce ad with such an intensity right before the festival, it sorted of made a tradition out of it.
Kimlan BBQ sauce began the sauce-race with this entry.
We used to BBQ a lot but no one does it in this neighborhood as I think it’s against the rules. It’s also the least friendly community in Taiwan I’ve ever experienced.
Lucky? My neighbors burn the paper and ashes get into my house. I think once they burned it in front of my house (i wasnt sure because i wasn’t home but the burning can was there and their front is occupied with their car). I wanted to say something but my husband said they are drug dealers.
Where do you go for traditional bbq in Taipei? Complete with 7-11 toast and the sauce that makes everything taste the same? The family doesn’t do it anymore because bbq is unhealthy. Suggestions welcome.
