Chang’e

In late September or early October, on the eighth lunar month’s 15th day, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese folk celebrate the harvest with the Mid-Autumn Festival. Families come together under the lantern light to share mooncakes full of duck-egg yolk and sweet bean or lotus seed paste, washed down with tea or cassia wine. Parents point towards the full moon and tell their children the story of the beautiful woman who lives on the moon under a cassia tree.

Chang’e is a harsh mistress. After Hou Yi, the Excellent Archer, shot nine suns out of the sky, the Queen Mother of the West Xiwangmu granted him the Elixir of Immortality. But when he began to rule the World as a cruel and selfish tyrant, his wife, the lovely Chang’e, stole his elixir and fled his vengeful arrows to the moon. There she remains. Look at the moon, now: What form does she take? Is she a toad or rabbit, forever pounding the elixir with mortar and pestle in case one day it should be needed? Or is the rabbit her companion, one of the few immortals who lives on the moon? At any rate, Chang’e represents a difficult choice. Should you strike out into the darkness for what you want or believe in, knowing you might be alone (except for a bunny) if you succeed? Chang’e says yes.

Chang’e’s Scions share her reputation for flightiness, selfishness, and superficiality, which Chang’e herself attributes to the eyes of sexism on a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. Most famous of them is Japan’s Kaguya, bamboo princess of the moon. Chang’e doesn’t go in for fancy incarnations; she likes to appear as a Han Chinese woman wearing billowing traditional robes, shining faintly with silver light. She’s cheerful, welcoming, and likely to ask questions a little more probing than you wanted, just like your family when you see them at a holiday gathering.