The Mid-Autumn Festival has arrived once again. At the Common Prosperity Workshop in Qianxiliu Village, Diantou Town, Linshu County, Linyi City, Shandong Province, the aroma of freshly baked pastries fills the courtyard. Villagers are busy in an orderly manner, kneading dough, preparing fillings, pressing molds and baking. Golden-coloured handmade mooncakes with a rich fragrance emerge fresh from the oven, vividly presenting a beautiful scene where traditional festivals and rural revitalization develop together in harmony.
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional Chinese celebration that carries the values of reunion and happiness. The round mooncake symbolizes family reunion and longing for loved ones. It is not only a seasonal delicacy passed down through generations, but also a cherished symbol of reunion deeply rooted in the hearts of Chinese people, conveying the warmth of everyday life. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, tasting a mooncake brings not only satisfaction to the palate, but also a connection to homesickness and family affection.
As a characteristic industrial platform established under the leadership of the village Party branch, the Diantou Town Common Prosperity Workshop relies on local traditional pastry-making techniques, revitalizes idle residential resources in the village, and develops a seasonal specialty industry that benefits local residents through the model of “small workshop, great livelihood.” The workshop has moved away from industrialized assembly-line production, preserving traditional handmade techniques and selecting high-quality natural ingredients. It retains classic Chinese flavours such as mixed nuts, jujube paste and red bean paste. From ingredient selection, dough preparation and filling, to molding, baking and packaging, every process is carefully controlled and entirely handmade, restoring the authentic traditional flavour of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival to the greatest extent possible.
The workshop located at villagers’ doorsteps has illuminated a path toward shared prosperity. It gives priority to employing women who remain in the villages and middle-aged and elderly villagers, allowing them to work close to home. As the Mid-Autumn Festival production and sales season arrives, the workshop receives abundant orders and operates at full capacity, enabling villagers to achieve stable employment without leaving their hometowns, balancing family responsibilities with increased income.
“I can work right near my home, with flexible hours and stable income. I can take care of my family while earning more than 100 yuan a day,” said a villager who was making mooncakes. These small mooncakes carry the genuine happiness of ordinary people.
At the same time, all collective economic income generated from the workshop’s operations is reinvested into the village’s collective development and rural public welfare initiatives. The funds are used for projects such as improving the living environment, maintaining public facilities and supporting rural elderly care services. This creates a virtuous cycle of increased income for residents, stronger collective development and a more beautiful countryside, injecting lasting vitality into the construction of harmonious and beautiful rural communities.
Small mooncakes carry the cultural heritage of thousands of years of the Mid-Autumn Festival and convey the Chinese values of reunion and harmony. Today, Linshu’s handmade mooncakes, with their authentic ingredients and craftsmanship-driven quality, are selling well across China and are deeply loved by consumers. Wherever the fragrance of mooncakes spreads, it represents not only the warmth of Mid-Autumn reunions, but also the renewed hope brought by rural revitalization.