Designing Love, at Mid-Autumn: Childhood Lanterns 愛的設計：點亮童年中秋燈籠
English 英 & Chinese 中：Translated by Fête Chinoise Team
Photography: Ikonica Images, Fête Chinoise Team
As Featured in 2025 Fête Chinoise Design Annual
Love at Mid-Autumn 2024
Leading the momentum of celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in Canada in elevated style, the Fête Chinoise collectors’ edition mooncake tin from our Love at Mid-Autumn project created conversations and delight with families in Canada and in Asia last year. The illustrated pattern of Hong Kong’s phenomenal neon lights in 2024 was a huge favourite amongst Fête Chinoise readers and supporters, and sold out very quickly.
2025 marks five years since this annual project has begun. We have delivered the magic of vintage Cha Chaan Tengs of Hong Kong and deco details of the Shanghai Peace Hotel; re-imagined the universally-known Famille Rose porcelain design in Emperor’s yellow; created a fresh take on classic Chinoiserie inspired by de Gournay wallpapers; and lit up the memories of Hong Kong in the 80’s and 90’s in a colourful display of lights which are now collected artifacts.
在加拿大，Fête Chinoise 繼續以具藝術感和格調的方式慶祝中秋節。 2024 年，「愛在中秋」將香港耀眼的霓虹燈融入特別版月餅禮盒設計，深受加拿大和亞洲地區家庭及讀者的關注與喜愛，並迅速售罄。
2025 年，「愛在中秋」迎來五週年。我們曾將香港舊式茶餐廳的獨特風情與上海和平飯店的經典裝飾融入設計；以明黃色重新詮釋家傳戶曉的「萬壽無疆」圖案；以 de Gournay 壁紙為靈感創作中國風設計；並通過五光十色、現已成為珍貴藏品的霓虹燈，喚起人們對八、九十年代香港的回憶。
In this short chapter, we share the visual research and process work behind the 2025 design: a nostalgic design that summons the collective memory of Mid-Autumn lanterns and other common ephemera found in Chinese-Canadian households. From collecting personal photographs from our committee and readers of their childhood Mid-Autumn celebrations, to discovering the most popular vintage lanterns from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and today, the process itself holds incredible meaning. The design was coloured using raw pencil crayons, and we kept a crisp white backdrop for a fresh look. We then topped the design with a nod to a memory we dug deep to find: our Editor-in-Chief’s childhood favourite for beef jerky was always found at Market Village in Markham or at the supermarkets in Chartwell Centre and Dragon Centre in Scarborough. While the brand no longer exists, the memory of the colourful illustrations with a pink label was enough to finally find a blurry photo of the Vancouver-based Beef Jerky brand that many North American diaspora children grew up with.
Shopping for beautifully-made lanterns at specialty shops along Queen's Road West. (Patricia Yung and daughter, 2016)
Baby Charleigh’s first Mid-Autumn lantern, 2021, Toronto, ON.
Every year, it is not only the coveted collector’s edition tin that is specially tailor-made, the signature heart-shaped mooncakes are exclusively designed to align to the special annual theme. In 2024, we created a neon-light inspired mooncake with light tubes that formed a background and two graphic lanterns that resembled neon lights. This year’s collective effort to assemble memories of childhood lanterns across generations and regions gave us a peek into the personal memories of many diaspora families. Two lantern types stood out: the goldfish and the rabbit in various forms, which is why we chose to design them onto this year’s mooncake. Every stroke is thoughtfully shaped and kerned to ensure a beautiful end-product, which takes a lot of experience, because of the intricacies of baking flour and butter into its final intended form.
Created in partnership with Canadian pastry powerhouse, Saint Germain Bakery, the package full of love and inspiration was delivered to over 1,200 families to celebrate the festival and tradition of devouring mooncakes while admiring the full moon and lighting lanterns. The campaign in 2024 raised a net of over $65,000 to charity, split between the Scarborough Health Network and Fête Chinoise Cultural Foundation, and in total the project has raised and donated a total of $220,000 for Canadian charities since 2021.
在加拿大，Fête Chinoise 繼續以具藝術感和格調的方式慶祝中秋節。 2024 年，「愛在中秋」將香港耀眼的霓虹燈融入特別版月餅禮盒設計，深受加拿大和亞洲地區家庭及讀者的關注與喜愛，並迅速售罄。
2025 年，「愛在中秋」迎來五週年。我們曾將香港舊式茶餐廳的獨特風情與上海和平飯店的經典裝飾融入設計；以明黃色重新詮釋家傳戶曉的「萬壽無疆」圖案；以 de Gournay 壁紙為靈感創作中國風設計；並通過五光十色、現已成為珍貴藏品的霓虹燈，喚起人們對八、九十年代香港的回憶。
今年的設計充滿懷舊情懷，喚起大家對中秋燈籠及加拿大華裔家庭常見小物的集體回憶。我們收集了委員會成員和讀者童年慶祝中秋的照片，並發掘自七十年代以來最受歡迎的懷舊燈籠。這些燈籠由我們以彩色鉛筆手繪上色，並置於潔白的背景中，帶來清新且矚目的視覺效果。此外，我們的總編輯還將自己童年最喜愛的牛肉乾包裝融入設計。雖然這個來自溫哥華的品牌已經停產，但其五顏六色的插圖及粉色標籤依然能喚起許多北美華裔孩子的童年回憶。過去，這款牛肉乾常見於大多倫多地區的萬錦城市廣場（Market Village）、士嘉堡的集友商場（Chartwell Centre）或慶龍中心（Dragon Centre）等超級市場。
Emily Mo at Victoria Park Hong Kong during Mid-Autumn, 1982.
我們不僅設計具收藏價值的月餅罐，還會根據每年的主題，精心設計獨特的心形月餅圖案。 2024 年，我們以霓虹燈為靈感，將光管背景與兩個霓虹燈風格的燈籠圖案相結合。今年，我們集結了來自不同世代和地區的童年燈籠，呈現出許多僑民家庭的珍貴回憶。其中，金魚和兔子燈籠尤為突出，因此我們將它們融入今年的月餅設計中。在設計過程中，一筆一劃都經過精心構思與調整；而在烘焙過程中，則需豐富的經驗與精湛的工藝，才能確保最終成品完美呈現。
每年，我們都與加拿大烘焙名店新之美（Saint Germain）餅店合作，將充滿愛心和靈感的月餅禮盒送至超過一千兩百個家庭，共同慶祝中秋佳節，並延續吃月餅、賞月及點燈籠的傳統。 2024 年，「愛在中秋」成功籌得超過 65,000 加元，並分別捐贈給士嘉堡醫療網絡和 Fête Chinoise 文化基金會。自 2021 年起，這個計劃已累計為加拿大多個慈善機構籌集並捐贈了共計 220,000 加元，這一成績令我們深感鼓舞。
More from Fête Chiniose
Leading the momentum of celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival in Canada in elevated style, the Fête Chinoise collectors’ edition mooncake tin from our Love at Mid-Autumn project created conversations and delight with families in Canada and in Asia last year. The illustrated pattern of Hong Kong’s phenomenal neon lights in 2024 was a huge favourite amongst Fête Chinoise readers and supporters, and sold out very quickly.