Eat mooncakes and prosper — Editor’s Note for Friday, September 9, 2022

Dear reader,

It’s Party season in Beijing, but not the kind of party that is much fun. Here’s a taste from China’s Xinhua News Agency: Documents to be discussed at upcoming CPC Central Committee plenary session deliberated. If you like your Communist tipple straight with ice and no mixers, here is the Chinese version.

These articles are all about the Party’s 20th Congress which will begin in Beijing on October 16, and serve as the coronation of Xí Jìnpíng 习近平 as the leader that no one anywhere in the world will be able to forget.

At least not for the next two or three decades, if he can stay alive that long. And he probably will: Máo Zédōng 毛泽东 and Dèng Xiǎopíng 邓小平 both chain-smoked and also took copious quantities of stimulant and sedative drugs, according to some accounts. Who knows what medicaments Xi enjoys, but he’s definitely not smoking like Deng or Mao: There are hours-long videos of him at meetings and he does not seem to be jonesing for anything.

But this weekend, you should probably forget about the Party’s 20th Congress and just enjoy the huge harvest moon, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, a.k.a. Moon Festival, Mooncake Festival, or 中秋节 zhōngqiūjié. That’s tomorrow, September 10, the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar.

Our phrase of the week is: time to settle old scores (秋后算账 qiū hòu suàn zhàng), which you could maybe translate as: Get your revenge after autumn.

—Jeremy Goldkorn

Editor-in-Chief