Mooncakes for kids with autism

[Geordie]

Master bakers teach them how to make cakes in factory workshop

The Shenzhen Autism Society and the Shenzhen cake company Ichibenor organized a mooncake workshop for autistic children at the company's factory in Fuyong town, Bao'an district, in Shenzhen on Sept 15.

Sixteen families with an autistic child attended the event. Materials and utensils for making the cakes as well as a celebratory cake were provided free. Master bakers taught them how to make the cakes and dozens of Ichibenor staff members helped out. The families took home what they made.

Luo Dongyuan, the grandmother of an autistic child, said she was pleased with the activity that allowed her grandson to have a new experience and some fun.

Her 3-year-old grandson, known by the pseudonym Qi Qi, was diagnosed with autism one year ago after he was unable to say simple words such as "mum" or "dad". He has since been taking classes in a treatment center run by the Shenzhen Autism Society.

Luo said Qi Qi's symptoms were evident as a baby.

"He doesn't look into people's eyes like other babies and you don't see his attention focused," she said. "After he got a bit older it became obvious he wasn't understanding what was being said to him and he didn't play with the other children in our neighborhood. Sometimes he has a bad temper without good reason."

Luo said after being treated for more than a year he showed signs of improvement but she was still worried.

She believes her grandson has a tendency toward autism rather than the full condition and hopes he can be cured before the age of 6 since the best treatment time is from age 2 to 6.

"If he is older, 7 or 8, and still acts like this, there will be no hope of a cure," she said.

Zhang Jinghua said her son "had so much fun" making the moon cakes.

Seven-year-old Chen Jiaxin has been treated for autism for four years. She has taken him to two treatment centers and found the second one quite good but much more expensive.

"The cost for a month is 6,800 yuan ($1,071). I cannot afford that so I only take him to half the classes," she said.

"At that school parents need to accompany their child to all the classes and teachers write a report after each class. The teachers hold the children a lot of the time to develop their sense of being close to people because a major symptom of autistic children is that they are not interested in people."

Zhang said when her son was diagnosed with autism she gave up work to be a "24-hour nanny" for him and his little sister. The treatment fee takes up 80 to 90 percent of the family's total income. She says she is under huge pressure. The happiest time for her is to see her son making even the slightest progress.

"He gets on well with his teacher," she said. "One day, about 8 o'clock in the evening when it was already dark outside, he asked me to walk him to school, I didn't know what he wanted and when we got to school I realized he wanted to visit the teacher. He likes her. I was so moved."

Zhang said she doesn't care how much knowledge her son can master: Her biggest wish is that after treatment he will be able to take care of himself when he is grown up.

According to Shenzhen Autism Society, a social organization devoted to autism research and services, one in every 150 children suffers from the condition. In Shenzhen there are approximately 10,000 autistic children.

Wen Shuxian, general manager of Ichibenor cake company, said it was the fourth time the company held such a charity event. In August it cooperated with the Shenzhen-based public fund One Foundation, founded by the film star Jet Li. The Shenzhen Autism Society is one of the social organizations the foundation supports.

She said her company will donate 1 yuan to One Foundation for every box of moon cakes sold during this Mid-Autumn Festival. It has so far donated 67,972 yuan.

She said the company will continue help families with an autistic child, especially the parents because they suffer pressure both financially and emotionally.

Mooncakes for autistic kids |Society |chinadaily.com.cn

 

[Margaretha]

This is such a sweet story. Little autistic kids making mooncakes. I love mooncakes, I've gotten them in San Francisco. Are they called mooncakes because of the big round egg yolk inside the bean paste?

 

[Geordie]

Yes, Margaretha. Little Autie children making mooncakes. If I know some Auties in town make them, I'll definitely support them by buying and eating a few with my family.

The yolk is actually the 'moon', the paste is the 'sky', I think. Yep, we can get them in Chinatown and major Asian stores currently, because of Mid-Autumn Festival

 

[Geordie]

As Asians, I have to add that we are over competitive, we may not welcome Aspies' integration into mainstream society as readily as other people.

A fellow user, Tigris, gave me a tip-off. This may help set the context of the importance of small gestures in China, no matter how insignificant it sounds. As someone of Chinese descent and heritage, even I still do not accept the usual Chinese people's over-competitiveness and lack of acceptance for those with autism. Little wonder we don't quite have talents with autism, if there are any.

Ninteen parents in Shenzhen City recently signed a letter persuading their children’s school to force out a fifth grade boy. Why do people hate the boy so much?

Since he suffers from autism, he has less self-control than his peers and can’t strictly obey class rules. So the parents are worried that he’ll affect their children’s studies. The boy once studied in a special children’s school, but he had relatively higher capabilities could even play piano well. He never attacked others so his mother transferred him to a normal school in the hopes he’d be better accepted in society.

But the other parents couldn’t stand it. After one term, they said they “wouldn’t be friendly” if the school didn’t persuade him to quit. He wanted to enter the school, but it forbade him. So he slipped in and sat in the last row, but the school took his desk away. Finally, he stood at the back of the classroom. Leaning against the wall, he stood like a mushroom.

Sigh…not only for the boy, but for his classmates. What a primary student sees and hears has a great influence on their personality and value system. What will be left with them now that the boy has come and gone? What kind of example has this set? Should the world be tolerant or narrow-minded? To those special or less privileged people, should we show our love or separate them; or even hate them?

Those 19 parents, in showing love for their children, have gained a better environment for them. But in the process they missed a chance to teach them how to love. They may teach their children love and tolerance all the time, but their actions have spoken to the contrary. They’ve shown that it’s reasonable to hurt people for even a tiny self-benefit.

Parents aren't the only group to be blamed. The whole society has ignored love in education for so long. We don’t lack publicity and slogans, but we never make our actions match our words. The 19 parents all have fifth grade children. They’ve been so exhausted by the pressure to get their children accepted to a good middle-school that they’ve been left with no time to nurture their souls. It’s the fault of the deeply problematic education system and the whole society.

Education is worthless if we only focus on marks. It’s more important to cultivate children to understand love. While translating The Education of Love by Italian writer Edmondo De Amicis, Mr. Xia Zun (夏尊) said, “Education without emotion or love is just like a pool without water. A waterless pool is not a pool while a loveless education is not education.”

Indeed, only a man knowing how to love will be tolerant, kind and honest. A man without love has no heart; a society without love has no soul.

Recently, American Lisa Goring from the group “Autism Speaks” helped produce an episode of ABC’s “What Would You Do?” The video aimed to test public acceptance of an autistic child behaving badly in public.

At a New Jersey restaurant, actors played a family with an autistic boy. Not long after they were seated, the boy began to talk to himself, move around and even took food from others’ plates. As expected, the public gave no response, so another actor scolded the boy’s parents and told them to take the boy home.

At that moment people around them gave up their silence and began to criticize the man who had confronted the family. Finally, after the whole restaurant turned against him, he was forced to leave. Finally, the restaurant-goers were informed it was all an act. The hostess randomly asked a customer why she had stood up. She answered: “It was for the boy.”

Envious? This is the result of education from childhood. For example, educational institutions encourage kids to do volunteer work. This is a very important experience in the path to adulthood. Only when people see the suffering of the world will they understand to better love and tolerate.

Don’t be too pessimistic. Despite the joint-letter by 19 parents, there are parents who do volunteer work for children with autism. One autistic child was aided by his school and classmates throughout his six-year primary education. When he entered middle school, he was arranged to share the same class as his best friend. Then during the standard student military training, his friends held his hand and encouraged him. On his first day of school, his friends’ mothers accompanied his own mother to see him off.

China is slowly progressing.