Reflection and celebrations

"Reunion is tightly tied to every traditional festival including Mid-Autumn Festival, which brings me back home - full of warmth and happiness." - Mo Chenchen

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That was the first Mid-Autumn Festival Mo worked away, at a company in Shenzhen. His employer gave every staff member a box of moon cakes and posted one to his parents back in his hometown.

"For the first time, I felt lonely and homesick, walking back to where I lived with the moon cake," says Mo, who left home to work as an advertising copywriter in Guangzhou when he graduated from university in 2008.

Mo spent two years working in Guangzhou, Foshan, and Dongguan, then two years in Shenzhen, before moving to Shanghai.

When he first ventured into the wider world, he was delighted, and only too keen to shake off family ties for the excitement of his new life. In his first two years away from home he rarely returned to visit his family in Lishui, Zhejiang province.

In 2012, the second year he stayed in Shenzhen, he returned home to spend Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day Holiday with his family.

"My father used to act very cool with me so I was surprised that he said he would like to pick me up at the station when I called home to inform them I planned to visit for the holiday," Mo says.

Mo says, his father was waiting by the exit of the station when he walked out.

"I was touched to see my father take the luggage from my hand and hobble with his bad back," Mo says.

That was the moment Mo began to truly understand the real meaning of family, that they are the people you can always return to, who will love you unconditionally.

"I am now the son in the family, being loved and taken care of by my parents. In the future, I will become a father, and show the same love and care to my own family," Mo says.

During the next two years, he returned home almost every holiday to spend time with his family.

He became fond of chatting with his parents and grandparents and learned how to be a more caring and considerate person.

For the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, Mo is unable to make it home, but he plans to take two weeks' leave in early October to visit his family.

"Reunion is tightly tied to every traditional festival including Mid-Autumn Festival, which brings me back home - full of warmth and happiness," Mo says.