Mid-Autumn Bobing (Mooncake Dice Game)

Bobing is a Mid-Autumn custom particular to Xiamen. By legend the dice game already existed on Xiamen Island in the late Ming and early Qing, later spreading to Longhai, Anhai and Kinmen. In 2008 it entered the second national ICH list as 'Mid-Autumn Festival (Bobing),' declared by Xiamen.

Players take turns rolling six dice in a large bowl; the combinations decide ranks—'zhuangyuan,' 'duitang,' 'sanhong' and others—each matched to mooncake prizes of different sizes, as family and friends gather round amid the clatter of dice and bursts of laughter.

Blending reunion, play and good fortune, bobing is Xiamen's most widely shared Mid-Autumn custom—come the festival the whole city rings with rolling dice—and a cultural tie binding the Minnan communities across the strait.

Around each Mid-Autumn, scenes of bobing gatherings fill Xiamen's neighborhoods, shopping streets and courtyards.