Maxim's mooncakes seen in Beijing on August 27 Photo: VCG

Hong Kong-based restaurant chain Maxim's Caterers and its leader's firm patriotic stance have been drawing rising support in the Chinese mainland, in contrast with another Hong Kong bakery, Taipan Bread & Cakes, which is facing a boycott due to one of its board member's pro-riot stance.

Most of Maxim's mooncakes have already sold out, quicker than in previous years, the company's agencies and distributors in the Chinese mainland told the Global Times on Sunday.

"Some of my customers originally planned to purchase Taipan's mooncakes, and have decided to buy Maxim's instead," one of Maxim's agents in Northern China, surnamed Liu, told the Global Times.

One of Maxim's featured moon cakes racked up orders of over 68,000 on its flagship Tmall store as of Sunday afternoon. A Global Times reporter also found that Maxim's products topped the mooncake sales list in one of the shopping malls in Beijing on Saturday.

In comparison, Taipan's general distributor in Beijing told the Global Times that all of Taipan's mooncakes had been removed from stores' shelves and they would be returned to Taipan's Chinese mainland general agency located in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. She noted that these returned products might ultimately be destroyed.

Topics about Annie Wu Suk-ching, the eldest daughter of Maxim's founder James Tak Wu who founded Hong Kong's largest catering group, have soared in popularity on Chinese social media platform Weibo in recent days. Wu has reportedly asked the Chinese Foundation Secondary School in Hong Kong to punish faculty members and students who boycott classes.

She held a meeting with representatives of a student strike on Tuesday and stressed the greatness of Chinese history, local news site hk01.com reported on Wednesday.

Radical anti-government protesters have criticized Maxim's, calling for a boycott of its mooncake products on social network platforms like LIHKG.

Some of them even listed all of Maxim's stores, aiming to attack them online one after another.

The People's Daily on Sunday praised Wu and Maxim's, and noted the upcoming Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, a time of family reunions when mooncakes are traditional snacks. "What Chinese people long for is reunion, not riots," the report said.

Wu has also cared about the education of young Hong Kong people for many years. She said young people should learn Chinese culture, and that schools in Hong Kong should all raise China's national flag and sing the national song, local news site hkcd.com reported.

She noted in the report that every citizen in the world should learn and understand their countries.


Newspaper headline: Maxim’s wins acclaim in Chinese mainland