Illustration: Peter C. Espina/GT

In the lead up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, you can always count on an argument erupting about whether mooncakes should be sweet or salty. As it happened, this "war" did break out just days ago.

Supporters of different mooncake varieties have formed into online groups including "Salty Party," "Sweet Party," "Grand Empire of Fresh Pork Mooncakes" and "The Federal Republic of Lotus Paste and Double Yolk." A discussion topic on Sina Weibo titled "Five-nut mooncakes, go away" has more than 30,000 members, who are divided almost evenly in their love and hate for the traditional festive treat.

This is not the first spat between northern and southern Chinese about whether a snack should be salty or sweet. For example, tofu jelly is usually salty in the north and sweet in the south.

Other foods in question include fried eggs with tomato, zongzi (the Dragon Boat Festival's sticky rice dumplings), and yuanxiao (the Lantern Festival's rice balls).

I remember earlier this year when Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-10 spacecraft ate zongzi. On that occasion, the "sweet party" gained the upper hand because the rice dumplings orbiting Earth were stuffed with sweet bean paste.

I don't care for mooncakes at all, but I do care about whether tofu jelly or fried eggs with tomato should be salty or sweet. For these topics, I will gladly pick a side and go to "war."

A friend of mine always adds sugar to his scrambled eggs and tomato, which I find repulsive. After many arguments, we now order two separate plates of the same dish to cater to our different tastes.

On the White House's "We the People" website, where the Chinese netizens have submitted many mock petitions, one of them reads: "We request the US government decide that the official taste for tofu jelly is salty." It's followed by an explanation saying: "Only salty tofu jelly is real tofu jelly - this is the fundamental principle of a country."

As for rice dumplings, in my home province of Shandong they are made with jujubes. After I went to Shanghai for university, I had my first southern-style zongzi at our campus canteen. It was salty, with lean meat and fat concealed inside.

My first bite caught my taste buds off guard, leaving me in a state of confusion. However, as years went by I got used to salty zongzi and even started to enjoy them. Perhaps I was suffering Stockholm syndrome.

But why do educated adults fight over whether a snack should be salty or sweet?

The truth is people are just passionately sharing their memories. Your mother's cooking style often influences your food preferences for your entire life.

Besides wanting a sense of belonging with a certain group who shares your tastes, we are just bored and trying to have some fun with our traditional food and regional differences. At least people are learning about diverse food cultures in China.

Far from being frivolous, it will even have an effect on one's outlook on life and their mate selection criteria to some degree. Sadly, I know I will never settle for a man who honestly believes that sweet tofu jelly is better.

We don't know if Schrödinger's cat is alive or dead, but I am sure his tofu jelly should be salty.