Liu Shinan

Gorgeous mooncake boxes

By Liu Shinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-09-28 06:16

More than a week has passed since this year's Mid-Autumn Festival but I am still enjoying the exquisite flavour of mooncakes. It is not that I received too many gift boxes of the sweet, oily food. I bought the cakes I have loved to devour since my childhood - but at discount prices.

Every year before the festival I receive a few boxes of mooncakes as presents from friends and relatives, but seldom eat them. I give them to other friends and relatives. To treat myself and my children, I buy non-packaged cakes, which are much cheaper than their equivalents ensconced in those fanciful receptacles. I often buy them after the festival because they become at least 50 per cent cheaper the very moment the full moon begins to wane on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month.

The mooncakes I bought before the festival, which fell on September 18, cost 9 yuan (US$1.12) each. But a box of six of the same size and same quality would sell for between 200 yuan (US$25) and 300 yuan (US$37), depending on how gorgeous the box looked. That means the container, usually made of wood or metal with satin lining, costs three or four times what the contents do.

A mooncake's main function is to tantalize the taste buds. Is it not strange to spend so much money on packaging? In the past, mooncakes came in paper cartons with beautiful designs printed on them. Why should we use more expensive materials?

Most of the cornucopia of boxes are thrown away after the mooncakes they contained have been eaten. Last year, Chinese people spent nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) on mooncakes, according to an official from the China Baked Food and Confectionery Industry Association.

He did not elaborate on the ratio of packed and non-packed mooncakes. Let's assume it is half and half. Then about 4 billion yuan (US$500 million) ended up in dust bin, given the aforementioned ratio of packing to content.

What a waste!

So when did we become so fascinated with the form rather than the substance of products that we happily spent our hard-earned cash on things of no use?

Some argue it is not a waste because nice packaging improves rapport between friends, colleagues and relatives. My question is: Can't the mooncake itself serve this purpose? Can we Chinese afford such a lavish practice as spending so much on useless things? Have we suddenly become very affluent?

Just a few days ago the World Bank revealed China's per capita wealth is US$9,387, less than 2 per cent of that in the United States. American visitors were surprised to see the advanced mobile phones many Chinese are using.

I had a mobile phone made by Samsung. I liked it very much because it functioned pretty well. Its antenna circuit was broken after I accidentally dropped it on the ground early this year. The maintenance personnel told me to buy a new phone, for "the model is several years old and it is difficult to obtain spare parts." I asked why Samsung stopped producing that model, only to be met with a scornful answer: "Who would want that kind of model with a black and white screen?"

I had to buy a new model with a colour screen and chord ringing. It looks attractive and the ringing sounds are wonderful. The viewing and sending of messages, however, is intolerably slow, because colour messages take up too much of the random access memory.

I understand young people like anything fanciful, novel and exotic. But I do not understand why so many older people upgrade their mobiles to models with functions they will never use.

It seems we Chinese have a tendency to pursue luxury after the "problem of adequate food and clothing" is settled.

Home decoration is an example. Urban residents refurbish their home on average every seven years. Wardrobes, sofas, beds and TV sets that are still in good working order and surplus building materials are thrown away.

According to a survey carried out by the China Interior Decoration Association, 30 billion yuan (US$3.74 billion) worth of materials are wasted annually after home decoration splurges. The association predicts the nation's interior decoration market will exceed 650 billion yuan (US$81.3 billion) this year.

That may sound pleasant for economists for it means a huge part of domestic consumption, a major contributor to the nation's gross domestic product growth.

Can we, however, afford economic growth accompanied by such an appalling waste of energy and resources?

(China Daily 09/28/2005 page4)