Say no to expensive rice dumpling

Rice dumplings, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, have been a traditional food in China for a long time at Duanwu Festival, on May 5 of the Chinese lunar calendar.

But rice dumplings are no longer just wrapped in leaves, but also come with delicate, luxurious wooden boxes and accompanied by expensive wine, matsutake and abalone, which have nothing to do with festival traditions and are far more expensive than the dumplings.

Similar things already happened to the moon cakes of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on August 15 of the Chinese lunar calendar. The keys (ownership) of expensive houses and cars sometimes are included with the moon cakes.

This trend went to extremes after the Duanwu Festival became a national holiday in 2008. The rice dumpling is really an easy disguise for a bribe. And what a waste of resources goes into the excessively elaborate packaging with materials that are hard to recycle and reuse.

The legal and environmental problems of the expensive rice dumplings should be addressed. Tacitly consenting to the trend only makes the problems worse.