From Chinese Press

Go for the content, not form

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-05-19 10:21

Many people are worried about excessive packaging used in consumer products nowadays. The luxurious packages that moon cakes and wines come with are not only unnecessary wastes, but also increase their prices manyfolds. The excessive packaging problem has now started plaguing cultural goods as well, which is a pity, says an article in People's Daily. Excerpts:

Excessive packaging has become an economic, social as well as cultural phenomenon.

The trend now is to over-package cultural products for which we have to pay higher prices unnecessarily. From books to TV series, the stress is less on content and more on form and promotion.

There is nothing wrong in providing more combination products and decorative add-ons to meet the stronger and more diversified demands of today's fast changing market.

But it should be done on the basis of two salient principles: The products should be of good quality and the packaging should not be more important than the content.

The greed of profit has prompted many businesspeople to over-package cultural products, which is a deviation from the two premises mentioned above. This practice will ultimately compromise the originality of the cultural products.

If the trend of extravagance and consumption of luxuries continues to grow, the social harms caused by excessive packaging would shackle the country's cultural development. It will also build economic and psychological walls that will prevent ordinary people from enjoying cultural products and events.

There is a Chinese fable that says a man who was shown a glittering jewel box and some genuine pearls and asked to choose one of the two "took the glittering box and returned the pearls".

The age-old fable, to some extent, highlights the importance of rational choice - and is similar to the proverb, all that glitters is not gold.

Since the phenomenon of excessive packaging exists in both material and cultural fields, we have to think about what to choose, the glittering package or the precious content.

(China Daily 05/19/2011 page9)