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Mooncakes' vanity fair

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-19 08:20

How could something as romantic as the Mid-Autumn Festival turn into a political issue?

As Chinese all over the world reunite with their families and gaze at the moon at the mythical goddess of immortality Chang'e on the October 3 festival, excessive packaging of mooncakes is again a cause of great concern.

Previous efforts to clamp down on the ornamental packaging have not been effective even after a 2006 central government rule stipulated that the cost of packaging mooncakes should not exceed 25 percent of the total factory price.

In the marketplace, packaging of mooncakes has become ever more sumptuous over the years. Mooncake prices have skyrocketed. Although the cost of an average mooncake is estimated at less than 10 yuan ($1.46), a box of four mooncakes often goes for 200-300 yuan ($29.3-43.9).

The potency of a revised rule on mooncake packaging, effective September 1 this year, is also questionable. Producers are still touting their lavishly wrapped delicacies. One company is promoting a box of abalone mooncakes for 6,980 yuan while another is pairing mooncakes with the collectible Beijing Olympic torch, at a price tag as high as 100,000 yuan.

The mooncake packaging is now a political issue because of the vastly wasted resources and the environmental degradation it contributes. As climate change threatens the survival of humans and as world leaders convene for the climate conference in Copenhagen in December, any environmental issue is political.

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This is a matter of great responsibility to the planet and to our future generations.

With China now a top greenhouse gas producer in the world, we should not tolerate any more wasteful packaging.

The other political incorrectness regarding the overly wrapped and expensive mooncake is the corruption involved. Many people have taken the traditional festival as an opportunity to bribe government officials, teachers, doctors and businessmen. That is why everything from jade, gold to expensive tea and wine has been found in mooncake boxes.

The wasteful and corrupt packaging is not limited to mooncakes. The same problem also haunts other traditional festivals, such as the gifts of zongzi, or sticky rice cake, during the Dragon Boat Festival, or gifts of hairy crabs during the upcoming crab season. Already in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, a gold box of hairy crabs, with eight pieces of silverware, was quoted at 99,990 yuan.

Decades ago, we blamed poor packaging for causing the low prices of Chinese commodities. Today, we are seriously challenged by excessively ornate packaging. These extravagant mooncake boxes have not only altered the taste of our tradition, they have become politically fallible at a time when fighting corruption and climate change are the top priorities for this nation.