Overeating Dying out in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, February 12, 2002

Overeating Dying out in China

This year in preparation for the Spring Festival family feast , 72-year-old Zhang Xiumei decided to be frugal and not buy too much beforehand.

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This year in preparation for the Spring Festival family feast , 72-year-old Zhang Xiumei decided to be frugal and not buy too much beforehand.

"This was not due to financial difficulties but because of the present easy access to food," Zhang said.

Under the planned economy, food and daily necessities were rationed, and people had to buy goods, especially poultry, meat and fresh vegetables, long before the week-long holiday came.

"Now those things are available everywhere and people's focus at festival time has shifted from eating to keeping health and enjoying being with the family," Zhang said.

"Modern Chinese are giving more attention to a healthy diet and fewer people will overeat during spring festival," said Sun Wanguo, a scholar specializing in dietary habits.

Chinese people's inclination to overeat during festivals resulted from years of undersupply of material resources and the then underdeveloped productivity.

"Before China's opening-up and reform, people lived on cabbages and potatoes during the winter. Spring Festivals were the only time they could splash out their hard-earned money on poultry and meat. Now, every day is Spring Festival," said Wang Yijun, a senior cooking technician with the Beijing-based Fengzeyuan Restaurant.

Having catered for a number of state banquets in honor of VIPs like Henry Kissinger, the former American Secretary of State, and the late Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, Wang said that the changes in Chinese people's eating habits are huge. "Can you imagine homely food like hoecakes dipped in dinailan once eaten only in farmhouses being served during wedding banquets and festive feasts?" Wang said. With purses swelling, the Chinese are becoming increasingly choosy about food with quite a number now able to afford to eat out during weekdays.

"Currently, 70 percent of the restaurant turnover in Beijing comes from private consumption," said He Zhifu, a staff member of the Beijing Catering Trade Association, "whereas years ago, it was people dining out at public expense who kept local restaurants going."

Hu Guiyou, a 50-year-old Beijinger, is very concerned about his fitness because about 70 million people in China are said to suffer from obesity which can trigger chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipemia and cerebral thrombosis.

"When I eat out, I'm not interested in greasy food and prefer to try dishes with different flavors," Hu says.

To cater to the needs of customers like Hu, restaurants in China have to rack their brains to bring out their best specialities.

Xian Feng, vice-general manager of the Shun Feng Catering and Entertainment Management Company whose annual sales are around 500 million yuan (about 60 million U.S. dollars), reveals his menu secret as follows:

"Use seafood and vegetables as the main ingredients, avoid greasy meat and keep a nutritional balance."

Wang Feng, a bachelor in Beijing who seldom uses a kitchen, says that the biggest challenge in eating out is being able to choose "smart eating" which is cost-efficient as well as nutritional.

"People's rising awareness of 'smart eating' has helped spread virtues like frugality and self-discipline among Chinese," Sun said.

In the early 1980s when some nouveau rich squandered their money on restaurants delicacies and government officials took advantage of their jobs to attend luxurious feasts, a distorted concept was built up in most Chinese's minds: the wealthier one is, the more fatty foods are on your dinning table.

The grumbles about upstarts' arrogance and the government officials' corruption turned into general disapproval. People began to look favorably at the ancient Chinese maxim which praises abstinence in consumption.

At the moment dieting and keeping fit have become fashionable and packaging taking home leftovers is frowned upon for fear of being described as a "skinflint".

Even restaurants are starting to offer customers advice on how to avoid waste caused by excessive consumption.

"Our restaurant is not merely profit-oriented. The last thing we want to see is leftovers after a meal," Wang Yijun said.

"When the leftover piles up on table, we chefs need to look at the quality of the dishes and our service," he said.

Considering the 30 million destitute Chinese struggling in remote mountainous areas and those laid-off work who are living a hard life, traditional virtues like fighting one's way up and building the country through hardship and thrift are still highly encouraged by the Chinese government.

Earlier this year, a notice issued jointly by the Central Commission of the Chinese Communist Party for Discipline Inspection and the Ministry of Supervision called on officials and civil servants in government administrative departments to be honest, self-disciplined and against extravagance when the Spring Festival comes.

Zhang Hui, an official with the Beijing Local Taxes Bureau, said that the tarnished image of public institutions would be improved as the whole society stands together against corruption and extravagance.

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