Critics rue growth of mooncake sweeteners in China
Chinese have for centuries been exchanging mooncakes to celebrate the mid-autumn festival, which this year falls today, but it seems that for many customers the rich, sweet pastries alone are no longer enough.
Mooncake gift-boxes distributed recently by institutions as august as the state-owned Bank of China have also included a bottle of fine European red wine.
And the Bank of China's generosity looks restrained when compared with other hotly promoted luxury box-sets offering everything from video discs to gold statues.
Such autumnal extravagance highlights dramatic changes in the mooncake business, which boasts sales of Rmb10bn ($1.2bn, �984m, ￡669m) in mainland China, according to estimates by the China National Food Industry Association (CNFIA).
But while retailers seize the profit opportunities offered by high-end mooncake sets, traditionalists worry that the meaning of mid-autumn festival gift-giving is being lost and social commentators fret that the pastry is becoming a vehicle for corruption.
The CNFIA said mooncake packages that include other gifts still accounted for less than 10 per cent of sales. But upscale boxes were selling fast.
A manager at one four-star hotel in Beijing said corporate clients who send thousands of sets to customers and clients often prefer boxes that include wine, chocolate or fine teas, and cost up to nearly Rmb600.
"This year we ordered 40,000 boxes and they are nearly all sold," the manager said. "We are now offering imported wines and the customers like it very much."
The mooncake itself has been winning new attention. There have long been strong regional variations in the pastries, which owe their fame to the legend that 14th century Chinese rebels hid messages inside them in preparation for an uprising against the Mongol Yuan dynasty.
Not everybody enjoys the somewhat stodgy standard versions, prompting bakers to introduce such exotic ingredients as shark's fin.
This year, however, there seems to be a widening backlash against such conspicuous consumption.
The Economic Information Daily newspaper this week complained that the boom in mooncake packages was creating a situation where "those who buy them don't eat them, and those who eat them don't buy them" and that "ordinary people" were feeling left out of their own festival.
Indeed, the paper called the new cake culture a "hotbed of corruption" in which favour-seekers used gifts of the once-humble pastry as cover for bribery.
As evidence, it cited reports of a Rmb318,888 gift-box on sale in the south-western city of Kunming that boasted not just mooncakes but also a digital camera, premium teas, health products, spirits - and the deeds to an apartment.
月饼变成“糖衣炮弹”
今天是中秋节。多少个世纪以来，中国人一直以相互馈赠月饼的方式庆祝中秋节，但对许多顾客来说，这种甜而油腻的糕饼似乎已不够了。
中国银行这样的显赫机构在近期派发的月饼礼盒中，还附上了一瓶高级的欧洲红酒。
相对而言，中国银行的慷慨还是很有节制的。其它热烈促销的豪华月饼礼盒装有从影碟到黄金雕像在内的各式礼物。
此类秋季奢侈消费突显出月饼行业的巨大变化。据中国食品工业协会(CNFIA)的估计，中国大陆的月饼销售额达到了100亿元人民币(合12亿美元)。
零售商们固然抓住了高档月饼套装带来的利润机会，但传统人士却在担心，中秋节互赠礼品的内涵正在丧失，而社会评论人士也对月饼正变成腐败工具感到不安。
中国食品工业协会说，附带其它礼物的月饼套装在总的月饼销售额中仍不到10%。但高档月饼礼盒卖得很快。
月饼本身也在赢得新的关注。长期以来，月饼一直有着很强的地区差异。月饼的美名来自一个传说：14世纪时，中国的反抗者将消息藏在月饼中，准备发动一场反抗元朝蒙古统治者的起义。
并不是所有人都喜欢有点油腻的普通月饼，因此，月饼生产商采用了鱼翅等珍奇配料。
但在今年，反对这种炫耀性消费的声浪似乎有所加大。
《经济参考报》本周抱怨说，月饼套装的兴盛正在造成一种“吃的人不买，买的人不吃”的情形，而“普通人”感到自己被排除在本应属于自己的节日之外。
的确，该报称新的月饼文化是“腐败的温床”，让寻求恩惠的人把看似微不足道的月饼作为行贿的幌子。
作为证明，该报引用了一则报道：在西南城市昆明，有价值31.8888万元人民币的月饼礼盒销售，礼盒中除月饼外，还有一台数码相机、高级茶叶、保健用品、白酒，还有一套住房的契约。
