Chinese moon cake festival

Chinese moon cake festival 

As China gears up to the Mid -Autumn Festival on the 19th Celebrate September , President Xi Jinping recent raid on the official spending on extravagant mooncakes makes international headlines .
The crackdown on the boxes of these traditional treats that can run from a few hundred dollars per box in the thousands, is part of the newly minted president overall strategy to curb corruption in the ranks to command government .

Although mooncakes as a harmless gift seems to be in China, they are largely seen as instruments of graft , part of a gift culture that lines the pockets of officials in return for favors . Boxes of mooncakes are often re - gifted, or returned to a business in exchange for cash, while high-end mooncake boxes , the magnificent approach . Last year , the state-run Xinhua news agency on buying a house in the popular Wangfujing shopping area selling crates of solid gold mooncakes for 42.900 yen each , a price that translates to 429 grams per yen.

What does the raid for the mooncake market mean? 

That depends on which end of the market is under review. " The average person is not buying China World Hotel , they buy in the supermarket ," says Beijing -based Sienna parulis - cook, her dissertation for the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies wrote on mooncakes and the culture of gift giving in China . Manufacturers mooncake as Daoxiangcun , a popular , time-honored mooncake brand in supermarkets across the country in retail for ¥  48-260 per box or Haagen- Dazs , the ice cream filled cakes sell for a few hundred dollars per box , appeal private buyers who are looking to treat friends or family to a gift and is likely to be affected in a cultural tradition and are not much of the raid , she says.


At the Peninsula Hotel in Beijing , this year's moon cake sales " similar " to those of the previous year , says public affairs director , Cathie Yang . Yang says the peninsula , most of the mooncake customers are companies from all pre-ordered will sell 5,460 boxes, which cost between ¥ 308-980 each . The predicted total of 490 boxes is short of last year's sales. But the peninsula mooncake prices are solidly middle class. " It is the five-star hotels that were in the total expenditures made," says parulis - Cook. " The luxury ones are facing the greatest challenge .

 High -end retailers mooncake

High -end retailers mooncake the pinch more immediately feel and longer-term than their mid-range counterparts , she says , noting that the most is the upper class mooncake retailers hawking expensive , elaborate boxes that obvious cases of conspicuous consumption are be . Since the beginning of the crackdown on corruption this year, hotels around Beijing were losing money due to the loss of official spending on luxurious banquets, an indicator for what lays in store for probably mooncake sales , she says. " Banquet is another form of giving. Hotels If all money lost by official editions , I am sure that they lose money on their mooncake sales, too."


The long-term effects of the ongoing corruption crackdown on the mooncake market reflect a major change in the way the rich consume luxury goods in China, said Shaun Rein, founder of the China Market Research, a Shanghai-based consulting company that focuses on the buying habits of the wealthy class of China .

•  " The culture of giving is still there ," he says.
•  "They are just giving different kinds of gifts . " 
•  "Every gift looks mooncakes as corrupt . " Instead, market trends on items that are used or consumed at home and are not as easy to move judge at a glance , such as massage chair , or dietary supplements, he says. And the flow goes in both directions. 

Be investigated as officials for graft fear will continue to give or acceptance of bribes suspected moved the culture of gift-giving from striking objects , such as Louis Vuitton bags or gold foil wrapped mooncake boxes. " Mooncakes are obvious ," says Rein.



When the officers are increasingly paralyzed in ceremony favors at will , are those who .

Favors for hedging their bets with less expensive gifts " A few years ago , when someone has a 5000 yen clock , it was almost quid pro quo , the official could help with something," says Rein. " Well, if you give a gift , it's only 1000 yen , because they know not the official may be able to help them now. "

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