Consumerism and the Chinese New Year Festival (Original unedited manuscript)

I remember once my mother told me that when she was a young kid back in the 60s, she only got to eat chicken during the Chinese New Year (CNY) festive season. Nowadays chicken has become the most popular and consumed meat in the country. In 2021, Malaysia’s poultry meat consumption of 49.7kg per capita was triple the world’s average (14.86kg) and also well above the OECD’s (31.98kg). It could be that in those old days, meat was a luxury to many poor families, the price may not be as affordable as compared to today's standard of living.

For this year’s CNY festive season, among the 8 controlled food items set by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living are white pomfret, white shrimp, live pigs and pork (belly, meat and fat) as well as vegetables such as imported Chinese potatoes, and round cabbage, and Chinese garlic. Chicken are not included because they are still a controlled item for a persistent period since last year. But In terms of CNY festival ‘luxury’ meat items nowadays, obviously Chinese pomfrets and large shrimps (some say abalone and scallops as well) have replaced chicken, especially for the reunion dinner on the CNY’s eve.

Reunion dinner could be deemed as a special occasion for the year where family members from all corners come back to have the meal, and it is usually prepared extensively to treat these family members in the gathering. Most families are likely in the mood to ‘splurge’ on more extravagant luxury food items. They feel proud and happy to share these on social media.

More than just the dinner dishes, normally Chinese families would also stock up CNY cookies, chips and crackers, barbequed meat, mandarins, as well as packet drinks like Chrysanthemum tea, carbonated drinks like 100Plus and Shandy. These are the food items prepared for the visiting guests but surely family members themselves would also find those irresistible to consume before any guest arrivals.

Before CNY, shopping for such items became reactionary towards price reduction promotion. News broke out that a certain hypermarket chain offered a promotional sale price for their 100Plus and Shandy, many shoppers were alerted by words, text or pictures shared in social media, stormed to the chain stores, and caused the items to be sold out the very first day of the promotional campaign. The photos of shoppers fighting to grab the carton of drinks before these could be delivered to the shelves, and they loaded their shopping trolleys full with the cartons queuing for the check out, these are the herd mentality scenes to behold. This ‘shortage’ phenomenon also induced panic buy among many other shoppers too, feeling that these drinks are now a must, and they have to get them too, and in more quantity ifossible.

Think about it seriously, the aforementioned drinks are hardly a must have or serve any direct relevance about the festival itself. Even the cookies and crackers, these are the items that might keep the visitors’ conversation going, but without those people can still chat (and not have to worry about the amount of sugar and fats consumed).

Like other big festivals, CNY also tends to drive consumerism for new products and new items, via various CNY sales in the malls or online platforms - from new clothes, shoes, to services like doing nails and hair.

The preconceived mindset for many Chinese is that they must wear everything new for the festival. While spring cleaning the house to review and remove unwanted items to declutter is a good annual practice, adding new items to the closet and cupboard inventory just for the festival appearance may not be a wise decision for the household budget and for the environment.

One has to practice purchasing based on needs and not wants – some clothes can still be in quite good condition after some years, one should not feel shameful to wear the same Sam Fu. The legitimate reasons to purchase new items are to replace those belongings started to wear out or simply grow out of the current fitting.

In a planet with finite resources, and for the household also with finite disposable income, we should encourage more thoughts to conserve our own resources, ask ourselves ‘do I really need this?’ before purchase. It should not be equated as ‘thrifty’, but this could help overcome the impulse buying behaviour. These savings might be useful in future for more necessary spending. In this way, I congratulate you Gong Xi Fa Cai, I just gave you tips to make more fortune.