【洛杉矶时报110910】中国的月饼变成了圣诞节的水果蛋糕
【中文标题】中国的月饼变成了圣诞节的水果蛋糕【原文标题】Mooncake becomes the fruitcake of China
【登载媒体】洛杉矶时报
【原文作者】Benjamin Haas
【原文链接】http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-mooncakes-20110909,0,1530450.story
在困难时期曾被用来补充能量的月饼，现在被认为是不健康、昂贵、人人都不想要的礼物。
一块标准6.3盎司的月饼含800卡路里热量，而与它相同重量的麦当劳圣带冰淇淋，只含有330卡路里热量。
中秋节前，邹瑾面对堆积在她办公桌上的礼品月饼，只有一个反应：“不想要！”
这30多盒月饼是来自她的老板和客户，几个星期以来原封未动地放在这位31岁市场部经理的桌子上。邹试图尽量把它们送给别人，只要有人想要。
她说：“这东西太甜了，而且不健康。跟朋友见面时我会带上一两盒，谁想要就给谁。”
依照传统，人们在每年阴历八月十五晚上，都要对着月亮吃月饼，今年这一天是星期一。月饼的售价及其昂贵，体积和密度都与一个冰球类似，馅料包括红豆、咸蛋黄、奶酪，甚至烤鸭。
在困难时期，月饼是慰藉长期处于饥饿状态的肚子的绝好大卡路里食物。但在今天，月饼变成了中国的圣诞节水果蛋糕——被循环往复地送来送去。
一块标准6.3盎司的月饼含800卡路里热量，而与它相同重量的麦当劳圣带冰淇淋，只含有330卡路里热量。
去年，台湾的卫生部官员警告民众少吃月饼，多吃水果和蔬菜。尽管如此，北京的营养学家和饮食学家怀疑这样的警告是否能阻止人们吃月饼。
北京营养学会主席刘华立说：“月饼是中国几个世纪以来的传统食品，我们不可能告诉人们不吃月饼。尽管它的含糖量、含油量和卡路里含量都极高，但是人们也不会听我们的建议。”
刘说即使他自己今年也会吃几口月饼。
对于其他人来说，今年的月饼不但是一个推之不却的礼物，而且还让人受到了侮辱和伤害，因为税务局宣布，员工如果从公司受到了礼物月饼，要按其价值缴纳个人所得税。
这项政策会把一些人推到更高的纳税等级中。据新华社报道，一家国有石油公司的员工，在9月份由于收到了公司的礼品月饼而不得不多缴纳47美元的个人所得税。
这篇报道引用这位工人的话说：“这就像西方人的谚语：一切都是未知数，除了死亡了缴税。月饼税让我非常不舒服。”
为了让月饼的味道更加可口，中外公司开始制作一些非传统口味的月饼。近年来最受欢迎的是哈根达斯冰淇淋月饼。
30岁的主妇张钰静拿起一盒别人送给他丈夫的冰淇淋月饼说：“我们会自己吃，这其实是冰淇淋，味道很好。但如果这是传统口味的月饼，我们会把它送给别人。”
其它西方公司也纷纷进入月饼市场。星巴克中国店从2005年开始销售月饼。今年，售价60美元的6块月饼被包装在一个三层纸盒中，每种口味都装在一个小小的抽屉中，看起来就像一个珠宝盒或者工具箱。
一位姓李的哈根达斯员工说：“大部分人都把它看作是身份的象征，以展示他们手里有钱。”
包装和品牌通常比口味和质量更重要。一家酿酒厂推出的精美包装是一个木盒子，每块月饼都装在一个金属的圆盒中，镶嵌在包装里。
由于月饼低廉的成本和高昂的售价，仿制品层出不穷。上个月，广州警方没收了8000盒仿制当地著名餐厅品牌的月饼。
去年，由于中国食品价格全面上涨，一些著名品牌的月饼价格更加昂贵。但是那些大买家，主要是大型的国有企业，似乎对价格因素并不敏感。
北京一家月饼批发商的总经理Sparking Lee说：“由于通货膨胀，月饼价格自去年开始上涨了很多，但是我们今年的销量更高。”
Lee的公司在今年卖出了100多万盒月饼，销量冠军是哈根达斯。Lee拒绝透露具体的公司名称，但是他说最大的客户是国有电信公司和科技公司。
一家国有烟草公司的高管高说出了月饼经济的奢侈现状。中秋节前的一个星期，他领取了4盒哈根达斯月饼，价值140美元。
高举着手中慷慨的礼物说：“这些月饼券都是公司给的，自己一分钱没掏。我从不自己花钱买月饼。”
原文：
The mooncake, once a calorie-rich treat in times of scarcity, is now seen as an unhealthful, expensive, and very often, unwanted gift.
A typical 6.3-ounce mooncake has about 800 calories. By contrast, a McDonald’s hot fudge sundae, which weighs the same, has only 330 calories. (Cherilyn Parsons, For The Times / September 10, 2011)
Reporting from Beijing— Zou Jin has one response to the gifts of mooncakes that piled up on her desk before the mid-autumn festival: "You shouldn't have."
The 30 cakes that Zou had received from her employer and various clients weeks ago sat unopened and neglected under her desk as the 31-year-old marketing manager tried to pawn them off on anyone who would take them.
"They're too sweet and not healthy," she said. "I just bring them with me when I meet friends and give mooncakes to anyone who wants one."
According to custom, one is supposed to eat the cakes under the full moon on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, which this year falls on Monday. Often extravagantly expensive, they are about the size of a hockey puck and just as dense. Fillings range from red bean with salted egg yolks to cheesecake to Peking duck.
Back in the era of scarcity, they were a rare calorie-rich treat to fill the chronically hungry belly. Nowadays, the mooncake has become the Christmas fruitcake of China, passed around and regifted ad infinitum.
A typical 6.3-ounce mooncake has about 800 calories. By contrast, a McDonald's hot fudge sundae, which weighs the same, has only 330 calories.
Last year, health officials in Taiwan warned the public to lay off the mooncakes and instead indulge in fruits and vegetables. But mooncake-haters notwithstanding, nutritionists and dietitians in Beijing doubt that health warnings will dissuade people from eating them.
"Mooncakes have been a traditional part of Chinese food and celebration for centuries, there's no way we could tell people not to eat them," said Liu Huali, chairman of the Beijing Nutrition Consultant Assn. "Even though they're high in sugar, high in oil and high in calories, people won't listen to our advice."
Liu said that even he would be eating a few bites of mooncake this year.
For others, though, not only are mooncakes an unwanted gift, insult was added to injury this year when the tax bureau announced that employees who received the cakes as gifts from their company would need to pay income tax based on their value.
This had the side effect of bumping some people into a higher tax bracket. One man at a state-owned petroleum company had to pay an extra $47 in taxes for the month of September because of the gift of mooncakes, the New China News Agency reported.
"As the Western saying goes, nothing is certain but death and taxes. I feel very uncomfortable about the 'mooncake tax,'" the news agency quoted the petroleum company worker as saying.
In an effort to make mooncakes more palatable, Chinese and foreign companies have started incorporating unconventional flavors. The most popular in recent years have been Haagen-Dazs' ice cream mooncakes.
"We'll eat these ourselves, they're ice cream and delicious," said Zhang Yujing, 30, a homemaker who was picking up a box that her husband had been given. "But if these were traditional-style mooncakes, I'd give them away as a gift."
Other Western companies have also gotten in on the mooncake business. Starbucks' Chinese stores have been selling them since 2005. This year, six cakes cost about $60 and come in a three-tiered box with a separate drawer for each flavor, almost like a jewelry or tackle box.
"Most people just use these as a status symbol, to show they have money," said a Haagen-Dazs employee who gave only her last name, Li.
The packaging and brand are often more important than the taste or quality of the product. One elaborate package offered by a winery featured a heavy wooden box where each mooncake was individually encased in a round metal container.
Because of the low cost to produce mooncakes and their high selling price, counterfeit mooncakes have cropped up. Last month, police in Guangzhou confiscated 8,000 boxes of mooncakes that had been made to look as if they were from a famous local restaurant.
The high prices commanded by the most prestigious mooncakes have crept even higher in the last year as food prices in China rose across the board. But the big buyers, mostly large state-owned companies, seem unfazed by the price increase.
"Because of inflation, mooncake prices have increased a lot from last year, but we're actually selling more this year," said Sparking Lee, general manager at a Beijing mooncake wholesaler.
Lee's company has sold more than a million mooncakes this year, with the bestseller being Haagen-Dazs. Although he declined to name specific companies, Lee said his largest customers were state-owned telecommunications and technology companies.
Gao G.Z., an executive at a state-owned tobacco company, represents the extravagance of the mooncake economy: A week before the mid-autumn festival, he went to pick up four boxes of Haagen-Dazs mooncakes worth about $140.
"My company gave me all these mooncake coupons, I didn't pay for any of this myself," Gao said, gesturing toward his bounty of gifts. "I'd never pay for mooncakes!"
月饼再不健康，热量再高，一年不过吃一次，有什么大不了的？ 一年就吃一次的食品，西媒也拿出来指手画脚，真是吃饱了撑的 本帖最后由 aol 于 2011-9-14 14:42 编辑
传统习俗就是折磨人的：已经好多年了——没有人收到月饼很高兴，但是在人前还得假装很高兴。
中国人就是活着累，不懂得与时俱进，这么多年了为什么月饼还是这么甜，简直是活受罪啊。
过度包装已经被批判了很久，但是没有丝毫改进，反正中国人一过节，就加快了环境破坏，等于自己给自己挖坟墓。
再搞一次文革把，革掉传统中不良的东西。 现在的月饼做的太油腻，包装也过于奢侈，失去了它的本来意义 确定这不是穿越文？月饼豪华包装今年很难看到了啊 管他的，反正我喜欢。 我喜欢莲蓉和豆沙味的。 月饼吃的是意义，你当它是日常食物就有问题了好吧。
谁也没评论感恩节烤鸡健康不健康吧，传统啊传统。 今年吃了3个月饼，不过是那种现做的肉馅月饼，2块钱一个，好吃又便宜。 老外的圣诞节水果蛋糕也是吃不掉只好送来送去互相循环吗？ ..谁说人人不想要？最起码我要。。坛子里不要的TX都给我吧。。。 但是没收到月饼的时候，又该胡思乱想了 喜欢吃传统馅的月饼
月饼，没有嫦娥什么意义也没有
不是在古代什么意义也没有 俺喜欢吃月饼，话说这两年吃的月饼越来越好吃了。 谁一年到头天天吃月饼 ？ 我喜欢伍仁的，但现在的饼确实太甜，不如小时候的好吃 在很多人送礼盒月饼的时候，我看见那些繁重包装连打开都不想
然后今年没人送，母上也没买，突然又觉得冷清
自己买了个，默默地吃完
好不好吃，中秋还是要吃月饼的 zlwan001 发表于 2011-9-14 16:31 static/image/common/back.gif
管他的，反正我喜欢。 我喜欢莲蓉和豆沙味的。
同感 西方以为中国人吃月饼和他们吃麦当劳、披萨一样，是天天吃吗、、、、
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