Disappearing Local Flavor

Lifeweek
January 31

In China, traditional handmade food is gradually being replaced by streamline produced products.

For example, Nanjing salted duck, a famous local dish, used to sell out immediately after preparation. In the past, visitors to the city would often take some of the well-known duck home to share with their families. However, today, salted duck is vacuum packed and sold in almost every outlet in train stations and airports. It has lost its original flavor and tastes similar to packaged Dezhou braised chicken and Beijing roast duck.

Although vacuum packed food is easy to produce and convenient to carry, people miss traditional handmade food, which is tastier, but takes more work to prepare due to the intricacies of working with fresh ingredients.

The difference in personal dispositions between various regions can be partly attributed to the diversity of local cuisine.

Fatter Chinese

Oriental Outlook
February 7

Chinese people are becoming increasingly fat. In 1985, the average waistline of China's urban males was 63.5 cm, but now the figure has reached nearly 76.2 cm. In other words, waistlines have expanded more than 15 percent in the past 28 years.

The World Health Organization predicts that China's overweight rate will increase to between 50 and 57 percent in 2015.

There are two main reasons for gaining weight: eating too much and exercising too little. Most Chinese young people today eat at cafeterias at work or at restaurants, with only a few cooking at home. Normally, such facilities serve food with a high oil and sugar content, which leads to obesity.

At the same time, people exercise less and less. According to a survey, in 2007 people sat for 3.8 hours a day on average, however, the figure rose to 4.8 hours in 2010.

The obesity problem needs urgent attention as it puts a huge burden on the country's medical service. Overweight people have a higher rate of contracting diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Obesity has become the fourth biggest medical concern after HIV /AIDS as well as drug and alcohol addiction and the fifth mostly likely cause of death.

Social Trust Declines

China Youth Daily
February 17

A blue paper released by the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed that social trust in China has fallen, based on a survey carried out in seven major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Less than half of the respondents believe the majority of people are trustworthy while fewer than 30 percent said they have faith in strangers.

The survey included detailed interviews with more than 1,900 residents. Results showed that trust among people has declined sharply and that more than 70 percent of the respondents do not trust strangers. Of all sectors of society, the public is most distrustful of businesses. Meanwhile, trust among people of different social groups is weakening. The distrust on the part of the public toward officials and the police, patients toward doctors, as well as consumers toward businesspeople is further deepening.

Wang Junxiu, an associate research fellow with the institute and editor in chief of the blue paper, said distrust has grown given flaws in China's economic and legal systems and the poor implementation of laws during the country's social transformation, which occasionally bring about fraudulent conduct. Meanwhile, the malpractice, corruption and dereliction of duty by government officials further deteriorate the trust of the public toward local governments and businesses.

"Without common values shared by members of society, the moral system would collapse; mutual trust among members cannot be reached; and ultimately, society will make no progress in this regard," Wang warned.

Pay After Treatment

Yangtse Evening Post
February 19

The Ministry of Health has called on hospitals to implement the "pay after treatment" system on a trial basis. Patients in China are now expected to pay their medical expenses first and then apply for health insurance reimbursement following treatment. The new initiative requires hospitals to advance treatment fees so that patients will only need to pay their own part of the fees above the expected reimbursement. The remainder will be paid by health insurance providers directly to hospitals. In addition, patients will no longer need to pay a deposit in order to receive medical treatment.

The new system has so far been piloted in some hospitals in Shandong Province. Hospital staff members say the system helps patients receive more convenient medical treatment, but added that it also places a higher demand on hospitals. Also, it is limited by region because there is still not a nationwide medical insurance settlement system. Supporting measures are therefore needed to guarantee its effectiveness.