Chinese families across Asia are planning cheaper reunion feasts and gifts to mark the Year of the Ox as the global economic slump forces a toning-down of celebrations.
From China to Singapore, businesses that traditionally see roaring sales ahead of the Lunar New Year are grappling with sharply lower demand from budget-conscious consumers.
Expensive restaurants are reporting a drop in bookings, while eateries that are fully booked say patrons are opting for cheaper meals. Businesses have also slashed prices to draw more customers.
PHOTO: AFP
“My sales have dropped 20 to 25 percent ... The economy is bad, people are buying less,” said Yip Wai Keong, who owns Guangzhou Waxed Meats in Singapore’s Chinatown.
Waxed meat is a popular delicacy for families during the New Year.
Shoppers said they planned to spend less on festivities, mirroring the increasing gloom since Singapore became the first Asian economy to slip into recession last year.
Singapore’s economy is projected to contract by as much as 2 percent this year and there is speculation that job cuts will increase after the Lunar New Year, which falls on next Monday.
“This year, our celebrations will definitely be simpler. Economic crisis ma!” said Ah Hua, 62, a dish-collector, using local Chinese slang. “Times are bad so we should put away some money whenever we can.”
Larger businesses in Singapore are also affected, with well-known restaurants, gift shops and supermarkets offering lower-priced packages.
Fairprice, a supermarket chain that is owned by the government-affiliated trade union, said it expects more families to prepare home-cooked food instead of eating in restaurants.
Sebastian Chia, general manager of Tung Lok East Coast restaurant, said reservations for the traditional New Year’s eve dinner were robust, but he expects business to dip after the first few days of festivities.
At the Golden China Hotel in Taipei, bookings for their restaurants during the Lunar New Year period have fallen by 20 percent compared with last year.
“Obviously consumers feel that they have to tighten their belts in the face of the economic uncertainty sparked by the global downturn,” a manager of the hotel said.
But the Grand Hyatt Taipei said it has seen little impact on bookings for New Year dinners.
Yesterday, the Taiwanese government began issuing shopping vouchers to the nation’s 23 million people to encourage them to spend.
In Hong Kong, people are cutting budgets on family feasts, new clothes and cash gifts put inside red packets.
The Hong Kong Federation of Restaurants and Related Trades said it would distribute food coupons worth HK$100 million (US$12.8 million) in the first three days of the New Year, the city’s media reported.
Superstar Seafood chain, which has 12 branches in the city, said they were almost fully booked for the New Year because they are offering a menu that “is cheaper than homemade dinner.”
In China, a survey carried out by restaurant review Web site dianping.com of 1,800 urbanites aged 22 to 35 — the country’s most avid spenders — suggested a sober mood.
According to the survey, 69 percent said they would dine at restaurants charging less than 120 yuan (US$18) per person.
Restaurant bookings in Beijing for dinners priced at 400 yuan to 500 yuan per person have dropped 30 percent from a year ago, the China Hotel Association said.
DDMA Market Research and Consulting estimated that Lunar New Year consumption would decline 5 percent from last year.
“At this point 60 percent of the consumers have already [planned] or are planning to reduce their personal spending,” said Sam Mulligan, Shanghai-based director of DDMA.
“Branded fashion goods and clothes, digital products and entertainment are among the top categories which they will reduce spending on. These are often the top sales categories at Chinese New Year,” he said.
In Malaysia, which has a substantial ethnic Chinese population, Lunar New Year celebrations were muted, with consumers spending less and decorations in the major shopping malls not as elaborate as before, the New Straits Times reported.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)