A leaner Chinese New Year

Spiraling prices and the global economic uncertainty in the coming Chinese Lunar year of the Ox is casting a pall on celebration spending among Chinese Malaysians.

Shopping malls and hypermarkets are all registering smaller crowds and sluggish sales even though the first day of the spring festival is this weekend.

This is particularly noticeable in the Klang Valley as it boasts a large number of wet markets, modern shopping complexes, large hypermarkets and shops catering to a wide-range of food products, household decorative items and worshiping paraphernalia usually used during the Chinese New Year celebration.

Echoing the same observation, Dr Jeffrey Goh, adviser to the Pudu Hawkers and Small Traders Association in Kuala Lumpur said despite the celebration being around the corner, the usual crowds were missing. "This year people are definitely spending less, the crowd is smaller and the food business is down."

When food sales are not brisk, shops specialising in Chinese delicacies are hit with poorer profits. Although some prices have increased marginally, most imported delicacies eaten during the 15-day Chinese New Year festival have registered poorer sales due to a majority in the Chinese community cutting back on their purchases.

This is especially so among those in the middle and lower income brackets, who cannot afford extravagant and unnecessary spending on expensive food items.

Many are also buying less ‘symbolic’ but expensive dried seafood like oysters, sea-cucumbers and scallops, big prawns and fish. Extravagant foods like abalone, whose prices range between RM98 and RM200 per tin, are also normally avoided by those in the middle and lower income bracket.

Lai, 60, who owns a coffee-shop in Petaling Street said, "I was brought up in hardship as I come from a poorer background. We are used to the hardship. We couldn’t afford abalone then and even though I can afford it now, I still do not buy it.

"We do not have to follow the Chinese food culture to the fullest. Nobody can follow it due to escalating prices.

"The lunar spring festival has become so commercialised. Nowadays, people spend more time eating, entertaining and gambling rather than reminding themselves of important values like filial piety, generosity and frugality.

"Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, it will also be difficult to be generous in our distribution of ang-pau," Lai added teasingly.

The spring festival is one steeped in symbolism and cultural beliefs, particularly during the 15-day period, when the new year is ushered in.

Many households are now giving symbolism a miss, preferring instead a simpler and less spendthrift approach. Similarly, many are cutting down on their purchases of fruits like tangerines and oranges, even though these symbolise luck and wealth.

Fish also has symbolic significance because the Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the words for excess and abundance. Although many believe eating fish will help their wishes come true in the new year, cheaper alternatives are being sought in place of expensive ones like rainbow trout for yee sang.

Families watching their budgets are also opting for ordinary steam-boat dinners or even meals with noodles and simple side-dishes, which also symbolise longevity.

More affluent households will celebrate with an expensive sumptuous dinner at a restaurant comprising foods like abalone, imported Japanese mushrooms, roasted suckling pig, sea cucumber and shark’s fin soup which all symbolise wealth, prosperity and good fortune. Such a meal can easily cost between RM1,188 to RM2,000 for 10 people.

Less affluent families who can’t afford to buy dried mushrooms at RM4 to RM28 per kg or dried oysters between RM8 to RM10 per gramme, will instead opt for cheaper foods like waxed duck and sausages.

Phillip Cheah, 57, a PR consultant said, "This year I am purchasing less foodstuff from China and decorative items for my house like lime trees which can cost between RM200 and RM400 per pot."

Alex Khoo, 53, who is head of a family of four is also on a austerity drive, saying,"I am opting for a simple celebration with no impulsive spending as I cannot afford to embark on a spending spree. I have to brace for the uncertain time ahead as I’ll be retiring in two years' time.

"Prices are too high. I wish the government could have better enforcement on prices, particularly controlled items," he said.

YL Shim, 56, a retiree, blamed inflation on high fuel prices."RM100 means nothing. The inflationary prices are biting into our salaries and most food items for Chinese New Year celebration are so commercialised that the prices are becoming higher.

"I have been scaling down on my purchases for the celebration gradually over the past two years. I now spend less on house decoration and avoid sumptuous dinners. I don’t buy new clothes and above all, I don’t go overseas or even make local trips during the festive period," Shim added.

Daisy Yap, 67, who recently returned from Singapore said the lack of festive mood there was equally sobering, with smaller crowds in shopping malls and expensive restaurants. "People there, like Malaysian consumers, are either not spending or spending less on luxuries and branded items.

"A friend in Hong Kong and China told me the situation there is similar," she added.

The lack in generous consumer spending for the festival reflects the mood of the Chinese community in adopting a more frugal approach to brace for hard times ahead.

Annabelle Wong, a corporate financial controller, said her company’s decision to save on bonuses this year has affected her spending power. "Many other companies are also cutting back on internal financial spending. This has a chain reaction, affecting consumer-spending patterns.

"Although petrol prices have been reduced marginally, food and transport prices have gone up. This cuts into savings.

"How do you expect people to have enough savings to celebrate? So they cut back on purchases and probably wait until after the festive period for the prices to ease before buying anything.

"Youngsters are frequenting coffee shops instead of Starbucks. Consumers are switching to less expensive products rather than branded stuff," Wong added.

WY Ying, 50, a housewife called the official inflation rate of 4.4 percent in December 2008 as ridiculously inaccurate. "It is way off-track with the reality of prices, particularly those in hawkers’ and food outlets.

"Escalating food prices usually benefit middle-men and wholesalers. Farmers and fishermen do not make much profit. The unscrupulous middle-man makes the most, often citing petrol price hikes as an excuse to raise prices.

"Consumers should boycott expensive items and hence, this Chinese New Year’s celebration should be a simple one," she concluded.

Indeed, the consumer spending pattern during this festive period is a tell-tale sign of the year of the ‘brown cow’. The earth element within a ying year symbolises fortitude, reliability and hard labour.

"There is no such thing as the golden cow this year as commercial propaganda would like the public to believe. Remember, it is the Lunar year of the Earth Cow," a local Feng Shui master reminded Malaysians.

Hence, Malaysians have little choice but to inculcate the frugal qualities of the Earth Cow into their lives to brace for the up-coming economic hardships of a recession, massive unemployment and even negative GDP growth.