Posted on 04/23/2024 5:05:19 AM PDT by Cronos
Inside a canteen for seniors in downtown Shanghai
Ms. Xu is familiar with the rhythms of the Tongxinhui Community Canteen because she eats there every day to save money. She has a good job as an accountant at a foreign firm, but she can’t shake a creeping sense of unease about her future.
“Only when you save money will you feel safe,” she said.
In these tough economic times in China, many young people are jobless, but they aren’t the only anxious ones. A devastating crash in the value of real estate, where most household wealth is tied up, has heightened a feeling among young working professionals like Ms. Xu that their situation is precarious, too.
In Shanghai, some people are finding relief at subsidized community centers that once served mostly seniors but are now also drawing younger crowds. The food is affordable and plentiful. The plates on offer, sometimes as cheap as $1.40, are crammed with local specialties like shredded eel with hot oil, steamed pork ribs or red braised pork belly.
Similar to soup kitchens, the canteens are privately run but subsidized by China’s ruling Communist Party and cater to older residents who are too frail to cook or are homebound, offering discounted meals and delivery services.
...The portions are often so generous that they can be stretched out over several meals, and diners can often be seen packing away dishes they haven’t finished.
The cost-saving impetus stems from a reluctance to spend that has become so common among Chinese people that it is contributing to the country’s economic problems and prompting top officials to talk with a sense of urgency about promoting confidence.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
WTH is that??? Can’t read the article, no subscription.
It’s best to chow down and not ask questions.
shredded eel
Just how I like my eel.
It’s stir fried shredded eel. It’s likely very tasty. I have several eel dishes in Shanghai and none have disappointed.
Saw the headline and started thinking of Soylent Green and Biden’s uncle.
In China, any dish could be chopped rats or bamboo leaves. I think I’ll stick with a burger and fries at McD’s.
It describes the “Let it Rot” movement by young Chinese. The cheaper a thing is the more desirable it becomes. They see no real future for themselves. There are few jobs; only the lucky manage to find work.
The girls have no dowry, the guys have no hope of find a job so the can buy a must-have apartment which will allow them to get married; kids are out of the question.
This is partially due to Xi Jinping’s move away from low-end assembly manufacturing to high-end corporate office work or HQs like big cities around the world.
Rural people who came to the cities for jobs are left homeless and sleep on the street after the plants they worked at for years closed, as well as the now abandoned dormitories where they lived; now they have no money or social credit to go home.
That’s the jist.
shredded eel with hot oil and garlic.
basically the article is that yougner Chinese are worried about their financial futures and eating at what could be called upscale government sponsored soup kitchens.
Actually, it's possible that cannibalism is no longer practiced anywhere in New Guinea.
Thanks.
I like eel from a can and (cooked) eel sashimi.
Eel can taste great, but in both cases, the eel is prepared with a sweeter sauce.
I get that. That photo though, gross.
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