Three scant years ago, Shanghai celebrated the 100th birthday of one of history’s most famous junk foods — the Oreo biscuit — with fireworks on the Bund and multi-storey neon adverts projected on to skyscrapers. But now China has put Oreo on a diet.
3年多曩昔，上海慶賀了史上最有名的垃圾食物之一——奧利奧(Oreo)問世100周年懷念日——外灘上燃放了焰火，摩天大樓上投射了幾層樓高的奧利奧霓虹燈告白。但如今，中國讓奧利奧“節食減肥”。
This is a country where, within living memory, millions starved to death. People will, to this day, tell you how they ate roots or shoots or even dirt to stay alive. Little wonder the Chinese market was a pushover for the ubiquitous black-and-white sandwich cookie.
在這個國度，人們仍舊記得曾稀有百萬人餓死的閱歷。直至本日，另有人會告知你，他們是若何靠吃草根樹芽，乃至土壤活下來。也難怪這類到處可見的詬誶夾心餅幹易如反掌地馴服了中國市場。
Foreign treats were seen as healthier than local snacks, because they were imported from places that did not have such a vigorous tradition of poisoning residents with tainted ingredients, as was the fad in China. When I moved here in 2008, it took a while to get used to the notion that McDonald’s was a healthy option, purely because it was less likely to be toxic. Here, when mainlanders tell you something is “healthy”, they often mean that it won’t be immediately fatal.
曩昔，人們以為外國美食比本土小吃更康健，由於它們是從別處入口而來的，那些處所並無這類風尚——用遭到汙染的質料迫害住民。2008年搬到這裏的時刻，我花了一段時光才順應那種以為麥當勞(McDonald’s)是一種康健飲食選取的看法，純潔是由於麥當勞不那末大概有毒。在這裏，當有要地本地人告知你甚麽器械是“康健”的，他們的意思一般為指這類器械不會立刻致命。
But in the past few years, China has begun to discover that heavy metals are not the only things to avoid in snack foods. There is that small matter of fat and sugar, too. Last week, Chinese media carried stories saying that Mondelez, the maker of Oreo, was shutting down some Shanghai production because people were going right off biscuits. The US company waffled a bit about “optimising our supply chain” and shifting production elsewhere, but the company had made clear in the past that Oreo was in trouble in China. Figures from Euromonitor show that, since the sound and light of its centenary celebration, the biscuit has lost one-third of its market share in China, from nearly 9 per cent of the market in 2012 to 6 per cent now.
但曩昔幾年，中國人開端發明，重金屬並非獨一須要在零食裏防止的器械。另有一些小題目：糖和脂肪。比來中國媒體報導，由於人們正在損失對餅幹的興致，奧利奧的制作商億滋(Mondelez)關了上海一些臨盆線。這家美國公司扯了一通諸如“優化咱們的供給鏈”和轉移到別處臨盆的談吐，但這家公司曩昔就曾明白表現，奧利奧在中國碰到了艱苦。歐睿(Euromonitor)的數據註解，在慶賀100周年的聲光魅影今後，奧利奧餅幹的中國市場份額縮小了三分之一，從2012年的近9%降低至如今的6%。
So that is how Oreo ended up watching its waistline: Mondelez introduced a new “Oreo Thin”, just to woo Chinese consumers, and it did so well that they last month announced that Americans will be able to opt for the skinnier cousin too. All because of a revolution in eating habits that took decades in the west — and only a handful of years in China.
是以，這便是奧利奧若何終極留意到本身的“腰圍”的：億滋推出了一款“奧利奧巧輕脆”(Oreo Thin)，專為逢迎中國的花費者，並且這款餅幹賣的相稱不錯，是以億滋上個月宣告，美國人也將可以選取更加纖細的同款餅幹。這統統都是由於一場已在西方舉行了數十年的飲食習氣革命——在中國這場革命才閱歷了寥寥數年。
That’s not Oreo’s only problem: many of the world’s most successful brands made it to China early and had a long run almost unrivalled, but are losing their first-mover advantage. (KFC has that problem too, compounded by a spot of bad publicity on the food quality front.)
奧利奧面對的不單單是上述題目。很多天下最勝利的品牌早早來到中國，在很長的一段時光裏險些無可對抗，但這些品牌正在落空它們的先發上風。(肯德基(KFC)也有這個題目，食物質量方面的多少負面消息使其景況加倍糟。)
Meanwhile, mainlanders have developed one of the most fickle palates on earth: Americans may want the same cookie Mum gave them with their milk after school; but Chinese want something new every day. Local companies are often nimbler than multinationals at introducing green tea or purple sweet potato alternatives to traditional flavours.
同時，中國要地本地人另有地球上至多變的口胃。美國人大概想吃媽媽曩昔在他們下學後給他們配著牛奶吃的餅幹;而中國人天天都想吃點新穎的。在推出綠茶、紫薯等非傳統口胃的新品方面，本土企業每每比跨國企業更敏銳。
And cookie companies are facing competition from an even more unlikely source: home bakers. When I moved here, ovens were rare in normal homes: I figured that was why mine didn’t work too well. But now many a Chinese bride insists on having one. Sales of the countertop ovens preferred on the mainland have more than quadrupled since I started wielding a flour sifter on Chinese shores, and a 318-piece everything-you-could-ever-need baking set can be had on Alibaba’s Taobao for only 137 devalued renminbi.
並且，餅幹公司還碰到了一個看起來更弗成能的競爭敵手：家庭烘焙機械。當我剛搬到這裏時，烤箱在一樣平常家庭很少見：我認為這便是為何我那台烤箱不太好用的緣故原由。但如今，許多中國新娘都保持配一台烤箱。自我開端在中國海濱搖擺面粉篩以來，在中國要地本地頗有人氣的台面烤箱的銷量已增加三倍多，如今，全套318件的烘焙對象套裝在阿裏巴巴(Alibaba)旗下的淘寶(Taobao)上只要(已貶值的)137元國民幣就能夠買到。
For, given that the vast majority of Chinese under 30 have never known an hour of hunger in their lives, let alone survived on roots and shoots, just filling the tummy is no longer the point. They cook for fun — and for health reasons, says Qian Zhaoli, a 27-year-old marketing manager in Shanghai. She’s started baking her own rusks because her first child is teething. “I wanted her to have the healthiest ones, without any additives,” she says, adding that shop-bought rusks have such a long shelf life, and “who knows how many artificial colours and preservatives they contain?” Plus, western-style baking is far easier than cooking any of China’s complicated cuisines, she says, noting that in Shanghai most cooking is done by men.
由於，斟酌到中國30歲如下的人多半沒有嘗過受餓一個小時的滋味，更沒必要說靠草根樹芽活下來了，只填飽肚子再也不是重點。他們下廚是為了興趣，也是由於加倍康健——上海27歲的營銷司理錢朝麗(音譯)如斯表現。由於她的第一個孩子開端長牙，她開端本身烘焙磨牙餅幹。“我願望她吃到最康健的，沒有任何添加劑的，”她彌補說，市場上賣的磨牙餅幹保質期那末長，“誰曉得它們含有若幹人工色素和防腐劑?”別的，她表現，西式烘焙比烹制龐雜的中式菜肴要簡略很多，並指出在上海下廚的大可能是漢子。
This is not just a tale of Oreos and ovens. It is a parable for a new type of Chinese consumption: more finicky, more fickle — potentially less profitable. Anyone selling almost anything here should watch it closely. May the best rolling pin win.
這不單單是奧利奧和烤箱的故事。這是一則中國新式花費的寓言：更抉剔、更多變——贏利空間大概也更小。在中國，賣險些任何器械的任何人都應當親密留心這一點。願望最佳的搟面杖可以或許勝出吧。
市場價：HK$ 110
