BEIJING: Recently, placards with slogans calling for curbing food wastage have been popping up on tables in restaurants across the country, where waiters are now gently notifying diners when they’ve ordered more than enough food. Public service announcements featuring Chinese celebrities have also appealed to Chinese citizens to reduce food waste, as part of a waste reduction movement that is sweeping the nation.
The movement is part of a long-term campaign, initiated in 2013 by President Xi Jinping, and gets new energy from the president’s recent emphasis on preventing food wastage. In August, Xi highlighted the importance of food security awareness, even in times of plentiful harvests. His message centered on taking the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on food security as a call for vigilance. The anti-waste campaign is now a much-talked about topic among Chinese. Most people see it as a campaign to save food and reduce food waste. But the significance of the campaign goes far beyond. This campaign in fact reveals how Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era draws upon the fine Chinese tradition of frugality. The thought covers not only issues of state governance, such as politics, the economy, society, culture, the military and diplomacy, but also social issues such as housing and food. It is an ideological system based on China’s national conditions that are inseparable from the traditional Chinese cultures that have existed for thousands of years. The Chinese nation has always cherished the virtues of diligence and thrift. Xi himself grew up amid traditional Chinese culture and experienced years of food shortage. Thus he has a deep understanding of the importance of saving food. By launching the anti-food waste campaign, he is practicing and advocating this tradition in new forms, embodied by campaigns such as Clear Your Plates and Half-Portioned Dishes. These slogans, as well as the campaigns, shed light on the fact that the Chinese are now materially rich. Most of those who were born before the 1980s have the experience of starvation. In those days, to have enough food was not easy, and thus the problem of food waste did not exist. Today, the picture is totally different.
– The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
