"Poor Guy's Package", "Blind Box of Leftovers": Glimpse of China’s "Garbage Time of History"

Hello, everyone! Welcome to Inconvenient Truths. I am your host Jennifer Zeng. Have you ever heard of "The Poor Guy's Package", "Three Essentials for the Poor" and "The Blind Box of Leftovers"? And what is the concept of "history's garbage time"? Today, we will start with these new Internet terms that have emerged in the Chinese consumer market, to show you the real situation of the lives of ordinary people in China, as well as some intellectuals' thoughts on China's current situation and future. But before I go to our main topic today, I'd like to briefly comment on the recent violent confrontation between China coast guard and Philippines navy. I trust you have already watched this video and know very well about this event itself. Actually, I kind of "predicted" this kind of conflict in my show on Feb 1 this year. I said this in that show, "Therefore, the territorial conflicts in the South China Sea between the CCP and the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam will become more and more violent, and the level of conflict will become higher and higher. From spraying each other with water cannons to engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and even escalating to blood shedding and some deaths, until there is a limited armed conflict." My main point in that show was, the CCP needed a war to dodge the current crisis in China that can no longer be resolved in any other ways. In fact, it may not matter where the war is fought. What the CCP needs is a conflict that can divert attention from the crisis at home. From what I know about the CCP's tight control over everything, especially over military and police forces, there is no way that any soldiers or police officers can get into a conflict with another country WITHOUT the permission or orders from the CCP. So if the CCP's police guards brought all those weapons to attack the Philippines navy, there was NO possibility that they did it out of momentary loss of emotional control, or did it on impulse. Everything was planned, and carried out according to the orders they received. Of course, when a war breaks out, it may go out of control and no one knows how the situation will develop. So we can only continue to watch out. Now let's go back to our main topic today. The term "Poor Guy's Package" is a Chinese social media term that refers to a discounted set meal offered by a restaurant chain that allows the so-called "poor guy" to spend a small amount of money to not only get a full meal, but also to try some normally more expensive food. Here's a video on the Chinese video site Douyin about the "Poor Guy's Package" , which tells people where they can go to get a discounted set meal from Monday through Friday. The topic of "Poor Guy's Package" has received as many as 800 million views on Douyin. As we can see, the video has been played 962 K times, with 71K comments, saved 108 K times and shared 183 K times. It is really very popular. How cheap are the "Poor Guy's Packages" sold by fast food restaurants? McDonald's double cheeseburger, with a drink or dessert, is 13.9 yuan or $1.92 ; Burger King's small beef burger, small fries, and a cup of cola, costs only 15.9 yuan, or $2.19. The "Poor Guy's Package at Rice Village" is as cheap as 3 yuan, or only $0.41! More than 100 K people have tagged a video about the "Poor Guy's Package at Rice Village", showing that they had been there to enjoy the meal. The popularity of The popularity of the "Poor Guy's Package" on social media shows that there are too many people who need to go out for this kind of discounted food nowadays. The "Three Essentials for the Poor" refers to instant noodles, pickled mustard tubers, and a beverage. Especially for migrant workers, who can't afford other foods, they can only eat instant noodles with pickled mustard tubers and drink a bottle of soda. This counts as a meal for them. "The Blind Box of Leftovers"refers to expired foods that food stores and restaurants mix together and sell at a low price. They are called "blind boxes" because customers do not know what is inside when they order online. This sales method was originally introduced by a Danish company, Too Good to Go, to avoid wasting expired food and to help the poor. It was mainly adopted by small stores. However, in China, "The Blind Box of Leftovers" has turned into a big business distributed by e-commerce platforms. Every year, millions of people frequently buy these boxes online, with annual sales totaling 30 to 40 billion yuan, or $4.13 to $5.51 billion. This indicates that more and more Chinese people are now relying on "leftover blind boxes" to get by. Their food consumption has not only downgraded but has reached the point where they cannot afford to buy fresh food. Clearly, for many people in China, the consumption downgrading has extended from not buying luxury goods or designer clothes to buying leftover food and only eating "Poor Guy's Package" in restaurants. The Chinese have always valued food, with the saying "food is the most important thing for the people." When people move from general consumption downgrading to downgrading their diet, it shows that their consumption capacity has reached its limit, and they have no other things to downgrade further. China's restaurant industry has long been struggling. The market research company NielsenIQ's report "2023 China Consumer Insights and 2024 Outlook'' shows that 43% of Chinese respondents said they will strictly control their total spending; 37% will change their consumption habits to seek cheaper products. This is a typical sign of consumption downgrading. In the face of consumer downgrading, how has China's restaurant industry been affected? According to the data of China's business registration platform "Enterprise Cha Cha", more than 1.36 million restaurants were canceled and deregistered in 2023, an increase of 128% compared to the previous year; the number of canceled and deregistered restaurants reached 460,000 in the first quarter of this year, compared to less than 140,000 in the same period last year. So the cancellation increased by 228.57% compared to last year. This is a short video I translated recently, showing that the once-thriving Shangxiajiu Street of Guangzhou City has become quite desolate. In Shanghai, China's busiest big city, a lot of videos also show that many food and beverage stores are deserted, and there are not many guests even at lunch and dinner time. While a large number of restaurants are closing down, the existing ones have to start lowering their prices in order to get customers. That's why the "Poor Guy's Package" began to appear last year. In addition to the popularity of the "Poor Guy's Package", Shanghai has recently seen a wave of young people going to eat in "senior citizen cafeterias". These canteens are These canteens are subsidized by the government, and the prices are relatively cheap, so in the past, the customers were mainly elderly people living in the neighborhood. Nowadays, many young people find that it is cheaper to eat at these canteens, so they also rush to take advantage of it. Shanghainese people are always well known for how proud they are about themselves. It is hard to imagine that this kind of thing would happen in the past. But it is happening now. Consumption downgrading is not a phenomenon unique to Mainland China. It has also happened in Hong Kong. More and more Hong Kong people are now going north to Shenzhen to spend money. Apart from buying household food and daily necessities,the also go to Shenzhen to eat in restaurants. Last year, the number of Hong Kong people going to Shenzhen reached 40 million, with an average of six visits per person. The fact that Hong Kong people are eager to go to Shenzhen to spend money is not a good thing for Hong Kong. It will only make things worse there. So, we can only say that after the freedom of Hong Kong was stifled, the withering and dying of the economy is only "as expected." It is interesting to note that China's consumer market is now in a state of "fire and ice", with the price of Maotai wine, which has always been regarded as a high-end consumer product, plummeting. Even the price of beef dropped, and high-end Western restaurants closed down one by one. In the meantime, the necessities of life for China's residents ranging from water, electricity, gas, and high-speed rail tickets to the so-called "three Essentials for the Poor", are on the rise. The prices of commodities belonging to rigid demand, such as instant noodles, are on the rise. Why is there such a phenomenon? Some commentators have pointed out that there are economic factors as well as profound social changes. From an economic point of view, the CCP's harsh Zero-COVID policies during the pandemic, the continued suppression of private enterprises, the intensified confrontation with the international community and the accelerated decoupling with other countries have all led to a continued downward spiral of the economy. As a result, the wealth of the middle class, and even the lower-ranking super-rich are shrinking. People's expectations toward the future are very low. So they want to cut back on spending as much as possible. Therefore, the current changes in China's consumption structure reflect the complexity of China's economic downturn. It is not a traditional or simple deflation or stagflation, but rather "one side is a flame, the other side is an iceberg." Many essential products are rising in price, while industrial and non-essential goods are generally experiencing deflation. This presents a challenge for the Chinese government's future policies. In fact, the topic of "no more tomorrows for China" has already emerged in China, with the related phrase "the garbage time of history". The fact that such a phrase has begun to gain popularity in China suggests that some Chinese intellectuals are already sensing a crisis in the future. They just don't dare to criticize Xi Jinping publicly yet. In September of last year, Hu Wenhui, editor of Yangcheng Evening News in Guangzhou City, wrote an article titled "The Garbage Time of History, the Long Vacation of Culture." He used the example of the Soviet Union to make his argument. His main point was that although the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the actual collapse began with the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. For the Soviet Union, the period after 1979 was its "garbage time," and Gorbachev merely hastened the end of this "garbage time." He also cited the examples of many Chinese dynasties. I won't list them all here. When he cited the Chinese dynasties, he wrote these words: "When the overall situation is set, and defeat is inevitable, no matter how hard you try, it is just a futile struggle. The only option is to end as gracefully as possible. So, how should those unfortunate enough to encounter the garbage time of history conduct themselves? Should they perish along with the garbage of time?" This passage seems to be commenting on history, but in reality, it is warning Chinese people nowadays that it is time to consider how to endure the "garbage time of history" once again. The current "garbage time of history" is reflected in the fact that the CCP regime, despite its best efforts to show force to the outside world and crack down internally, has been unable to save its sliding economy, and Xi Jinping, even with his best efforts, has been and will be powerless to save his regime. Although no one can accurately predict when the CCP will finally run out of steam, if we look at China's current and future situation from the perspective of "history's garbage time", it may provide us with some reference. Well, that's all for now. If you enjoyed this video, leave a thumbs up, subscribe for more, let me know your thoughts in the comments, or go to my website at jenniferzengblog.com to sign up for a membership or make a donation. Your support means the world! Thank you. Have a nice weekend and see you next time!