The gift of goose feather sent from a thousand miles away means much more than what it is worth. This Chinese proverb vividly describes the importance of reverence behind giving a gift rather than the value of the gift itself. It's the thought that counts.

The exchanging of gifts between friends or relatives during occasions, such as festivals or birthdays, has been a formality practised in China for thousands of years. China is known as a nation of etiquette.

But in recent years, the decent tradition of deep friendship behind a small gift has been contaminated by the unhealthy tendency of taking advantage of gift-sending as an opportunity to bribe relevant powerful officials for personal gains. This tendency explains why prohibitively expensive mooncakes have appeared on the market. The price of a box of moon cakes containing six or eight cakes could be as high as 3,000 yuan (US$370) because of a gold ring or some other valuable thing packaged together with the cakes. In an extreme case, a case of mooncakes packaged with a gold Buddha, was sold for 180,000 yuan (US$22,000).

Corruption might be involved in the sending of such luxurious gifts and those who could afford such an expensive gift must have harboured ulterior motives rather than just showing respect for the person they sent such a gift to.

To curb the luxurious packaging of mooncakes, the Compulsory Standards for the Production of Mooncakes was released this June jointly by the General Administration of Quality Inspection, Supervision and Quarantine and Standardization Administration of China.

However the recent appearance of mooncakes cast in gold when the Mid-Autumn Festival is just three weeks away, seems a prank to challenge these standards. The golden treats are no ordinary cakes and cannot be eaten, but can function as a gift for the traditional occasion. Furthermore, because they are inedible cakes, they do not fall under the regulation of the compulsory standards.

To be frank, these standards have achieved a great deal.

Mooncake cases made out of wood or metal are no more and this extravagant practice has stopped the unnecessary waste of resources. Cake makers have been reminded of the limits.

Those, who have produced the gold mooncakes, know well that there is a market for such gifts and spare no efforts to seize this national festival to make a profit.

We may amend the rules to prohibit moon cake makers from taking advantage of festivals to produce such luxurious gifts for bribery, but the game of cat and mouse will continue as they work out new tactics to challenge the rules.

What will resolve the issue once and for all is to nullify the market. Bribers will not buy ridiculously priced mooncakes if officials refuse to accept them. The central government is intensifying its efforts to crackdown on corruption and is targetting the root cause of this unhealthy tendency.

Let's focus back on the meaning behind giving a gift, whether it is a mooncake or a goose feather.

(China Daily 09/18/2006 page4)