無奈的艱辛:上海工薪族的打折午餐大綱

The average wage slave in Shanghai may find it harder than ever to get a job or pay the rent, but when it comes to cheap grub, the Communist party is there for them.

上海普通工薪族可能發現，找工作或繳房租比以往任何時候都更難了，但在廉價食物方面，黨在爲他們解決後顧之憂。

Almost 200 eateries in the posh Jing’an district of Shanghai – ranging from upmarket restaurants and five-star hotels to even convenience stores – have begun offering discounted lunches for office workers. Another Shanghai district is even treating stressed-out salarymen to free afternoon teas. It seems Mao Zedong’s “iron rice bowl” (guaranteed lifetime employment) has morphed into more of an iron tea cup.

在優雅繁華的上海靜安區，從高檔餐廳、五星級酒店到便利店，近200家餐館開始爲辦公室一族提供打折午餐。另一個區甚至用免費下午茶來招待這些疲憊的工薪階層。毛澤東時代的“鐵飯碗”（有保障的終生就業）似乎已變身爲“鐵茶杯”。

The Jing’an government gives the impression that high-end eateries are clamouring to be included in the lunch programme. Maybe they are: these are hard times for top-end dining spots, since Beijing decreed a new era of abstemiousness.

靜安區政府給人們營造的印象是，高檔餐飲場所積極要求加入該午餐工程。實情或許是：自中國政府下令進入厲行節約的新時代以來，高檔餐廳的日子就不再好過。

But they are hardly going to be able to use income from the lunches, which are mostly sold at or below cost, to make up for the money they have lost on government galas; 200 wage slaves might generate only as much lunch revenue as a single table of government revellers of yore. It is doubtless smart politics to give the government what it wants in the matter of white-collar nutrition. But it can only be smart economics if the typist who spends Rmb15 ($2.45) for a mostly mediocre lunch is willing to come back and spend Rmb150 at the same restaurant for dinner.

但打折午餐的售價大多等同或低於成本，因此這些餐廳很難用打折午餐的收入彌補自己在政府宴席上的損失。200名工薪族帶來的午餐收入可能僅相當於之前一桌慷慨飲宴的公費酒席。毫無疑問，在保證白領營養方面讓政府如願以償在政治上是精明之舉。但只有讓花15元人民幣（合2.45美元）吃一頓普通午餐的打字員願意花150元人民幣到同一家飯店享用晚餐，纔是經濟上的精明之舉。

The five-star JC Mandarin Hotel, on Nanjing West Road, Shanghai’s ritziest street, says the government asked it to become involved, and it was happy to do so – in the spirit of community service. So last month a corner of the luxury hotel’s lobby was turned into a worker canteen, serving daily (at cost) a salaryman set lunch for Rmb38, discounted from the regular Rmb88, to 70 to 100 staff from nearby office buildings. (Most “white-collar lunches” cost between Rmb10 and Rmb30, but luxury hotels get to charge up to Rmb100.)

位於上海最繁華街道南京西路上的五星級酒店——錦滄文華大酒店(JC Mandarin Hotel)表示，區政府要求其加入午餐工程，酒店方面本着服務社區的精神也願意這麼做。因此從上月開始，這家豪華酒店大堂的一角變成了一個職工食堂，（以成本價）向附近寫字樓的70名到100名職員提供每份38元人民幣的午間套餐，而這些套餐平日售價88元。（大多數的“白領午餐”成本在10元到30元之間，但豪華酒店要價高達100元。）

Further down Nanjing Road, a queue forms by 11.30am every day for the Rmb15 worker set lunch at Shanghai Min, one of the city’s oldest dining chains. “It’s economical, clean, the service is good, and there is some fruit with each meal,” says Feng Yuhao, a film-maker who works locally. “The only disadvantage is it’s too crowded, the queue takes 10 to 15 minutes.” The menu could have come straight from Xi Jinping: “four dishes and a soup”, the new standard for government dining.

在南京路，每天上午11點半，都會有人排隊購買上海小南國(Shanghai Min)售價15元的白領套餐。小南國是該市歷史最爲悠久的一家連鎖餐飲店。在附近工作的電影製作人馮宇豪（音譯）說：“這家餐館經濟、乾淨，服務也好，每餐還有水果。唯一的缺點是人太多了，要排10到15分鐘的隊。”菜單的靈感也許直接來自於習近平提出的“四菜一湯”的政府用餐新標準。

At the opposite end of the road is the even more modest “community canteen” where I often get my own four dishes and a soup at lunchtime. Like the rest of the motley crew of office workers and pensioners who patronise that refectory, I show up with my own saucepan or Tupperware container, which gets loaded to the brim with meat, fish, rice and stinky tofu for as little as Rmb5-8 a meal. Conversation at the cramped tables often revolves around how happy we all are that the Nanny provides such cheap fare, so close to our homes or offices. (I tend to be more grateful on days when stinky tofu is left off the menu.)

在南京路的另一頭，是更爲簡樸的“社區食堂”。我常常在這裏吃午飯，享用自己的四菜一湯。與光顧這家食堂的其他形形色色的辦公室職員和退休老人一樣，我也拿着自己的飯盆或特百惠(Tupperware)飯盒，僅僅花上5到8元人民幣，就能裝上滿滿一飯盒肉、魚、米飯和臭豆腐。在擁擠的餐桌邊，人們談論的話題往往是，“姆媽”政府提供了這麼便宜的伙食，而且就餐地點離家或辦公室這麼近，大家是多麼高興（在菜單上沒有臭豆腐的日子裏，我往往會更加感激。）

But it’s not quite the iron rice bowl that it sounds: Jing’an government officials say that of the district’s 250,000 white-collar workers – up from 100,000 when the project started in 2007 – 70 per cent eat a meal from the scheme regularly. But the goal is not just to fill their hard-working bellies: it helps Jing’an compete with second- and third-tier cities trying to lure investment away from Shanghai. (Lunch is cheap in those places, even without the party’s help.) And Nanny is happy when people spend money: since boosting consumption is her plan for saving the Chinese economy.

然而，這也並非完全像聽起來那樣是鐵飯碗：靜安區的政府官員說，在該區25萬白領（2007年午餐工程剛啓動時是10萬人）中，有70%定期在參加午餐工程的餐館就餐。但該工程的目標不僅僅是填飽辛勞的工薪族的肚子：它還幫助靜安區與試圖將投資從上海吸引走的二、三線城市競爭（即使沒有黨的幫助，後者的午餐也很便宜）。而且政府樂見民衆花錢：因爲促進消費是其拯救中國經濟的計劃。

Given the popularity of the lunch scheme, Jing’an has now started including afternoon tea in some venues. And another Shanghai district, Hongkou, last month started offering free afternoon tea as a lure to get office workers to talk to one another, and break down that salaryman isolation. The organisers say they may add lectures on health, nutrition, love and marriage too.

鑑於午餐工程極受歡迎，靜安區目前已開始在某些地方增加下午茶。而另一個區虹口區，從上月開始提供免費下午茶，以此促進辦公室職員間的交流、打破職場隔閡。組織者說，他們可能還會主辦關於健康、營養、愛情和婚姻的講座。

Where will it end? Last week President Xi followed up his call for government food-and-drink frugality with a recommendation that cadres “look in the mirror, tidy your attire and take a bath” (among other things). Will five-star hotels start offering rooms by the hour to anyone with a party membership card who wants to ablute during working hours?

最終走向會如何？上週，中國國家主席習近平繼呼籲政府厲行勤儉節約之後，又建議幹部們“照鏡子、正衣冠、洗洗澡”（還有些別的）。五星級酒店會開始向任何持有黨員證、希望在工作時間內洗澡的人提供鐘點房嗎？

Maybe that explains the results from a Pew Research Center survey that found 88 per cent of Chinese feel good about their economy.

這或許可以解釋，爲何皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)的調查會顯示88%的中國人對經濟感覺良好。