scarlet boxes, golden dragons, juice and instant coffee

chinese new year decorations

Chinese New Year is almost upon us, and with it a gold and ruddy tide of tchotchkes. Aside from the purely decorative, there is a particular class of item for sale in Beijing's supermarkets that is worthy of mention: the (not so) humble gift box.

Were this method of packaging restrained to chocolates, booze and the like as we are used to in England and the US, it would still be worth a quick picture, but what I find most intriguing is that there seems to be no limit to the nature of goods that could be considered gift-worthy.

Ginseng, nuts, walnut protein powder, olive oil and almost any commodity that you can imagine are packed into these boxes and emblazoned with the most auspicious colours, signs and symbols possible - not the least of which is the presence of english text.

None of this is new, I've seen these gift boxes over each of the past few years. The catalyst for this post is the fact that in our local Jinkelong Supermarket yesterday i noticed the way in which foreign brands have started to adopt this (so far as I've experienced) uniquely Chinese practice.

Nestle's new year offering: instant coffee and a golden spoon

Tropicana's box: golden dragons and a trio of celebs

Britain's own (until recently at least) Cadbury's have jumped on the bandwagon with a Choclare dragon gift box.

I wonder where else we'd find examples of foreign firms adopting domestic chinese practices - we're investigating the possibility of interviewing for Beijing Banter one of the execs involved in Haagen Dasz's roll-out of ice cream moon cakes, one of their most popular (and profitable!) products in China.