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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发现，找工作或缴房租比以往任何时候都更难了，但在廉价食物方面，党在为他们解决后顾之忧。
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.
在优雅繁华的上海静安区，从高档餐厅、五星级酒店到便利店，近200家餐馆开始为办公室一族提供打折午餐。另一个区甚至用免费下午茶来招待这些疲惫的工薪阶层。毛泽东时代的“铁饭碗”（有保障的终生就业）似乎已变身为“铁茶杯”。
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.
静安区政府给人们营造的印象是，高档餐饮场所积极要求加入该午餐工程。实情或许是：自中国政府下令进入厉行节约的新时代以来，高档餐厅的日子就不再好过。
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.
但打折午餐的售价大多等同或低于成本，因此这些餐厅很难用打折午餐的收入弥补自己在政府宴席上的损失。200名工薪族带来的午餐收入可能仅相当于之前一桌慷慨饮宴的公费酒席。毫无疑问，在保证白领营养方面让政府如愿以偿在政治上是精明之举。但只有让花15元人民币（合2.45美元）吃一顿普通午餐的打字员愿意花150元人民币到同一家饭店享用晚餐，才是经济上的精明之举。
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.)
位于上海最繁华街道南京西路上的五星级酒店——锦沧文华大酒店(JC Mandarin Hotel)表示，区政府要求其加入午餐工程，酒店方面本着服务社区的精神也愿意这么做。因此从上月开始，这家豪华酒店大堂的一角变成了一个职工食堂，（以成本价）向附近写字楼的70名到100名职员提供每份38元人民币的午间套餐，而这些套餐平日售价88元。（大多数的“白领午餐”成本在10元到30元之间，但豪华酒店要价高达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点半，都会有人排队购买上海小南国(Shanghai Min)售价15元的白领套餐。小南国是该市历史最为悠久的一家连锁餐饮店。在附近工作的电影制作人冯宇豪（音译）说：“这家餐馆经济、干净，服务也好，每餐还有水果。唯一的缺点是人太多了，要排10到15分钟的队。”菜单的灵感也许直接来自于习近平提出的“四菜一汤”的政府用餐新标准。
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.)
在南京路的另一头，是更为简朴的“社区食堂”。我常常在这里吃午饭，享用自己的四菜一汤。与光顾这家食堂的其他形形色色的办公室职员和退休老人一样，我也拿着自己的饭盆或特百惠(Tupperware)饭盒，仅仅花上5到8元人民币，就能装上满满一饭盒肉、鱼、米饭和臭豆腐。在拥挤的餐桌边，人们谈论的话题往往是，“姆妈”政府提供了这么便宜的伙食，而且就餐地点离家或办公室这么近，大家是多么高兴（在菜单上没有臭豆腐的日子里，我往往会更加感激。）
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，这也并非完全像听起来那样是铁饭碗：静安区的政府官员说，在该区25万白领（2007年午餐工程刚启动时是10万人）中，有70%定期在参加午餐工程的餐馆就餐。但该工程的目标不仅仅是填饱辛劳的工薪族的肚子：它还帮助静安区与试图将投资从上海吸引走的二、三线城市竞争（即使没有党的帮助，后者的午餐也很便宜）。而且政府乐见民众花钱：因为促进消费是其拯救中国经济的计划。
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.
鉴于午餐工程极受欢迎，静安区目前已开始在某些地方增加下午茶。而另一个区虹口区，从上月开始提供免费下午茶，以此促进办公室职员间的交流、打破职场隔阂。组织者说，他们可能还会主办关于健康、营养、爱情和婚姻的讲座。
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?
最终走向会如何？上周，中国国家主席习近平继呼吁政府厉行勤俭节约之后，又建议干部们“照镜子、正衣冠、洗洗澡”（还有些别的）。五星级酒店会开始向任何持有党员证、希望在工作时间内洗澡的人提供钟点房吗？
Maybe that explains the results from a Pew Research Center survey that found 88 per cent of Chinese feel good about their economy.
这或许可以解释，为何皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)的调查会显示88%的中国人对经济感觉良好。
