Bureaucratic standards and steamed buns

By QI GE

February 06, 2008

CHENGDU, China, On Jan. 1 China issued national standards for the preparation of steamed wheat buns, a popular food item throughout the country. The standards, which took effect the same day, stipulated the shape, quantities of flour and water, and even the packaging required in the production of these buns. However, the rules did not apply to buns made of buckwheat or other grains -- a fact that the public found confusing and odd.

Heading up the drafting of these national standards was a local enterprise in Henan province. According to this enterprise, it took two years to come up with the standards, and steamed buns are the only product among similar wheat products -- such as dumplings, meat buns and vegetable buns -- to have their own national standards.

Many people involved in the production and sales of steamed buns feel it is not only unnecessary, but ridiculous, to have uniform standards for such a common food. Steamed buns have been a staple food for thousands of years in China, and are mainly produced in workshops or by families. Making them has been considered an art, not an industry. Yet the authorities have defined this ancient art of cooking as an industry, and made an ill-conceived effort to standardize it.

In addition, to introduce standards without informing and consulting the professionals involved in the industry violates the definition and principles of setting standards. Furthermore, the question of whether making buns is an art or an industry is still unresolved. This should not go so far that people fear making buns at home just because they cannot comply with so-called national standards.

The purpose of setting national standards is to unify or regulate production or processes within a certain range. Standards are based on the combined input of science, technique and practical experience; they aim at obtaining the best order and social benefit, and are generally negotiated among relevant parties. Then they are approved by a governing body, issued in a specific form and followed as the common criteria. It can be inferred from regulations issued by the International Organization for Standardization that a standard is designed for an industry that mass produces items -- not for cooking.

An industry requires standardization, whereas the art of cooking is the opposite. Cooking places value on uniqueness and specialty. Will the government, after making this standard for buns, go so far as to set up standards for other common dishes like sliced cold radishes, fried Chinese cabbage, fried bread sticks, rice porridge and steamed corn bread?

If one argues that these standards for buns are for hygienic purposes, they should cover a much wider variety of products and be issued as food safety standards, not applied only to buns.

If such a common and tiny thing as a steamed bun requires national standards, what about the serious and big things such as national laws? What about, for example, the long-awaited News Law that has not yet been released? Does it make sense that these absurd standards for buns could be issued, whereas clear laws governing news reporting, which are required in a modern society, could not be produced? There are many similar situations in which issues requiring urgent government attention and early resolution were simply put aside.

Can the government embody and justify its slogan of taking a "scientific outlook on development" by simply generating bun standards? Is this scientific development? By contrast, why does not the government apply the scientific approach to development to the critical issue of the News Law?

Liu Binjie, head of the General Administration of Press and Publication, has encouraged the people to "use their wisdom"; why then does not the government sector use its wisdom and come up with the laws on reporting the news? Why does the government merely focus on a negative approach by restricting, suppressing and punishing people, rather than investing energy in a positive approach, by developing and constructing?

It is not only the issue of "standardization;" many other normal international practices have their color changed or their essence transformed when they come to China. The government seems to be good at making such surprising transformations and "innovations" -- yet it is inert in the face of urgent and necessary standards or norms that it should be quite capable of handling.

Even in something as fundamental as creating a legal system, the government has been able to diverge from original principles and take an opposite way. For example, the Constitution is supposed to restrict the power of the government and protect the rights of the citizens. Yet the government has turned it into a tool for the Chinese Communist Party to hold and monopolize political power.

The media is another example. The media should serve as a platform to deliver wide-ranging information to the public, as well as a useful weapon to protect the rights of the people and monitor the government. In reality, the government has made the media the voice of the authorities and a tool to fool the people and praise itself.

How can the government feel no shame in talking about system innovations? In fact, as long as they do not affect the autocratic rule of the CCP, standards or norms will mean nothing to the government, which will do whatever it likes. It can innovate on meaningless things like steamed buns, but not on serious issues. Its so-called political reforms may also turn out to be nothing but farce.

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(Qi Ge is the pen name of a freelance writer based in Chengdu, in China's Sichuan province. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org. ©Copyright Qi Ge.)

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