“Fangbian” Meals: Chinese Youth Need Fast and Cheap Food

New enoVate member, Yuki, offers insight into a typical college student’s food shopping habits.

The post-80′s Chinese have a very different approach to food purchasing than their parents. With jobs and social lives taking up most of their time, Chinese youth are reluctant to buy fresh ingredients for the kitchen. They prefer eating out to cooking at home, and when they do make it to supermarkets, they are more likely to buy snacks and prepared food.

Eva Ma, a senior from Shanghai Normal University, represents many of her peers. She usually goes to a Hyper-market, like Carrefour, with her parents once a week. She buys snacks like chocolate, biscuits and some dairy. Sometimes she passes by the 24- hour stores to buy drinks, instant noodles, and kanto cooking (关东煮). But she said she never goes to a fresh market. Generally, the only time she eats home-cooked meals, is when her parents do the cooking. Otherwise, she orders food or goes out for a quick bite.

As in the West, our increasingly fast-paced, modern lifestyles have led to a surge in fast food consumption. Whether it’s those anonymous All-Days stews, or KFC sandwiches, as long as it’s quick and cheap, it’s fine by us.