China dad rejects daughter's US$72,000 wedding banquet bill, citing high costs, subpar food
A pork vendor, surnamed Wang, in eastern China's Zhejiang province said the boss of a local company, surnamed Qian, commissioned him to prepare food for his daughter's wedding banquet in April.
Wang said he dedicated himself to the task as he had known Qian for more than a decade.
He provided the pork, contacted seafood vendors in another city in Zhejiang and bought premium ingredients such as king crab, Australian lobster and leopard coral trout.
Out-of-pocket pork vendor Wang said he kept the father of the bride fully briefed about what he was buying and how much it cost in the run-up to the wedding. Photo: Shutterstock
The wedding was during China's May Day holiday, meaning the price was a little higher than usual.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
22 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
China's mega dam Xiluodu stops using Western industrial chips over security concerns
China's Xiluodu Dam – one of the world's largest hydropower stations – has fully transitioned away from Western-made industrial control chips over national security and supply chain resilience concerns, according to a leading Chinese industrial chip supplier Loongson Technology said that the dam, located on the Jinsha River at the junction of the southwestern Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, had replaced long-standing foreign 'programmable logic controllers' (PLCs) – from German giant Siemens and French firm Schneider Electric – with a domestically developed system powered by fully home-grown Loongson 3C6000 processors. The change follows growing alarm over vulnerabilities in industrial control systems – highlighted by historic cyberattacks via computer worms like the Stuxnet virus, which allegedly exploited Siemens PLCs to sabotage Iran's nuclear programme more than a decade ago. The South China Morning Post has reached out to Siemens and Schneider for comment. Xiluodu is the third-largest hydropower station in China, after the Three Gorges Dam and the Baihetan Dam, and the fourth-largest in the world. With nine units of 770 megawatt turbine generators on each bank, it has a total installed capacity of 13.86 gigawatts.
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong stocks extend solid run on Tencent earnings, China money-supply data
Hong Kong stocks on Thursday extended the gains from Wednesday's highest close in three weeks, as better-than-expected earnings by Tencent Holdings added to signs that China's economic activity is picking up. The Hang Seng Index rose 0.3 per cent to 25,700.51 as of 10.11am local time. The Hang Seng Tech Index gained 0.5 per cent. On the mainland, the CSI 300 Index climbed 0.9 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.5 per cent. Tencent, the second-biggest weighting on the Hang Seng Index, gained 1 per cent to HK$592. Semiconductor Manufacturing International advanced 3.8 per cent to HK$54.05 and Anta Sports Products added 2.9 per cent to HK$92.60. Second-quarter net income for Tencent rose 16 per cent from a year ago to 56 billion yuan (US$7.8 billion) based on the global accounting standard, the social-media giant said on Wednesday after the market closed. Sales increased for the 11th quarter, with a 15 per cent increase. Investors also took comfort from data on China's money supply. M1, a measure of cash in circulation and corporate demand deposits, rose 5.6 per cent last month from a year earlier, the fastest pace since February 2023, according to a report released by the central bank on Tuesday. An increase in M1 typically points to an improvement in economic activity.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Chinese cosmetics challenge global brands with affordable allure
China's mass-market beauty products are gaining traction overseas, undercutting established brands on price – a trend that could help upstarts challenge the industry's biggest names. In the first half of this year, China's cosmetics exports rose 12 per cent year on year to 18.7 billion yuan (US$2.6 billion), according to customs data. The US, UK, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Japan were the top export destinations, the data showed. Meanwhile, overseas sales of Chinese beauty products on AliExpress doubled in the past year, with Europe, Mexico, Brazil and Japan emerging as some of the top-performing markets, according to the cross-border e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba Group Holding, which also owns the Post. The company did not provide additional data. A McKinsey survey in June found that 63 per cent of consumers did not think premium brands were better than mass brands – a shift that has helped grow the global market share of mass and 'masstige' skincare and colour cosmetics by 5 and 4 percentage points, respectively, over the past five years. Eyeshadow, eyeliner, lipstick, blush, lip pencils, lip gloss, highlighter, concealers and foundation are some of the products that fall under colour cosmetics. 02:00 Heavy metals found in 80% of eyeshadow items tested by Hong Kong consumer watchdog Heavy metals found in 80% of eyeshadow items tested by Hong Kong consumer watchdog 'Consumers may still consider beauty to be an affordable discretionary item, but that doesn't mean the industry should take the 'lipstick effect' for granted,' said the US consultancy. It also noted that as many as 24 per cent of consumers reported trading down to cheaper beauty products since June last year. In Southeast Asia, this trend is playing to China's advantage. Affordable Chinese skincare and colour cosmetics were expanding 'aggressively' in the region and were expected to cause 'the strongest disruption' to local players and global incumbents alike, while leaving the premium segment largely untouched, according to a Euromonitor report in July.
