Xi's price-war campaign creates buzz in China's stock market
The term 'anti-involution' has cropped up in government documents over the past year, but gained prominence earlier this month when President Xi Jinping chaired a high-level meeting that pledged to regulate 'disorderly' price competition. It refers to efforts to root out China's industrial malaise, marked by cut-throat price wars and overcapacity that have hurt profitability in sectors ranging from solar, new energy vehicles to steel.
Investors are hopeful that a more coordinated policy response to tackle the drivers of deflation is on its way, though Beijing has not yet released any plan. Analyst reports on the theme have flooded the market, while solar and steel stocks have rallied in July. Morgan Stanley strategists changed their preference to onshore shares from those in Hong Kong last week.
'One of the biggest issues that investors have investing in China is that of excessive competition,' said Tan Min Lan, head of the Asia-Pacific chief investment office at UBS. 'It's actually a very positive development that top down government is now recognising it, and directly saying that destructive competition has to stop. It's a powerful policy signal.'
' One of the biggest issues that investors have investing in China is that of excessive competition. It's actually a very positive development that top down government is now recognising it, and directly saying that destructive competition has to stop. It's a powerful policy signal. '
—
Tan Min Lan, head of the Asia-Pacific chief investment office at UBS
The Chinese term for involution, neijuan, literally means rolling inwards. In practice, it is used to describe a system of intense competition that yields little meaningful progress.
Huge spending on building capacity has helped Chinese businesses enhance their global standing. The nation's companies now dominate every step of the solar supply chain, while its electric vehicle (EV) makers have toppled Tesla's dominance. Yet, ending destructive competition has rarely been more important. Producer deflation is worsening, and trade tensions mean China can no longer unleash some of its overcapacity to other countries.
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'With foreign markets closing off Chinese trade routes, part of the competition is forced to return to the domestic market,' said Jasmine Duan, senior investment strategist at RBC Wealth Management Asia.
The campaign seems to be helping improve investor sentiment for the mainland market, where policy drivers have a stronger sway and industrial stocks have bigger weighting. The onshore CSI 300 Index has risen 2 per cent so far in July, outperforming the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index after lagging it for most of the year.
Solar stocks Xinjiang Daqo New Energy and Tongwei have advanced at least 19 per cent this month. Liuzhou Iron & Steel has surged more than 50 per cent while Angang Steel has gained about 16 per cent. Glass, cement and chemicals shares have also jumped.
It is still early stages but if the reforms pan out, 'there'll be consolidation in China and there'll be slightly better pricing and margins, and there'll be better valuation', said Wendy Liu, head of China and Hong Kong equity strategist at JPMorgan. Sectors that are likely to benefit include cars, battery, solar, cement, steel, aluminium and chemicals, she said.
To seasoned China watchers, the current rhetoric recalls the supply-side reforms of 2015-2018, when a government-led push to cut outdated capacity in sectors such as coal and steel helped drive up prices in the following years.
This time, however, key differences may limit the campaign's effectiveness. A decade ago, oversupply was mostly concentrated in upstream and construction-related sectors. It has become more pervasive today, encompassing the most promising industries of solar, EV and battery to downstream consumer sectors such healthcare and food.
Intensifying price war
That point is illustrated by the intensifying price war among technology giants listed in Hong Kong – China's private sector leaders. Shares in Meituan, Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com have slumped more than 20 per cent from their March highs as they jostle for delivery market expansion.
'This time, the overcapacity is concentrated in industries mostly dominated by private firms, so the challenges are going to be greater than when SOEs (state-owned enterprises) ruled and could just buy up the private firms and shut them down,' said Li Shouqiang, a fund manager at Shenzhen JM Investment Management.
Addressing the supply-demand imbalance will also require measures to reflate the economy by boosting consumption – a tall order the government has struggled to deliver on.
For now, investors seem hopeful that a bigger supply-side reform is in the offing. Morgan Stanley strategists said sentiment has improved with the government's message, and added they now prefer A-shares over offshore ones.
'When senior policymakers change some policy tone, there should be some actionable items or something to follow through,' said Louisa Fok, China equity strategist with Bank of Singapore. It will not be a quick overnight fix, but it is 'definitely positive' that the government is aware of the problems, she added. Bloomberg
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Business Times
2 hours ago
- Business Times
Why Americans and Europeans disagree about globalisation
BACK in 1999, when the euro was introduced, the lack of flexibility in Europe's labour market was widely expected to make responding to shocks more difficult. This fear was vindicated after the global financial crisis a decade later, when a real-estate boom went bust, leading to a sovereign-debt distress and prolonged downturns in the eurozone. The United States, by contrast, recovered from the 2008 crisis fairly rapidly. But the US has struggled far more than Europe to cope with another major economic shock: globalisation and China's emergence as an export powerhouse. In many ways, globalisation has presented a bigger challenge to Europe than to the US. Whereas US merchandise imports are almost exactly the same level as 25 years ago – 10-11 per cent of GDP – the European Union's imports have increased from about 11 per cent of gross domestic product to over 14 per cent. The challenge presented by China's rise, meanwhile, is roughly the same on both sides of the Atlantic. By 2023, both the EU and US were running trade deficits with China of about US$300 billion annually. Despite these similarities, narratives about globalisation differ sharply between the EU and US. Though direct comparisons of opinion polls are imperfect, owing to variations in phrasing and methodology, the basic message is clear: Whereas a large majority of Europeans believe that they benefit from free trade, most Americans think other countries have reaped more benefits than they have. US President Donald Trump has built his political career partly on these grievances – in particular, the narrative that free trade, especially with China, is responsible for the decline of US manufacturing and the struggles of displaced blue-collar workers in former industrial hubs. So, while EU leaders have remained broadly committed to trade openness – even European populists have not embraced protectionism – Trump is using the threat of tariffs to force countries into revised trade deals that are more favourable to the US. Disdain for free trade after manufacturing shrinks What accounts for this transatlantic difference? According to a landmark 2016 study, the increase in Chinese imports led to the loss of 2.4 million US jobs between 1999 and 2011, including nearly one million manufacturing jobs. A follow-up study by the same authors five years later found that, while the so-called China shock 'plateaued' in 2010-12, the affected areas were still struggling with 'deteriorated' levels of overall employment and earnings. While these findings might appear damning at first glance, context is important. The US has more than 160 million workers, and unemployment has remained at very low levels in recent years. Moreover, Trump received about 77 million votes in the last election – far more than the 2.4 million people displaced by the China shock. So, it was probably the general decline of manufacturing – which, as multiple studies show, has been driven largely by factors other than trade, especially automation – that caused Americans to turn against free trade. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up But Europe's manufacturing sector, too, has been declining – and, in many branches, the losses exceed those in the US. Over the last 20 years, manufacturing's share of total employment fell by about three percentage points in the US (from 13 per cent to 10 per cent); four percentage points in Germany (from 23 to 19 per cent); and five percentage points in France (from 16 to 11 per cent). Not all European countries experienced losses on this scale, but nor did all US states and regions. If the divergence in prevailing views on trade cannot be traced to a difference in the scale of labour-market dislocation, what explains it? One important factor might be that in Europe – particularly Germany – exports also rose, creating new employment opportunities for workers who had lost their jobs as a result of import competition. These workers did not even have to move, because the successful exporters could be located in the same regions as the industries in decline. Another key difference lies in the social-safety net and industrial structures in each region. Given America's higher level of industrial specialisation, workers are more likely to have to move for jobs in new industries. But the country's social-safety net is much weaker than those in Europe, making such moves – and adjustments to economic shocks more broadly – far more difficult, especially for unskilled, lower-wage workers. This helps to explain why, as Anne Case and Angus Deaton have documented, the US has endured an uptick in 'deaths of despair' (due to suicide, drug overdose and alcoholism), particularly among working class men, in recent decades. Family breakdown and a weakening of community ties might also play a role. When Americans and Europeans talk about globalisation, they are not talking about trade volumes or manufacturing job losses; they are also talking about institutions, social resilience and political narratives. Keeping this broader picture in view is essential not only to shape trade policies, but also to guide policy responses to economic change in an unstable world. PROJECT SYNDICATE The writer is director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
On the food trail in the Little Red Dot
Fast-food chain McDonald's opened at Liat Towers in 1979, and the headline in the Oct 22 edition of The Straits Times was 'Hi there, Mac!'. SINGAPORE - Singapore's gleaming skyscrapers, handful of world-class tourist attractions, and relentless efficiency make it an easy place for doing business and to visit on holiday. What gives the city soul, however, is its hopping food and bar scene. The Straits Times has played an outsized role in shaping the Singapore food landscape. After all, it has had to answer to, and exceed the expectations of, a nation of opinionated foodies. Russian Dressing and Sunshine Cocktail What did people in Singapore eat in 1845, when the paper made its debut? The Straits Times provides some clues, not in features or reviews, but in advertisements. On the front page of the first edition, July 15, 1845, is a tiny ad that reads: 'FOR SALE. Two Guzerat milch goats with three kids: all in excellent condition. Apply to the printer of this paper.' Goat milk, it would seem, featured in the diet at the time. On Nov 4 that year, & Co, 'wholesale and retail provisioners', located at No. 23 Kling Street, announces it has received shipments of a long list of food and drink. The goodies for sale include Wyatt & Co's English pickles, Finest Durham Mustard , Tart Fruits in Fine condition and Prime Wiltshire Bacon. Milk goats for sale on the front page of the first edition of The Straits Times and Singapore Journal of Commerce on July 15, 1845. PHOTO: ST FILE Food, if it is mentioned at all, is in a news or business context, with purveyors taking ads listing what they have to sell, and the paper tracking the prices of fish, vegetables and other food products. It is only in the 1930s that the first recipes appear. By this time, the paper has women's pages, focusing mostly on fashion and make-up. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore HSA intensifies crackdown on vapes; young suspected Kpod peddlers nabbed in Bishan, Yishun Singapore Man charged over distributing nearly 3 tonnes of vapes in one day in Bishan, Ubi Avenue 3 Singapore Public healthcare institutions to record all Kpod cases, confiscate vapes: MOH, HSA Singapore Man allegedly attacks woman with knife at Kallang Wave Mall, to be charged with attempted murder Singapore Singapore boosts support for Timor-Leste as it prepares to join Asean Singapore UN aviation and maritime agencies pledge to collaborate to boost safety, tackle challenges Singapore High Court dismisses appeal of drink driver who killed one after treating Tampines road like racetrack Singapore 18 years' jail for woman who hacked adoptive father to death after tussle over Sengkang flat The Sept 26, 1931, edition carries, at the bottom of a page dominated by a story about 'Bustles without the whalebones', recipes for Ice Fruit Drinks – Raspberry Soda; Grape Nectar, which calls for 'two breakfast cups of warm grape juice'; and Sunshine Cocktail, made with 'organes' (presumably oranges), lemon and apricot juices, and mint. The Sept 26, 1931, edition carries recipes for Ice Fruit Drinks – Raspberry Soda, Grape Nectar and Sunshine Cocktail. PHOTO: ST FILE This pretty much characterises food writing from the 1930s to the 1960s. Recipes are spotty, usually British or French. On Nov 10, 1940, below a story listing cosmetics king Max Factor's beauty tips, are recipes for Russian Dressing, Olive Sauce and Tomato Salad. In the first half of the 1970s, with the women's liberation movement that began in the late 1960s prompting more women to join the workforce, tensions in the kitchen reverberate in the food writing of that time. Some of this is captured in her Sunday column, Adventure in Food, by one Mary Kogan. On April 27, 1975, she tells the story of her outraged friend, a working woman, who has put a sign in her kitchen saying: 'The opinions expressed by the husband in this house are not necessarily those of the management.' She will only take it down when her husband agrees to help out in the kitchen. '...it does reflect the fact that woman's (sic) grievances are at least beginning to be taken seriously, and with new-found understanding', is Ms Kogan's rather optimistic view of the tension that still exists today. Shaping Singapore's foodie culture Foodies perusing the Sunday food pages from the late 1970s through to the early 2000s will see how much the paper has shaped their approach to and appreciation for food. It is a time of discovery and learning, for both writers and readers. After decades of treating food as a good-to-have at best and an afterthought at worst, The Straits Times starts getting serious about food in the late 1970s. Those European-centric recipes make way for Asian ones. Food journalism and restaurant reviewing become viable careers. The British journalists and editors who had run the paper make way for local staff, who edit the paper differently. Food writing takes on a distinctly Singaporean flavour. Instead of being preoccupied with what is happening in Europe, the focus moves to Singapore and Asia. When Japanese department store Yaohan opens its first store at Plaza Singapura on Sept 14, 1974, and its second in Katong on Aug 28, 1977, there are stories about its innovations. These include produce weighing machines that dispense stickers with the prices on them, and the soft Japanese-style bread – including the popular an pan that customers queue hours for – that has become ubiquitous in Singapore. A Japanese food fair at Yaohan at Plaza Singapura in 1980. Yaohan opened its first outlet in Singapore at the mall on Sept 14, 1974. ST PHOTO: CHUA PENG TEE When fast-food chain McDonald's opens at Liat Towers in October 1979, the headline in the Oct 22 edition of The Straits Times Section 2 is 'Hi there, Mac!'. The story, by one Anita Evans, has a picture of customers in bell-bottoms queueing up to order the burgers and fries that are part of the 'experience'. 'Hawker stalls were never like this. In McDonald's, a uniformed phalanx of teenage serving 'crews' produce uniform food of a uniform taste, colour and size by means of highly sophisticated computerised cooking machinery,' Evans reports. It is on July 29, 1979, that food writer Violet Oon makes her debut in The Sunday Times' Timescope, with a two-parter about eating in Thailand. In her weekly Pot Luck columns, she writes about eating in the Philippines, London and France, and also covers substantial ground in Singapore. Hawker food, posh food, ultra-luxe food, she offers a smorgasbord for readers to learn from. For years, former journalist Violet Oon was the most famous food writer in Singapore. After she stopped writing for ST, she went on to be a food consultant, and is now a restaurateur, with her Violet Oon Singapore brand. PHOTO: COURTESY OF VIOLET OON At around the same time, another food writer rises to prominence at the paper – Ms Margaret Chan, whose food reviews also run the gamut of high, low and in between. Alongside them are journalists such as fashion writer Lim Phay-Ling, who through the 1980s and 1990s would also write about food. These include a multi-page feature about Singapore kopi culture. Lifestyle writer Lee Geok Boi's recipes reflect the way Singaporeans eat – multiculturally, unencumbered by borders, and back then, with no concern about cholesterol levels. On July 16, 1989, she gives recipes for offal dishes – Dou Miao With Intestines, and Braised Tongue With Potatoes and Chicken Liver With Spinach Fettuccine, a trio that spans East and West. On Oct 28, 1990, she writes about using the right cuts of meat for classic dishes, with recipes for Pork Chops With Tomatoes, Pot Roast Beef and Sloppy Joes. Her intricate recipes come with few photographs, unheard of today. Readers want to see the finished product, at least, before committing time, money and effort into cooking and baking. In 1994, Ms Sylvia Tan , then an editor in the news section of the paper , starts writing her cooking column, Mad About Food. Her recipes, drawn from her travels and Peranakan heritage, resonate with readers despite having no photographs, only illustrations. For a new generation of budding cooks, her simplified Peranakan recipes are approachable, and written without the weight of a Nonya matriarch's expectations. From the 1980s, to reflect the population's aspirations, the paper has weekly columns about wine and other alcoholic drinks, helmed at various times by the likes of well-known wine experts such as Mr Ch'ng Poh Tiong, Dr N.K. Yong and Mr Edwin Soon. Buffets to omakase If the late 1970s mark the first peak of the paper's food coverage, then the paper hits peak food again on Sept 28, 2003, when the new look Sunday Times, with a new masthead and Lifestyle section, renamed from Life!, debuts. The Taste pages offer a buffet of stories – on disappearing foods like ah balling, sugee cake and lei cha fan and where to eat them; the increasing appetite for what is at the time exotic vegetables, including romaine lettuce, Truss tomatoes, portobello mushrooms and red radishes; and eateries selling bull, turtle and crocodile penis soups. Food features are also making it onto the Lifestyle cover. In the mid-2000s, with another revamp of The Sunday Times, there is even more food content. Feature stories cover the full taste spectrum. There are stories about healthier hawker food; old-school hawker food; grumpy hawkers; the multiple waves of bubble tea, Korean restaurants and hotpot restaurants; the rise of the home barista; primers on luxe food such as white truffles; inexpensive food in the Central Business District; the rise, and subsequent fall, of supermarket sushi; the rise and rise of high-end sushi; the growing appetite for tasting menus and omakase meals in restaurants; the obsession with Japanese beef; food fads – salted egg yolk croissants, rainbow cakes, and sourdough bread; among other things. Knowing what makes a Singaporean's heart beat faster, the paper comes out with Love Mee on April 15, 2007, a feature about instant noodles. It features 50 recipes from chefs and its food writers for how to cook this Singapore favourite creatively. It is later published as an e-book. On April 15, 2007, the paper published a feature on instant noodles. Chefs and the paper's food writers offered creative recipes on cooking the noodles. Straits Times Press later published this as a book, Cook Mee. PHOTO: STRAITS TIMES PRESS New columns come thick and fast. There is Singapore Cooks, featuring recipes by readers. Foodie Confidential, continuing on from the 2003 revamp, branches out to also feature chefs and bartenders. Other columns continue the mission of decoding food for readers. There is Cheat Sheet, offering primers on topics such as different varieties of bananas, durians, peppercorns and olives. Eater's Digest has writers taking turns to review cookbooks, cooking from them so readers know what books to buy or avoid. Reviews continue, with Mr Wong Ah Yoke anchoring the main restaurant review; several writers taking turns to unearth budget eats for Cheap & Good; and for a spell, Zi Char Review for belt-tightening times and Posh Nosh, a snack recommendation column, both helmed by this writer. The OG food influencers In American gang and later rap parlance, OG or Original Gangster describes a 'highly respected originator'. Before the flood of people self-identifying as food influencers, there are Violet Oon, Margaret Chan and Wong Ah Yoke. At the height of their power, they could make or break a restaurant or hawker stall, whether they want to admit it or not. Readers would turn up at the places they review, toting newspaper cuttings and ordering exactly the dishes they praise. Ironically, they hone their craft elsewhere before joining The Straits Times. Ms Oon gets her start at New Nation and The Singapore Monitor; Ms Chan at New Nation; and Mr Wong at The Singapore Monitor and in magazines. Ms Oon, 76, now a restaurateur, falls into food reviewing in the 1970s for New Nation, quite by accident. She says that at the time, with expatriate staff at the papers leaving their jobs, Singaporeans take over as editors. The paper's Eating Out column had been helmed by New Zealand-born Wendy Hutton, and she takes over it in 1974. There is some fanfare when Ms Oon debuts in The Sunday Times, with the paper announcing her arrival this way: 'Starting today, Singapore's favourite food writer in The Sunday Times...' Mr Wong joins The Straits Times as a sub-editor in 1992, and becomes part of a group formed in the early 1990s to review restaurants. They use the nom de plume, Mah Kan Keng, an approximation of Makan King. The reporters take turns to write the reviews, incorporating views from the others at the meal. Anonymity and tasting in a group would ensure fairness. Hilarity ensues when readers write in to Mr Mah, Madam Mah, Ms Mah and 'Dear Kan Keng'. The column hums along until, as Mr Wong, 64, puts it: 'The other writers had to do this on top of their other work and they dropped out one by one until I was the only one left.' Even then, he continues writing under Mah Kan Keng. It is not until March 29, 1998, that he has his first review printed with his byline, for a weekly column called Eats. His tenure as the food critic of The Straits Times continues until he retires in 2023. Straits Times restaurant critic and food writer Wong Ah Yoke with a framed copy of a customised Life cover when he retired in 2023 after 31 years with the paper. ST PHOTO: WANG HUI FEN Anonymity is not an issue with Cheap & Good, the other review column helmed by writer Teo Pau Lin for about a decade from 1995, and then by a series of writers from around the newsroom. She scours Singapore for egg tarts, laksa, rojak, vadai and Thai-style beef noodles, among other things. Ms Teo, 54, who leaves the paper in 2010 to start a cake business, says of her reviews: 'It always resulted in dramatic increases in business for the hawkers. The queues would be super long for at least a week or two. The hawkers would be overwhelmed and overworked, and I always made sure to warn them beforehand to get more manpower on the day the story comes out.' What accounts for the raging interest in food? 'It is an instant buy-in to sophistication,' Ms Oon says. 'To become sophisticated about art or dance would take years of study. But with food, anybody could be sophisticated. Every cabby can tell you where the best places are for steamed fish. A Prada bag costs $4,000. A prata is $2.' Ms Oon and Mr Wong say their training as reporters helps them in the early days. They widen and deepen their own knowledge about food in tandem with readers. Those early reviews, they say, are more reportage than critique. 'In those days, chefs would take you into the kitchen and show you things,' Mr Wong says. 'That's how I learnt. You never pretend you know something when you don't. The voice came later.' Both demur when asked if they can 'break' a restaurant. Mr Wong says: 'I wouldn't say that. I can affect their business a little, but not enough to shut them down.' But a bad review can have consequences, as the Katong laksa war of 1999 shows. The Sunday Plus cover story on Nov 7 by reporter Lea Wee is about four stalls in Katong claiming to serve the original version of the dish. Ms Oon, a food consultant at the time, tries all four versions and gives Original Katong Laksa, at the corner of Ceylon and East Coast roads, the best score. The Sunday Times' feature on Nov 7, 1999, about the laksa war in Katong. PHOTO: ST FILE Fast forward to the next Sunday, Nov 14. In a follow-up, reporter Karl Ho reports that business at two of the stalls Ms Oon pans is badly affected. One of the stallholders regrets talking to the paper . 'I beg you, tolong, tolong,' she pleads. 'Please don't write anything about me and my stall any more.' Today, it is commonplace for chefs and restaurant owners to talk about their craft in the media. Back then, it is not. The work of these, and other food writers in the paper , help to raise the profile of hawkers, chefs and restaurateurs in Singapore, making stars out of some of them. On May 8, 2005, Mr Wong's review is on Pu Tien, a restaurant in Kitchener Road serving Hing Hwa cuisine, from a small dialect group in Fujian. Cue stampedes to the restaurant for its homespun food. Mr Fong Chi Chung, 56, is the owner and he now presides over the Putien empire, with more than 100 restaurants, in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. There are 17 in Singapore alone. He says: 'I didn't know who Ah Yoke was back then. I wasn't English-educated so I didn't read English newspapers. The article about Putien was published around Mother's Day that year. Wow, the moment the article was out, the restaurant was suddenly packed! There was a huge crowd lining up outside the restaurant, and I was a bit shocked when I saw it.' Another discovery is Artichoke, a five-month-old Middle Eastern restaurant at Sculpture Square when Mr Wong reviews on Jan 23, 2011. It is now at New Bahru in Kim Yam Road. 'Business wasn't great. I could see my bank account dwindling, and we had maybe a runway of four, five months to tahan or close in under a year,' says owner Bjorn Shen, 42, using the Malay word for endure. He says the restaurant starts getting calls from people wanting reservations when the review comes out. 'The snowball started rolling from that day onwards,' he adds. 'It gave more people the chance to try our food. Most people liked the food, and that gave us the confidence to continue doing what we were doing.' Everybody's a food critic Anyone with a smartphone and an Instagram account can be a food critic now. Restaurant publicists invite them to media events and tastings, alongside legacy media. The publicists hand out 'tasting notes' of the meals, to make it easy for influencers to put together content. The Straits Times food writer today has a lot more competition. But she has all the tools that influencers have – smartphones, social media accounts, name recognition; and some that they do not – hard-driving bosses who question facts and story angles, and demand sharper reporting; newsmakers who flag errors or retaliate against unflattering copy; readers who hold them to a higher standard than they do influencers, and who have no qualms about calling out lax reporting or bad judgment. Food writer Cherie Lok, 27, a January 2024 hire, says: 'I've come to realise that our responsibilities are manifold. We need to track industry news, illuminate issues, highlight key personalities, entertain with punchy, vivid writing, and tell people what's worth eating. 'That last bit is particularly hard to do in an era where everyone has an opinion on food and a platform through which to broadcast it. The kind of trust that readers place in veteran writers like Ah Yoke isn't easily earned and can only be built up with time.' Ms Eunice Quek, 38, social media editor at Life, is tasked with growing ST Food's social media accounts. The one on Facebook has 61,000 followers, and the one on Instagram has 24,000. She has been a food writer since joining in 2009, and remembers the food writer pep talk. 'Responsibility to readers, to always try to approach a story from the consumer's point of view,' she says. 'To cover all ground. Legwork is of the utmost importance. Where possible, taste the food that we write about, visit the locations to have a sense of place.' She starts reviewing for Cheap & Good in 2011. 'It was very exciting for me but I also knew that with great power comes great responsibility,' she says. 'I became a lot more mindful and careful with what I wrote, as it was a reflection of myself, and could make an impact on the businesses.' This is something she hews to when it comes to her social media strategy. 'Featuring food first, nothing too clickbaity,' she says. 'The posts must be a fair representation of the stories everyone writes. Everything is 'very ST'. But I do try to have some fun with captions and photos while remaining 'very ST'.' That sense of responsibility food writers never shrug off stands them in good stead. Putien's Mr Fong says: 'I believe that credible media figures are trustworthy, so I don't think their influence has diminished. Their credibility is built from years of accumulated expertise and unique writing skills that enable them to write engaging stories and gain loyal readers.' The next course The launch of the Singapore Michelin Guide in 2016; the multiple waves of celebrity chefs from overseas opening restaurants here; the rise of the Singaporean chef, food fads, food feuds; the rise of private dining businesses; the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on restaurants – the work of pointing readers in the direction of good food, of showing them the length and breadth of the food scene here, continues. Through the years, a clear pattern emerges. Food trends, peaks and troughs, they happen in cycles. The food scene has had one of its worst years in 2024, with diners deserting restaurants, preferring to save their strong Singapore dollars on post-Covid wanderlust. Of course, it has happened before. In the Feb 1, 1998, edition, in the thick of the Asian financial crisis that began in 1997, Sunday Plus runs a story about how fine-dining restaurants have been hit. It lists a number of such restaurants that have shuttered, and how the ones still open are lowering their prices. That story sounds eerily like the ones in the paper in 2024. The story quotes chef Justin Quek, then managing director of Les Amis, saying: 'Our New Year's Eve menu last year was priced at $265. In 1994, we charged $1,000. We can't do that any more. We want to be friendly to the market.' That strategy still works today. Chef Joel Ong, 37, co-owner of Enjoy Eating House, a casual restaurant in Stevens Road, says: 'If we provide good value to our customers, there is a higher chance of them returning or recommending us to their social circle.' What he says applies to food coverage in The Straits Times. Value is a loaded word. For some, a fast-food meal represents good value – burger, fries and a milkshake – served fast and efficiently. Food coverage can be that way. In its history though, The Straits Times has chosen another route. Call it the hawker route. It is not uniform and consistent in taste, colour and size. Instead, it is many-splendoured in its variety, and in its ability to adapt and change to suit the circumstances of the day, to meet the expectations of its readers. That is how it has been able to appeal to the soul of a nation obsessed about food. In good times and bad, through lean years and fat, people gotta eat. In good times and bad, through lean years and fat, The Straits Times shows them how, where and why.
Straits Times
2 hours ago
- Straits Times
‘Okay for us to get wet, but not the newspapers': Man who ran delivery business for over 40 years
SINGAPORE – For most of his life, centenarian Abdul Gafoore placed his family before all else. It was why he left Tamil Nadu for Singapore in 1946 at the age of 22, to earn money to send home to his parents and four siblings. It was also why he delayed marriage until he was 36, after his brothers and sisters were settled. Mr Abdul, who will turn 101 in August 2025 , ran a newspaper delivery business and a provision store for more than 40 years. They brought him stability, but demanded long hours and discipline. 'Rain or shine, the newspapers had to be delivered by 7am every day. If it rained, it was okay for us to get wet, but not the newspapers,' says Mr Abdul in Tamil, with sons Mohamed Ali Gafoor and Ismail Gafoor translating . 'That's how demanding the newspaper industry was,' he says. 'If you were not feeling well, somehow you had to finish the job, then take care of your body.' Even the compensation from injuries sustained while on the job went to his wife. In 1980, a Japanese tourist opened the door of a taxi and accidentally hit Mr Abdul as he rode past on his motorbike stacked high with newspapers. The tourist gave him $100, which Mr Abdul used to buy a gold coin for his wife. She still has it today. He and his wife of 65 years, Madam Maharunnisabi, 79, have a daughter and five sons, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. One son, Mr Burhan Gafoor, 59, is Singapore's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. Another, Mr Ismail, 61, is co-founder and chief executive of real estate giant PropNex. Mr Abdul's first job as a grocery shop assistant in Joo Chiat earned him $30 a month. 'In those days, $30 was big money,' Mr Ismail says. 'He would save up two months of pay, convert it to Indian rupees and send back 100 rupees every two months to his family.' Mr Abdul's journey in newspaper vending is deeply interwoven with Singapore's media history. In 1955 , he took over the distributorship of about 100 newspapers from a vendor who had returned to India. With savings and a few hundred dollars borrowed from moneylenders, he opened a kiosk in Nemesu Avenue in Upper Thomson to sell newspapers, magazines, drinks and daily necessities. He also made deliveries. Within two years, he was selling 300 newspapers daily. In 1960, he married Madam Maharunnisabi. As their family grew, he started a provision shop at Block 56 Lengkok Bahru in 1972 to supplement his income. His routine was relentless. He rose at 3am to collect newspapers – The Straits Times, Chinese dailies and Tamil papers – from locations like Cecil Street, Robinson Road and Times House in Kim Seng Road. He delivered in Sembawang until the early 1960s, and then in Bukit Merah until 2000. His sons helped him do 4am delivery runs. 'By 6am, we would go to school but our father would continue distributing until 7am,' recalls Mr Ismail. Mr Abdul would man his provision shop until 11am, when he would return the previous day's unsold newspapers to Times House, settle payments, and collect afternoon publications New Nation and later The Singapore Monitor to be distributed. By the time he was done at about 2pm, he would head home for a quick lunch and an hour's nap before returning to his provision shop by 4.30pm, close up at 9pm, count the day's earnings, get home by 10pm, have a late dinner and be asleep by 10.30pm. 'This was his routine 364 days a year until he retired,' says Mr Ismail. The only holiday was on Boxing Day when there was no publication of newspapers. When he started, Mr Abdul earned a 20 per cent commission on the 100 papers he distributed, which came to about $4 a day or $120 a month. As his distribution rose to 300 papers a day, he hired help and earned about $200 net a month. Mr Abdul retired in 2000 at 76, handing the business to his son, Mr Mohamed. At the time, newspaper subscriptions and circulation were still strong, declining only after 2010, with the rise of digital media. Mr Mohamed grew the business from 1,000 to between 2,500 and 2,700 newspapers a day. But in 2015, he sold the business due to manpower shortages. 'My children were grown up and had no time to help with the business,' says Mr Mohamed, 63, who is now associate branch director at PropNex. His seven part-time deliverymen at the time worked from 4am to 7am. 'It wasn't easy finding people willing to do this work.' Mr Abdul with his wife, Madam Maharunnisabi, and their sons, PropNex associate branch director Mohamed Ali Gafoor (left) and PropNex co-founder and chief executive Ismail Gafoor. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH One change the family welcomed was the decentralisation of newspaper distribution. Instead of hundreds of vendors converging at a few central locations to collect the papers, newspapers from Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Jurong printing plant were dispatched to hubs across the island. This made route planning more efficient and reduced delivery delays. 'In the early years, hundreds of vendors would rush to the one or two central collection points. Everyone wanted to be the first to collect papers because they didn't want to be late with deliveries,' says Mr Abdul. Mr Mohamed's hub was at Delta Swimming Complex. 'Only about 10 vendors picked up papers there. It was so much easier,' he says. Mr Abdul also built a friendship with SPH's first chief executive, Mr Lyn Holloway, who died in 2019 at 90. They met in the mid-1970s when Mr Abdul was invited to Mr Holloway's home near Orchard Road as a representative of the news vendors. Mr Abdul voiced vendors' concerns, especially delays in printing, which disrupted deliveries. 'Everyone wanted to deliver by 7am. Everyone had a second job to get to, or school to attend. Every time there was a disruption in printing, the vendors would squabble over who got priority in getting the papers,' says Mr Ismail. Another issue Mr Abdul raised was commission, especially when SPH launched new weekly magazines or additional supplements requiring extra delivery runs. Before going on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1982, he invited Mr Holloway to a reception. Though Mr Holloway couldn't attend, he sent Mr Abdul a set of Times Publishing cups. One remains intact and Mr Abdul still uses it for his morning coffee. 'My family is thankful to SPH and congratulates The Straits Times on 180 years of business,' says Mr Abdul. News vending made a difference to many Indian immigrants who didn't have much hope when they arrived in the 1940s, he adds. 'It was a catalyst that made a difference in our lives and those of our loved ones back in India.' The Gafoor family views the newspaper business as a proud legacy. It also enabled them to give back to Mr Abdul's home town of Kodavasal in Tamil Nadu. Mr Abdul donated his entire wealth to social causes there, transforming his 45,000 sq ft home into a religious school for women with more than 300 students, and funding a mosque, community hall and clinic. 'My younger brother Burhan was still delivering newspapers in 1988, the same year he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,' Mr Ismail adds, chuckling. 'We were all newspaper boys.'
