China’s latest “bogus reporting” scandal involving steamed bread comes to an end with reassurances from the government that new food quality regulations regarding mantou (馒头) will not, after all, require the ubiquitous and famously variable buns to adhere to a single shape. Reuters via Canada.com:
State media hailed the clarification as timely and blamed the uproar on authorities for failing to communicate clearly and on local reporters for “sensationalism.”
“The episode offers something for the authorities to chew on — if the public was properly informed … such a situation may not have occurred at all,” an editorial in the China Daily said on Monday.[Full Text]
For background on the controversy, see Danwei’s excellent summary here.
As Danwei and Reuters both note, the mantou incident comes with memories of last year’s uproar over an allegedly fake story from Beijing TV about cardboard-stuffed dumplings (essentially mantou stuffed with meat) still fresh in the public mind.
[Image: Fried and steamed mantou, by Alexandra Moss via Flickr]
