Beware when you receive mooncakes as a present from your subordinates or businessmen if you are a man invested with absolute authority. I do not mean these mooncakes are laced with poison, or you're running the risk of being reprimanded for accepting a box of ordinary dim sum. No, far from it.

The fact that these mooncakes, encased in an elaborately carved mahogany box, would have cost as much as 99,999 yuan (US$12,200), is likely to have you enmeshed in a corruption scandal. You'll have a long way to go before you are able to cleanse yourself of the stigma.

The fabulous price tag attached to the box of mooncakes might have caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised. How can eight such cakes have a price-tag equivalent to an automobile? Are they made of solid gold or precious stones? Yes, but not exactly. As one of them is actually made of gold, the other seven have ingredients made from exotic plants and animals, subject to meticulous selection and careful processing.

Similar cakes, some of which are of prodigious dimensions, have been produced elsewhere in our country, attesting to the fact that we Chinese are no less capable than foreigners of achieving an unprecedented level of waste, despite our limited per capita resources.

In fact, we, the breadwinners and pensioners as well, are little concerned about mooncakes being prohibitively expensive. We are just content to sit in front of the TV, watching the glamour and glitter unfold before our eyes as if they were from another planet, while consuming the plain mooncakes affordable to us.

In addition, bereft as we are of the top notch comforts and luxuries, we are also able to spend our time with limited means without showing any animosity towards the well-heeled.

The other day when I was strolling past a shikumen (stone-arched) building, strains of folk music arrested my attention. Out of curiosity, I peeped through the gate that happened to be ajar and found several elderly people strumming traditional musical instruments. Judging by their absorption in the performance, they must have found the small orchestra a haven, sufficient to spend the rest of their years in peace and quiet.

I presume, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the venue for celestial vocal and musical performance, must be a place beyond their reach. To obtain a ticket that is likely to set them back 600 yuan is as far-fetched as to spend the same amount of money on mooncakes.

If those who make up the upper crust of society were in the shoes of the underprivileged, even if just for a short period of time, it would be a better world to live in, I think.

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