Colin Goh and Woo Yen Yen

The following was published in the Sunday Times on 2 December 2007:

Sunday Times 2 Dec 2007
Betrayed by my darling Maling
by Colin Goh

It now seems like every week, some made-in-China product is being recalled or banned for reasons of toxicity or unsafe manufacture. So far it hadn’t really affected me: dog food, Thomas the Tank Engine toys, Shir toothpaste and kohl eye shadow aren’t generally on my regular shopping lists.

But things finally hit home a few days ago, when I read how Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, after having detected traces of a banned antibiotic, had suspended the import of pork products from the Chinese factory which produces the Maling line of canned piggy comestibles.

“Noooo! Not Maling too!” I wailed to the Wife, adopting a pose very similar to the anguished soldier on the poster of Oliver Stone’s 1986 film, ‘Platoon’.

Maling had saved my life during my undergrad days in immediate post-Thatcherite England, when British cuisine bordered on violating the Geneva Convention. It was my first semester in London, and I was living in a students’ hall bordering Kings’ Cross, which at the time was known more for its community of junkies and hookers than being the place to catch the Hogwart’s Express.

I remember the night very clearly: it was around 11 pm and a bunch of us Singaporeans were itching to engage in that quintessential Singaporean pastime of ‘siu ye’ (late night supper). In our area, however, that meant either walking nearly half an hour in the cold and/or drizzle to Chinatown in Leicester Square, or patronizing the nearby kebab stands and chippies for greasy packages of mystery meat and fries that smelled not unlike the locker room at Wembley Stadium after the FA Cup.

We began reminiscing about Adam Road, Newton, Geylang and all the places back home where one could get a nightcap of prata or Hokkien mee. This didn’t help matters, as it only made us hungrier. Then one of us stood up and sighed, saying, “Okay, enough. I’m invoking the nuclear option.”

In response to our puzzled frowns, he opened up his wardrobe to reveal an entire shelf filled with cans of Maling stewed pork trotters and luncheon meat which his parents had mailed him. The rest of us felt like Indiana Jones uncovering the Lost Ark of the Covenant.

With some boiled rice, the salty, porky contents of those humble cans were like an airdropped Red Cross Care Package. My pantry has never been without a standby can of Maling since.

Now, however, instead of saving my life, it seems consuming Maling might actually jeopardize it, if consumed in significant amounts over many years – which is, um, precisely what I’ve done.

I couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed. I understand that the suspension in Singapore has led to reduced imports of other Chinese brands as well, not just Maling, and consequently, the hoarding of whatever pork products are left. But in New York, where I’m now working, there are still many cans of Maling on the shelves of my local Chinese supermarket – winking at me like some Jezebel.

I also began to feel angry at Chinese producers for being so cavalier about consumer safety, but then I started to question that impulse.

It’s not that I don’t believe that many Chinese products are toxic or defective. I’m pretty sure they are, and that we should expect many, many more scandalous revelations in the pipeline. So putting pressure on Chinese manufacturers is unequivocally a good thing.

But many American goods are also routinely found to be unsafe – certain pharmaceuticals and fast foods, for instance – and yet the outcry is far less vitriolic. To what extent this double standard is due to jingoistic, tactical or conspiratorial reasons, I don’t know. Certainly, part of the problem is that US corporations squeeze manufacturers to keep costs low in order to maintain low prices for domestic consumers – the so-called Wal-Mart strategy. But this also puts pressure on manufacturers to cut corners on product and labour safety standards, so they can preserve their margins. However, with the US presidential elections coming up, I doubt any of the candidates will be confronting the electorate with their complicity in global trade injustices. It’s far easier to blame foreigners.

“What’s a consumer to do?” I asked the Wife, also a Maling maven. “We can’t really rely on corporations, the media or politicians to tell us the whole truth about what we’re buying anymore, assuming we ever could to begin with.”

“We’ll just have to follow that fundamental law of nature,” she replied, a little sadly. “Everything that tastes good is probably bad for you.”

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