Starbucks takes Dragon Boat-ride to zongzi

When Western companies first came to China they thought they would get rich if they could sell just one of their supposedly exotic items or dishes to every Chinese. They may not have been wrong, but that business model has changed.

Now, those companies are trying to sell even the most Chinese of products to Chinese to make money. Blame it all on the global economic crisis and the shrinking markets of the US and Europe if you like.

So now you have Starbucks selling zongzi (glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in reed), a delicacy served during Dragon Boat Festival, which this year falls on May 28.

Zongzi owes its origin to folklore. Poet Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu (during the Warring States Period) committed suicide by jumping into a river on the fifth day of the fifth month after the Qins captured the capital of the Chu's. The poet's admirers threw crushed rice into the river and paddled out on boats to prevent the fish from feeding on his body. That gave rise to zongzi and the festival.

Starbucks has been selling dumplings, simply called "the sweets", since mid-April. The trial began in the Yangtze River Delta area, including Shanghai, and Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, where Starbucks has the largest number of its outlets in China.