Young Chinese consumers bringing more diverse dishes to New Year's Eve table

Young Chinese consumers are emerging as a major force in booking dishes for New Year's Eve dinner, according to a report by Chinese online food delivery platform Eleme.

Consumers born after 2000 account for 60 percent of those ordering dishes for the upcoming New Year's Eve on Eleme, putting hotpot and milk tea on their menus, said the report released on Jan. 3, 2023.

A customer buys pre-cooked dishes for New Year's Eve dinner at a restaurant in Shanghai on Jan. 6, 2023. (Photo/IC)

As the Chinese zodiac Year of the Rabbit approaches, food deliveries are gaining steam. The search volume for "family reunion dinner" on Eleme is 11 times larger than during the same period last year, according to the report.

The search volume for semi-cooked dishes, including eight-treasure rice pudding, which is a popular dessert in China, Fotiaoqiang, a traditional thick soup made of varieties of seafood and meat, and cured meat has increased by more than 30 percent from the previous month.

During the New Year holiday, pre-sales of New Year's Eve dishes rose by 56 percent from the previous month, with meal combos for four to six people receiving the most bookings, e-commerce platform Hema Fresh, Alibaba's fresh-food chain has found.

Nie Kexin, a woman from Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, who has just entered the workplace, said that this year she wants to prepare New Year's Eve dinner for her family, and believes that young people can find a balance between convenience and a sense of ritual. Apart from traditional dishes in Nanjing, she also ordered pre-cooked dishes of other styles online.