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=The Status and Gender Inequality of Bird's Nest=
A Class (philosophy) is a group of persons usually having the same interests. People with the same class usually have the same interests of goods. Class development is to form the image of goods to attract the class of target consumers. Since the class of products would strongly affect the target consumers, the class development is a very important process for the product marketing. The class of goods will not only affect the sales strategy, but also the price setting. The class of products can also set up the consumption rule and pattern of the product.

Status is a class position determined by the skills and educations of consumers. It is important because it would become the tradition and symbols of a group of persons. Moreover, since status is developed by the skills and educations of consumers, which remain unchanged. Therefore, the consumers will not change their consumption patterns.

Gender is the parallel and social unequal division into femininity and masculinity. The gender of goods mainly is based on the functions of goods and the popularity in the society.

Inequality means difference group of people usually have unequal rewards or opportunities for different individuals that are gender inequality. It is usually based on the difference class, status and gender.

General Description of Bird Nest

Edible bird nest is dried saliva of Apodidaeswiftlet which is harvested after fledging. Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia are major origin of bird nest. Bird nest be classified into two major categories, house nest and cave nest. House nest is built by swiftlet at wooden roof inside a house. The internal environment is dark and humid, similar to rock cave. House nest has less impurity and birds’ feather due to constant environment. House nest is divided into three color including white, yellow and red. White bird nest are softer while yellow and red bird nest are crisper. Cave nest is built by swallow on mountain cave, limestone cave and cliff. Cave nest is stiff and rough with more impurities than house nest due to varying natural environment.

Bird nest product available in market is mainly built from Aerodramus and Grass swiftlets which build house or cave nest and Feather Prime swiftlets which build cave nest. Nest from Aerodramus contain the least impurities, while nest from Grass swiftlet contain the most impurities, it is the cheapest among three kinds of nest. Three kinds of nests are processed to dried bird nest cup, strip, scatter pieces and cake which are commonly available in the market.

Dried bird nest are available in Chinese medicine store. Recently, dried bird nest is manufactured into instant bird nest soup with different flavor and ingredient like crystal and red jujube due to convenience for consumers. Instant bird nest soup is available in supermarket and some chain personal health and beauty retailer. Some specialty shops sell both dried bird nest and instant bird nest soup.

Price comparison

Bird nest used to be considered as a luxurious product which can only be consumed by high-income residents in the past. For the recent decades, bird nest soup is not just consumed by high class citizens but also the low class people. The main reasons for this change are because the income of citizens increased and the price of bird nest fall.

According to Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, the median of monthly earnings of an employed person is about 5,900 in 1985. The median increased gradually to 11,000 in 2011 which was raised more than 70%. It showed that the life standard of Hong Kong people become gradually higher and they have more spare money in spending in food. People are more willing to spend on relatively expensive products and bird nest will be one of the examples.

Price of bird nest was dropped compared with price in 1980. The main reason for this change is increased brand of bird nest. Before 1995, shops which selling bird nest is not common. There were only a few shops selling uncooked bird nest for sale and the numbers of customers are not large. The first retailing brand for bird nest was established in 1995 which is called First Edible Nest (盞記). The chance of understanding bird nest for Hong Kong people increased. Since the demand of bird nest increased, the supply also increased. Hong Kong appears Bird Nest retailing trend and lots of Bird Nest brands were built. Nowadays, more than fifty bird nest brands are providing services in Hong Kong. More and more products are available and it resulted the price fall.

Industrial trend

In the past, bird’s nests are harvested from caves and on the sides of cliffs. The production processes are slow and ineffective while the production output is small. To increase the production of bird’s nests in a more effective way, houses are built to keep swallow. The harvest time of swallow nest has increased to 3 times per year due to the height of the swallow nests and the difficulty in harvesting.

Normally, bird’s nest soup has to be cooked for hours, which is time-consuming. To deal with, instant bird’s nest soups are produced and are widely promoted with different flavors.

Production processes

Shaped bird’s nest:

1. Bird nests are harvested from caves or swallow houses.

2. Bird nests are collected to the production lines.
3. Bird nests are cleaned by hands with distilled water to wash away dust and sand.
4. Bird nests are soaked in hot water or in softener.
5. The strips on the bird nests are loosened and separated by hand or scissors.
6. The feather on the bird nests is removed by floatation and/or bleaching.
7. Bird nests are molded into desire shape or grade, and for freeze-drying.

Instant/bottled bird’s nest soup

1. Bird nests are soaked thoroughly
2. Bird nests are put in to a container with warm water covering them.
3. Bird nests are cooked with rock sugar and/or other ingrediants.
4. Bird nests are cooled down.
5. Bird nests are packed in bottles.

Factors affecting the price of bird nest

1. Industrial trend

The production of house swallow nests has increase the production, provided steady harvest period and lowered the harvesting difficulty of bird nest.

The increase of bird nest production leads to the increase bird nest products on market, which has then intensified the competition in the industry for bird nest in different shapes and grades. This help to force the businessmen to lower the price of bird nest and keep it at a steady price level.

The mass production of instant bird nest soup also helps in intensifying the competition in the bird nest industry, leading to a lower price of bird nest soup.

2. Production processes

The mass production of bird nests from swallow houses is the main reason for the lowered price of bird nests. As it provides more bird nest available on market, which has fulfilled the demand of bird nests, the competition for scarce bird nests has been less intense. The prices of bird nests are maintained at a steady price.

The advanced methods of bird nest molding have increased the ease of producing the top grade bird nests. This lowers the price for the bird nests of top grades. The molding of broken bird nests into different shape helps too.

The production of instant bird nest soup has similar effect on the price as the mass production of bird nests from swallow houses. Also, broken bird nests and flinders of bird nests are used most instant bird nest soup available on markets, which lower the cost of production and in turn the price of instant bird nest soup being sold in markets is lowered.

Evidence of the Change of Status – How People’s Perception Change Due to the Price and Production of Bird Nest

Eating bird’s nest in China has a long history. Chen Mao Ren, an official and famous writern Ming Dynasty, has record “bird’s nest” in his “Sennan Miscellany”. At that time, bird’s nest was very high-class food. In the past, the bird nest is collected from the wild shallow in some arduous hills in Southeast Asia. Due to the dangerous production processes and the high cost of transportation, it was for royal using, influential officials or bigwigs only.

However, due to the change of time, the class of bird’s nest is changed a lot, especially for the nearest thirty years. Before eighty, bird’s nest was sold at the specialty shop of bird’s nest. There were only un-cook bird’s nests sold. Bird’s nest was mainly cook as bird’s nest sour. Due to the high cost and the cooking process, it was only popular in the upper class. From many TV program, we can see that it was often a servant cook the bird nest for the master in the affluent family. Even ladies in the rich family would be jealous of the other’s bird’s nest.[1]In ninety, bird’s nest started to appear in some desserts such as bird’s nest egg tart. After this, the existence of the ready-to-eat bird’s nest further democratized the bird’s nest in the social. Nowadays, the bird’s nest has become the middle class food. In advertisement, it became a care to mother in the Mother’s Day.[2]

Gender Inequality in consuming birds’ nest soup

In the 21st century, Yan Wo is commonly included in cosmetic products as it has the effect of enhancing consumers’ skin quality and it is definitely not harmful to human’s health. The majority of female have become the die-heart fans of these types of cosmetic products as they help maintaining skin firmness and elasticity. Moreover, whitening effect on skin is one of the functions of Yan Wo. It is not surprise why female are willing to sacrifice lots of their income in purchasing these products.

In recent years, Yan Wo has became one of the best choice to Mother’s day gift or female friends’ birthday gift. Since Yan Wo provide lots of protein to renew and reform the skin structure, female not only love putting them on their faces (as cosmetic products), but also eating them. For women who have just given birth to their babies, they love to consume Yan Wo as it has high medical value which provides the loss of minerals during pregnancy.

Apart from the above phenomenon, bird’s nest soup actually benefit every single human, even male and kids as it provides lots of valuable minerals and substance for daily loss. But since the products emphasize on function towards skin care, female would become the majority who consume these products. And when purchasing Yan Wo tend to become a product for female to consume, male feel weird in consuming Yan Wo. This explains why Yan Wo become a feminine product.

In conclusion, bird's nest, normally recognized as ladies’ patent, is actually suitable for both men and women, from children to elderly. According to historical records, the imperial emperors after Qianlong treated it as a daily diet. In fact, a large number of famous gentlemen have the habit of taking bird's nest. However, the majority of consumers are still women since it is not so common for men to have bird’s nest among the populace.

Media

Nowadays we can see many advertisements introducing bird’s nest products on TV, magazines and posters to promote sales. This kind of media plays an important role in leading to the change of consumption of bird’s nest.

Target Consumers

For the industry of bird’s nest, the original target consumers are female who can afford such kind of expensive products since bird’s nest is natural recognized as the best food for women to maintain skin firmness and elasticity. However, with the development of economics of the society, the producers start to seek for potential consumers to enlarge their businesses. So male, who would love to pay for female and also want to stay young, become one class of main target consumers no matter buying the bird’s nest as a gift or for personal use.

How media advertisement lead to the change of status and gender inequality

In recent years, the sellers have also emphasized on the nutritional content and medicinal use of the bird’s nest apart from the function towards skin care. So, bird’s nest soup becomes truly accepted as beneficial to every single human, even male and kids as it provides lots of valuable minerals and substance for daily loss. There are a diversity kinds of brands selling bird’s nest, such as Brand’s (白兰氏) from Thailand, Dragon bird’s nest (龙情) fromIndonesia, Zhan Ji(盏记) from Hong Kong and so on. Take Eu Yan Sang(余仁生) for example, which established in 1879, changed its advertising slogan to “For a beautiful life and a heartwarming shine” in 2010 aiming to the whole family.

From here we can see that there is a great change of status and gender inequality. Bird’s nest is on the way to popularization with the lower price and more devise consumers.

Reference

http://programme.tvb.com/drama/thelaststeepascent/episode/20
http://orientaldaily.on.cc/cnt/lifestyle/20090507/00298_003.html
http://site.birdnestworld.biz/main/3076/index.asp?pageid=14043&t=birds-nest-cleaning
http://www.banyan-bird-nest.com/
http://funyeah.com/fun/photos/2007/Birds_Nest/