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Chinese Officials Nervous About How China Might Look in 2008 Olympics. They May Have to Hide the Shark Fin Soup and Monkey Brains.
Xu Hongzhi, deputy to the National People's Congress and president of Peking University, expressed fear of how certain Chinese menu items might appear to foreign guests. Of particular concern are banquets featuring exotic wild animals dishes like bear's paw, swallow's nest, snake, monkey brains, and shark fin soup. Xu thinks that these items should be removed from the dinner table now to avoid offending foreign sensibilities come Olympics time.
Xu doesn't give a rat's ass about the environmental or ethical questions raised by such barbaric cuisine, he is concerned about China's national image. How the fuck is the world's next great economic powerhouse going to look when tourists from Beverly Hills and Lake Cuomo see them butcher golden retrievers in the street or serve endangered species for brunch?
A Chinese Man Helps Clean Up the Chinese National Image
I am going to give myself some credit and say that The Chum Slick has done more than enough to help trample the Chinese national image. I can't help it, animal abuse pisses me off. Sorry China, if you are going to keep on with your Shark Fin Soup I am going to have to keep on with the foot binding, sweat shop labor, dog meat, torture, spitting on the sidewalk, and whatever else I can figure out pisses me off about China.
I could go on and on, but I'm sure China will piss me off again soon so I will save it.
To Read more about Xu Hongzhi and his concerns go here--
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-6476836,00.html
Toot, Toot, goes my own horn,
--Sharky
technorati tags: China, Chinese food, Olympic Games, shark fin soup, dogs, endangered species
2 comments
I started off just pissed off about the shark fin soup. I thought the whole dog and cat eating thing was a rotten racist stereotype. Then I did a bit of research.
The reason I post pictures and stories about the doggies is because I figure it will get people to think about their eating habits as a whole. Since dogs and cats are more cute and cuddly then say sharks, they are a better attention getter. If someone can't feel empathy for a dog, how the hell are they going to feel empathy for a shark.
Sharks should not be eaten at all. If not for ethical reasons, for environmental reasons. There are about 85% less sharks than there were 30 years ago and a lot of that loss is due to finning. Since most of those fins are consumed in Asia, I pick on Asia.
Also--dogs, sharks, bears, tiger dicks(yes those are eaten too), snakes, apes, rhino horn...these are eaten in Asia or used in "medicines" because they are symbols of masculinity and virility. How can anyone support this kind of environmentally irresponsible behavior in the name of cultural relativity? Different strokes for different folks? Not in this case.
For China to defend this improper waste of endangered species on the basis of cultural relativity actually shows what a Nationalist country it is. It is OK to endanger the survivability of our oceans because eating Shark Fin Soup is our cultural imperative. But it is not OK to eat Panda Bears because Panda Bears are only native to China. Panda Bears are the national animal so they are protected.
Sounds like ages old Middle Kingdom supremacist descendants of the dragon bullshit...but that is just me, I'm just a Shark on the internet.
--Sharky
P.S....and don't get me started on American McDonald's culture, I'll be here all night.
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