Those Environmentally Concerned Chinese

[xoxoxoBruce]

The Chinese culture, ingrained for thousands of years, is to eat almost anything that is safe.... and cautiously eat things that aren't. They have not been groomed by environmentalists, either. That's the last Ring Eared Flopsy on earth?... well we better eat it before someone else does.
They are not used to a surplus of food and not worrying about what they will eat next year, month, week.

A slow accumulation of disposable income would naturally quell the desire to blow it on luxuries, but the sudden influx of money from walmart has allowed them the flexibility to sample exotic critters, only rich people had before.

What struck me as telling was;

The animals - which weighed 13 tonnes - were taken to port, doused with water and sent to an animal welfare centre. "We have received some animals," said an office worker at the Guangdong Wild Animal Protection Centre. "We are waiting to hear from the authorities what we should do with them."

Even the professional animal rescuers, don't seem to have natural instincts, to save these animals. They have to wait for orders. Sad.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

The Chinese culture, ingrained for thousands of years, is to eat almost anything that is safe.... and cautiously eat things that aren't. They have not been groomed by environmentalists, either. That's the last Ring Eared Flopsy on earth?... well we better eat it before someone else does.
They are not used to a surplus of food and not worrying about what they will eat next year, month, week.

A British born Chinese friend told me his Dad (Chinese born) said the Chinese had eaten every kind of meat in the 20th century. Yes, that does include human.

It's under 50 years ago that millions of Chinese people starved to death during the Great Leap Forward - some estimates put it as high as 30 million. To put that into context, approx 60 million people worldwide died as a result of WWII. And the Great Leap Forward (and ensuing chaos during the Cultural Revolution) was more recent.

It's sad, but I can understand it.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, I think there has been a food shortage, someplace in China, since the beginning of time. The country is so big and the weather so diverse, crop failures are assured someplace, every year. In an agrarian society, that means somebody will be hungry.