12/21/24
August 03, 2006
Yao the eco-warrior.: Yao Ming is coming out with PSAs against the Chinese delicacy of Shark Fin Soup, which can be described, at best, as controversial (somewhat squeamish info here). Additionally, he's teamed up with WildAid to discourage people from buying poached goods from endangered animals (direct .mp4 link to the english version of the commercial here)
posted by Ufez Jones to culture at 01:21 AM - 13 comments
Coinciding with Shark Week hopefully will increase the impact of Yao's announcement.
posted by garfield at 08:53 AM on August 03, 2006
Good on him.
posted by chicobangs at 04:00 PM on August 03, 2006
Word. Living where I do, and being a keen surfer, my policy has always been never to eat anything that might one day eat you.
posted by owlhouse at 05:56 PM on August 03, 2006
Hmmmm, living where I do, we generally eat anything that don't eat you first. On a more serious note, or, speaking of lost causes and outdated cultures, I think that the Chinese need to rethink their yen for consuming only "choice parts" of animals on endangered species lists, ie: rhino horns, bear gall bladders, shark fins, and whatever else gives 'em a hard-on and stimulates toenail growth. Hopefully, Yao can convince 'em McDonalds 1/4 pounders will do the same thing, and the reasons for "poaching " said animals will decrease dramatically.
posted by mjkredliner at 08:36 PM on August 03, 2006
Hear, hear. Sharks are, like, awesome and stuff.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:02 PM on August 03, 2006
I'd be a bit surprised if the Chinese only ate the fin and discarded the rest. The general approach to eating animals is that if it isn't bone it is meat and they cook and eat it. Parts that are discarded with little thought in the States are common dishes here. Good dishes, too.
Hopefully, Yao can convince 'em McDonalds 1/4 pounders will do the same thing, and the reasons for "poaching " said animals will decrease dramatically.No Quarter Pounders here, y'know, the metric system. Not called a Royale either, though.
posted by geekyguy at 01:24 AM on August 04, 2006
I'd be a bit surprised if the Chinese only ate the fin and discarded the rest. The general approach to eating animals is that if it isn't bone it is meat and they cook and eat it. Parts that are discarded with little thought in the States are common dishes here. Good dishes, too. Actually, that's exactly what happens. The fishermen remove the dorsal fin and let the shark sink to the bottom of the ocean to slowly die.
posted by willthrill72 at 08:29 AM on August 04, 2006
I'd be a bit surprised if the Chinese only ate the fin and discarded the rest. The general approach to eating animals is that if it isn't bone it is meat and they cook and eat it. Parts that are discarded with little thought in the States are common dishes here. Good dishes, too. While I think that's generally true as regards livestock animals, I think the situation WRT exotic animals is different, in part because many of these exotic-animal-bits are "harvested" outside of China and the other countries where they are consumed. Here's a link to an article about shark-fin fishing off the Galapagos, for example: the market for the fins is in China, but presumably there is no comparable market for shark meat in Ecuador, and the "harvesters" would rather fill their holds with highly profitable fins than less profitable whole carcasses...so they cut the fins off and toss the sharks back live (for the time being). Also, I know there have been cases in the United States, real sickeners, of "harvesters" capturing black bears and keeping them caged with spigots into their gall bladders so that they can drain the bear's gall, which is used in some medicinal preparation. More often, probably, they just kill the bear and keep the gall bladder, paws and maybe the hide. Good on Yao for doing this. The only real way to stop this kind of trafficking is to dry up the demand.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:34 AM on August 04, 2006
More on bear gall bladder milking. In this book, Anthony Bourdain talks a lot about hanging out in SE Asia (Vietnam and Cambodia, but not China) and how often he's presented with various bits of different animals and how they're supposed to "make you strong" (translation: give you a perma-boner). He didn't try the bear bile, but he did eat a still-beating Cobra heart.
posted by Ufez Jones at 09:07 AM on August 04, 2006
"if it isn't bone it is meat and they cook and eat it." Then why are the whole damn sharks going to waste? Tax, and ship, the whole friggin carcass to 'em, as well. Might balance our trade deficit with them.
posted by mjkredliner at 01:10 PM on August 04, 2006
'If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it' Our foremost diplomat Prince Philip at the 1986 World Wildlife Fund conference Of course he also said the following to British exchange students in Beijing 1986 'If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty eyed' Not the most balanced of contributors to this debate really, is he.
posted by Fourth Metatarsal at 08:09 PM on August 05, 2006
Lol.
posted by mjkredliner at 01:01 PM on August 06, 2006
Not being a basketball fan, I've no clue who Yao Ming is, but fair play for coming out against this. Killing sharks just for their fin has to be one of the most wasteful practices out there. I don't object to killing animals for food, but not when they are endangered, and you're only using such a tiny part.