China's Shark Fin Soup Ban Draws Contrasting Reactions on Weibo, Twitter

Friday, July 6 2012

China’s Shark Fin Soup Ban Draws Contrasting Reactions on Weibo, Twitter

Users of Chinese and Western social media speak out on an announced ban on consumption of shark fin soup at Chinese government banquets.

Read full story here.

[Quote from story]… Reactions on China’s microblogs have been far more vocal — amassing some tens of thousands of posts in one day, most of them very cynical.

“Shark fin is only one dish in the range of exotic delicacies in China. There are still bear paws, armadillos, birds’ nests, and monkey brains,” posted 老缅翡翠.

Lavish government spending on delicacies was also a great concern. 此时此刻Sun: “When they eat such delicacies as bird nests, they are eating from the blood and sweat of the people!”

Still, others were confused why it would take three years to implement the policy. 吕N帆 posted: “Why the heck would it take three years? Are you trying to eat the sharks into extinction before then?”

Some bloggers thought the policy won’t be enforceable, since there is so little oversight on government officials, especially on what they eat. 口香榶: “Whether they eat it or not, nobody can tell! What a farce.”

Still, others pretended the announcement actually was a farce — as Curious_蒋 wrote, “Okay we’ll stop eating shark fins. Just use them to rinse and gargle.”

- Glad to see these reactions coming out of China’s microblogging site, Weibo. Not because they’re cynical, because that all might be true, but because people are actually talking about shark fin, and having opinions on it, and not just accepting it as cultural tradition. For me at least, it’s a rare, albeit very limited (and media selected) insight into what today’s Chinese citizen thinks about the issue.