During of one of the presentations, a sentence has struck me:
"Culture changes far more slowly than laws"The sentence was so strong yet so simple. It was so obvious (but we never really pay attention to those little details), some beliefs are so deeply rooted within one's culture that its existence does not seem to be questioned any more, even if it considered wrong in our time-frame's mentality.
So many examples are coming to me which fit this statement, but there is one issue in particular that I want to discuss in this post.
Shark fin soup has been considered one of the finest delicacy for Chinese, and in the earlier century, it was only served to the royal court of China. Now, everyone can savour this exquisite meal, but at a very high prize. The demand for shark has thus increased exponentially over the last years; fishermen are catching sharks, regardless of the specie, taking only their fins and just dump them bodies back into the sea. It is undoubtedly a very cruel practice.
A lot of people have been reporting and filming documentaries about the "inhuman" practices and the imminent devastating effects over the sea's fragile ecosystem. Here is a documentary featuring Gordon Ramsey, one of the most popular (and dreaded) chef from England. He decided to investigate this controversial dish.
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| Fisherman cutting the fins from a shark |
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| Tons and tons of shark fins drying |
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| Bodies of sharks discarded into the sea |
The link to the full movie: Gordon Ramsay: Shark Bait
After watching his documentary, I have some mix feelings about the way that he portrayed this issue. It is a fact that shark finning is wrong and should absolutely be banned. At the rate the demand for shark fins increases, there is no way to keep up with it without completely annihilate very single species of sharks in the oceans. So, I completely agree with him on this point.
However, I did not like how he depicted people from China as ostriches who bury their head in the ground to not see the reality of the events. He just casually asked a family who were eating at the restaurant (famous for its shark fin soup) their reasons for buying shark fin soup. As expected, their answers were very superficial; simply saying that it has a nice taste and that even if the price would go up, they would still eat shark fin soup (but less often)... Ramsay then generalized those sayings to the rest of China. One small bol of soup can easily cost 100 US$ and more; he expected the soup to have something exceptionally delicious and, to his surprise, the shark fin itself does not have any special taste to it... Even at the end of the documentary, he seems so oblivious of the connection between the dish and the Chinese culture; he just completely overlooked the importance of cultural context (which really frustrated me).
One has to acknowledge the Chinese history and philosophy in order to fully comprehend the popularity of this dish and its cultural meaning. It was during the Ming Dynasty that shark fin soup became a delicacy, and was only accessible to the emperor and his acquaintance since only a few cooks were skilled enough to prepare the dish. As a result, since only upper class individuals were able to afford such meal, it became a dish that represent wealth and financial success.
Asian culture highly values other's opinions and how they themselves are viewed by others. One cultural psychology concept that is very much related to this issue is called 'face'. Face could be defined as "the amount of social value others give you if you live up to the standards associated with your position". (Heine 2012, p.251) Heine, one of the most well-known researcher in the domain of cultural psychology, explains that to maintain and improve one's face, you can either try to work on any weaknesses that one could have which might interfere with one's face, OR "present oneself to others in a way that would enhance one's face". (Heine 2012, p.254) For instance, one can buy a luxury car or... invite people to eat shark fin soup at one the renowned restaurant. Another interesting aspect that could have lead to the increase of consumption; the fast economic growth of China might have inadvertently enhanced the demand for shark fin. As people are getting richer, they want their eating habit to reflect their financial success.
In sum, this controversial dish is a symbol of accomplishment, wealth and pride. As it is deeply rooted in Chinese traditions, people's habits and beliefs will not change over-night, even if they would see the most gruesome and explicit video of the shark finning practices.
One of my psychology teacher once told me that "humans are creatures of habit". We do not like to be out of our comfort zone, we enjoy and appreciate predictability. We feel a sense of safety with habits and especially traditions since they are the pillars that links us to our past. Here I am not saying that it will impossible to make the Asian population totally stop eating shark fin soup, what I want to express is that this transition will take time. The more people talk about this issue, the more people will aware, the more spread out the information will be. More and more young Chinese people are against consummating shark fins and the Chinese government is starting to take action to deal with the shark fin traffic.
It is a big step towards the preservation of tour fragile marine ecosystem.
Sources:
Heine, S. T. (2012). Cultural Psychology (2nd ed.). New York, US: W.W. Norton.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/130306/shark-fin-soup-endangered-species-wildlife
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/15/opinion/sonenshine-sharks
http://choateagainstsharkfinning.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-social-perspective-of-shark-fining.html
http://www.stopsharkfinning.net/shark-fin-soup-whats-the-scoop/
http://www.sharktruth.com/learn/history-of-shark-fin-soup/
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