FWD: SARS and Cantonese Cuisine

[Guest guest]

May 2003

Houston Chronicle

 

SARS and Cantonese Cuisine

 

The breakout of SARS in China's southern Guangdong

(also called Canton) Province is thought-provoking.

This is the fastest growing province renowned for the

Cantonese Cuisine, one of the four major culinary

sub-cultures in China. Cantonese dishes boast exquisite

presentation, palatable taste, outrageous and often

distorted " creativity. " It is this last trait that is

troubling people in other parts of China and the

outside world.

 

In being creative, some local chefs go out of their way

to prepare the most exotic and shocking banquet with

" delicacies from the mountains and the sea. "

 

It is not a secret that Cantonese eat everything. A

quite sarcastic saying in China goes like this: the

Cantonese eat anything that has wings except the

airplanes, and anything that has legs except the table.

According to the Animals Asia Foundation, a Hong

Kong-based organization devoted to helping animals in

distress throughout Asia, truck loads of live animals

(wild, exotic as well as companion such as dogs and

cats) are daily shipped from all directions to Canton.

 

Local restaurants compete with one another bragging of

their ability to satisfy the most bizarre taste. Like

its manufactured products, the Cantonese culinary

subculture is spreading to other provinces. In southern

Kiangsi Province bordering Canton, local Communist

Party officials reportedly love a special dish prepared

with the endangered owls.

 

A more grotesque appetite is growing among the

middle-aged men in nearby Fujian Province. Instead of

using Viagra, they flock to restaurants that serve cat

meat. The word going around is that cat meat can cure

male impotency and boost sex drives. The imaginative

side of the Cantonese cuisine is like a prairie fire.

 

Politically, restaurants in Canton that serve exotic

animal food products are violating Chinese laws. Wild

and companion animals, shipped from other provinces and

from Vietnam, are often sick when they arrive in Canton

after long journeys under the hot sun. Many of the cats

had been strays feeding on animal corpses before they

were caught. These creatures are not food, but huge

health hazards.

 

Suspecting that SARS' virus was from non-farm animals,

the Chinese government last week raided restaurants in

south China and confiscated more than 70,000 wild

animals, many of whom were state protected endangered

species.

 

Environmentally and psychologically, the hundreds of

restaurants in Canton that serve exotic food are a

ghastly scene. The backyards of many of them are

butcher sites with blood streams flowing aimlessly into

and contaminating the nearby rivers, ponds, and even

wells. Since the slaughtering is often conducted in the

open space, young children are exposed to dog and cat

whining at the sight of the butcher knife.

 

The " creativity " of the Cantonese cuisine is ruining

China's wild life and that of China's neighbors such as

Vietnam. Bear paws are still sought after by local

restaurants. Cruel and crippling traps are therefore

used to catch bears and other animals, posing a huge

threat to both animals in the wild and humans. Giant

salamanders are still in danger of extinct. Owl

population in South China has a hard time to recover.

Pangolins are disappearing from the wet hillsides and

foggy valleys in south, southwest, and western Chinese

provinces.

 

Is there a connection between the use of wild animals,

dogs and cats by Canton's restaurants and the

concentration of SARS in that province? Preliminary

results from a Hong Kong research say so. However, a

more solid connection is yet to be established or

disproved. Regardless of what future studies may

show, health hazards from consuming food products made

of sick animals should be clear to all.

 

It is time that Cantonese rethink their food

subculture. And, it is time we show respect to other

lives who are sharing the earth with us.

 

As the most developed province in mainland China,

Canton should also lead the country in political,

environmental and health consciousness. Governments at

all levels have an unshakable responsibility to crack

down on restaurants that violate state laws.

 

Peter J. Li

--

Peter J. Li, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Department of Social Sciences

University of Houston-Downtown

One Main Street

Houston, Texas 77002

lipj