Embarrassment and wild caught meat
In the initial COVID-19 pandemic, much speculation was made about what, exactly, Chinese appetites involved, and whether Chinese had a penchant for sourcing and consuming wild caught meat. Accusations abounded, principally (but not exclusively) from the West, as well as from inside China itself. An...
Gardado en:
| Publicado en: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/aof, |
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| Autor Principal: | |
| Formato: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Idioma: | Anglais |
| Publicado: |
Anthropology of food
2025
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| Acceso en liña: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | In the initial COVID-19 pandemic, much speculation was made about what, exactly, Chinese appetites involved, and whether Chinese had a penchant for sourcing and consuming wild caught meat. Accusations abounded, principally (but not exclusively) from the West, as well as from inside China itself. An old adage resurfaced: Chinese people will eat anything. This paper examines how this old saying is responded to in China in ways that became important to national pride during COVID-19. I found Chinese eaters as a collective are not as much co-transgressors bound in collective embarrassment against their countryfolk as they are bound together, eaters of wild meat or not, by the intensity of the judgement of those beyond China, from the Western world. It is to this audience that China principally performs its adherence to the state-declared norm of avoidance of wild meat. |
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