Live Fish Eating In China

[saz326]

If you want to google this to see the videos I saw then be warned in advance - it is uncomfortable watching for fish lovers.

I was browsing you tube looking to learn about the bear bile extraction trade after seeing an article on the news - amongst the articles that came up was a link for live fish eating - I imagined this was simply a competition for eating fish - a live contest but sadly it was not.

The fish are held by their heads - de-scaled, sliced through the flesh and fried whilst the head is held out of the oil. They are served on plates still gasping.

Does anyone know if there is any petition or active group against this stuff - I don't see it being too long until the Chinese in the UK want to join in the fun.

 

[tomtomtom1230]

It's the live octopus that gets me, when it is half-way down their throat and the tentacles are clinging onto the guy's/girl's chin!

 

[MBOU]

I have to say... I'm a fairly resiliant person but i saw that video about a year ago and it honestly sickened me!! I couldnt even finish watching, though i watched most of it.

However... as much as it seems awful to us, it is a tradition and custom to them. They dont have the same laws, lifestyles and ideals as we do. To them it is normal and part of life. You can't just start petitioning against something like that. You would have to go to the root of the problem and campaign for animal welfare in general.

Its not like they come over here and start telling us what we can and can't do in our country...

As awful as it is, i don't think getting riled up over it is going to help anyone. And it certainly isnt a new video, it wasnt new when i saw a video of it over a year ago.

 

[StandbySetting]

It's just culture, I have nothing against it personally as much as I detest animal cruelty.

 

[tomtomtom1230]

I agree with MBOU, although it is sickening it is, after all, a part of their culture and has been for hundreds if not thousands of years. Fish is a delicacy in China and in Japan whether that be live, raw or cooked.

 

[bae1994]

I've seen it a year or two back also found it repulsive but that's life it takes all sorts

Also I don't think fish is a delicacy so much as a staple

 

[MBOU]

What Is Ying Yang Fish?

In Japan, the slicing of live seafood is known as ikizukuri and is employed as a way to ensure freshness, particularly since the meat is then eaten raw as sashimi. For China and particularly its island paradise of Taiwan, a few styles of preparation involve eating seafood while it is still alive, such as ying yang fish. This method involves scaling, gutting and then battering the lower half of a live carp, then holding it by the mouth and frying its bottom half in oil. Once partially cooked, the still-live fish is doused in a sweet-and-sour sauce and served while still moving its mouth.

According to The China Post, ying yang fish is also called "dead-and-alive fish" by the Chinese. The dish was especially popular as many as three decades ago in Taiwan's Taoyuan County — the paper states, when area restaurants sought customers by touting the ultimate freshness of their ingredients. Most chefs in 2011, however, appear to shun the practice of eating the creatures while still alive, perhaps due to overwhelming outrage from animals rights groups.

China started to crack down on the practice of preparing ying yang fish, or yin yang yu, in the 21st century, particularly on its satellite island of Taiwan. Though some consider the method ideal for displaying the freshness of a kitchen's seafood, not all Chinese are on board. A few online reports on the practice indicate fairly widespread abhorrence for the practice, even among the 1,300,000,000 Chinese people.

Nevertheless, the preparation of ying yang fish appears to be holding on throughout China. According to The Telegraph of the United Kingdom, a viral video in 2009 showed the method to be an apparently still-used novelty practice that drew the ire of more than 100,000 viewers within a week. After the non-profit People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) railed against the practice, calling it "disgusting," a Chinese official pointed to the western traditions of fox hunting and bullfighting to show how all cultures have customs that might be perceived as repugnant.

Another live-food Chinese delicacy that draws the ire of some animal rights groups is called drunken shrimp. In western cultures this name is used to describe a range of booze-laced cooked shrimp dishes, but in China the shrimp are eaten while alive and swimming drunk on a sweet style of alcohol called baijiu. This drunken imposition reportedly makes the shrimp a little easier to behead and eat while still twitching.

Didn't think the videos and the outrage reaction was new, 2009 lol. To be honest, i'm not defending it... though i feel the need to defend anything PETA goes against because I cant abide closed minded bunny brushing grave robbers (though all of this is purely my opinion!)

 

[tomtomtom1230]

I've seen it a year or two back also found it repulsive but that's life it takes all sorts

Also I don't think fish is a delicacy so much as a staple

Apologies - the way they cook and treat the food makes it seem like it's a delicacy dish.

 

[Noahs ark6]

I'm not bothered if it's culture. There are alot of things that are "culture" that have been banned (for example fox hunting on horseback with dogs), so why hasn't this??

 

[MBOU]

Not everyone agrees with the hunting ban?

Im pretty sure with such a huge population, trying to bring in a ban is going to take an awfully long time even if tey can get it passed, if anything... purely on the basis that it will be near impossible to enforce! And 2.5 years is no time at all in terms or trying to bring in bans ven if they were to. (2.5 years or so since the Antis got their claws out in 2009).

You might not care if its their culture or anything but im pretty sure they do

Its not just fish though is it? Its dogs...cats... pets in general... the welfare standard does need to be brought up to scratch and they are working on that all the time. Unfortunately fish arent at the top of anybodies list and i doubt they ever will be.

 

[Noahs ark6]

Not everyone agrees with the hunting ban?

Im pretty sure with such a huge population, trying to bring in a ban is going to take an awfully long time even if tey can get it passed, if anything... purely on the basis that it will be near impossible to enforce!

You might not care if its their culture or anything but im pretty sure they do

No, not everyone agrees with the hunting ban.
I think that the hunting ban is great and i completely disagree with it, but my point is that that was part of english culture but was banned for being cruel, so eating fish whilst they're still alive surely is just as bad, so why hasn't it been banned?, regardless of whether it's culture?

 

[StandbySetting]

Because this occurs in China and not the UK?

 

[MBOU]

And my point was you can't just click your fingers and force bans on people just like that. Even in this country it took a LOT of years just to ban hunting let alone pass any of the other animal welfare laws.

Things work differently in other countries!

And i'm still waiting for this countries animal welfare enforcers to be trained to some kind of appropriately helpful standard that isn't completely bias to animal rights activists points of view purely because they dont know better.

 

[Noahs ark6]

To both standbysetting and mbou, i haven't "clicked my fingers and force bans on people" i'm asking why it hasn't been banned, not saying i want it to be banned (even though that would be good)
Even before i clicked on this thread i knew some kind of argument would come out of it so lets agree that we all have differing opinions on this matter and that no ammount of squabbling will change the other persons opinion.

 

[lloyd]

I dont care whether its culture or not. we dont say oh its just culture when a young girl gets tortured and mutilated because her family think she has the devil in her as has happened recently in england