社会话题探讨:关于食用鱼翅(1)
Excuse me waiter, there's a shark in my soup
Some 200m years before dinosaurs made their appearance on earth and thus quite some time before Homo sapiens began celebrating nuptials at extravagant wedding banquets, sharks swam the oceans. Sharks are older than trees. They have survived at least four planetary mass extinctions.
The link between these ancient predators and contemporary wedding receptions is that, among Chinese people, it is a sign of generosity and prestige to serve guests shark-fin soup. Since there are more than 1.3bn Chinese people, and since they are getting more affluent by the day, that is of no little consequence to the shark population. Some 70m sharks are killed each year for their fins. Much of the time, the fins are sliced off with a blade at sea and the bloody shark torso thrown back in the water to die.
The California state legislature is debating a bill co-sponsored by Paul Fong, a Chinese-American Democrat, to ban the sale, consumption and trade of shark fin. Hawaii, Oregon and Washington state already impose similar bans. California accounts for 85 per cent of shark fin eaten in the US. The bill sailed through the lower house assembly, but is being held up in the state senate because of concerns it discriminates against Chinese Americans.
What people eat is, indeed, a sensitive topic and one that generates much hypocrisy. Different cultures have formed their own taboos about what is proper, and not proper, to eat. Muslims and Jews don't eat pigs, Hindus don't eat cows and most Americans don't eat snake or whale. Jains, and vegetarians of all cultures, don't eat any animals at all.
Westerners are particularly prone to turning up their nose at what other people eat. Their position is mostly illogical and sometimes offensive. They tend to mentally divide animals into those you eat (like pigs, sheep and chickens); those you cuddle or stroke (cats, dogs and horses); and those too ugly, unusual or intelligent to eat (say beetles, zebras and dolphins). Many profess to loathe barbarity—think clubbing seals—yet are happy to eat veal or to ignore what goes on in their friendly neighbourhood abattoir.
Michael Moore, the American documentary film-maker, brilliantly—if possibly inadvertently—exposed this self-delusion in Roger & Me. In a scene that was meant to highlight the poverty of Flint, Michigan, a woman selling rabbits is shown asking customers if they want "pets or meat". If the answer is "pet", the cuddly bunny is handed over to a delighted child. If "meat", the hapless creature is clubbed to death with a lead pipe and skinned on the spot.
何必吃鱼翅？
在恐龙在地球上出现之前两亿年左右，也就是在现代人(Homo sapiens)开始举办奢华婚宴之前相当久远的时候，鲨鱼们就已经在海洋中游弋。鲨鱼比树还要古老。它们至少经历了四次地球物种灭绝，一直活到了今天。
这种古老的食肉动物和当代婚宴之间的联系在于，在中国人眼中，请客人吃鱼翅羹是慷慨与体面的标志。由于中国有13亿多人口，并且中国人一天比一天富裕，吃鱼翅对鲨鱼数量可谓影响重大。为了获取鱼翅，人类每年要捕杀约7000万条鲨鱼。大多数时候，人们在海上用刀把鱼鳍割下来，然后便将血淋淋的鲨鱼躯干扔入海里，任由它们死去。
加利福尼亚州立法机构正在讨论由民主党人、美籍华人方文忠(Paul Fong)联合提议的一项旨在禁止贩卖、消费和交易鱼翅的议案。夏威夷州、俄勒冈州和华盛顿州已经实施了类似的禁令。加州的鱼翅食用量占到美国鱼翅总食用量的85%。州众议院会议已通过了此项议案，但因担心法案有歧视美籍华人的嫌疑，州参议院还未对其投票表决。
人们吃什么确实是一个敏感的话题，也会催生许多虚伪的作风。对于可以吃什么、不可以吃什么，不同的文化有着各自的禁忌。穆斯林和犹太教徒不吃猪肉，印度教徒不吃牛肉，而大多数美国人不吃蛇肉或鲸肉。耆那教徒(Jains)和各种文化中的素食主义者都不吃任何动物。
西方人尤其看不惯其它文化社会的人们所吃的东西。他们的出发点大多不合逻辑，有时可能还会触犯众怒。他们往往在心里把动物分为好几类：吃的（如猪、羊和鸡）、搂抱或抚摸的（猫、狗和马）以及太丑、太怪或太聪明而不能吃的（比如甲虫、斑马和海豚）。许多人都公开对残暴行为表示憎恶——例如用棍子猎杀海豹——但却爱吃小牛肉，或佯装对自己居住的友好社区的屠宰场里发生的一切毫不知晓。
美国纪录片电影制片人迈克尔•摩尔(Michael Moore)在《罗杰和我》(Roger & me)中绘声绘色地（也可能是不经意地）披露了这种自欺欺人的行径。在展现密歇根州弗林特(Flint)贫困状况的一个场景中，有个女人在卖兔子，她问顾客要买“宠物还是兔肉”。如果答案是“宠物”，她就把小兔子交给一个满心欢喜的孩子。如果答案是“兔肉”，她便当场用一根铅管把这个可怜的动物打死并把皮剥下来。
