Chinese Culture in a Soup - Proposed Ban of Shark Fins Stirs the Pot
By Hassina Leelarathna
Would you support the maiming of animals – cutting off an elephant’s trunk and letting it die a slow death, for instance – in the name of ‘culture?’
That’s about how one half of the debate has shaped up up over the proposed banning of shark fin sales in California.
Shark finning is among the cruelest forms of animal slaughter: the fins and tails are chopped off and the shark is thrown back into the sea. Unable to swim, it sinks to the bottom of the sea and dies. An estimated 70 million sharks are killed this way to meet the demand for shark fin soup served up at Chinese restaurants and weddings.
Chinese restaurant owners, businessmen, and fishermen are up in arms over the ban enshrined in Assembly Bill 376 introduced by legislators Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Paul Fong, D-Cupertino. The bill was passed by the Assembly on May 23 and made its way out of the the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water on June 28 with a 7-0 vote. It faces a crucial vote August 15 before the Senate Committee on Appropriations where supporters fear it will be watered down to allow for ‘sustainable’ shark fisheries. This would allow commercial fisheries to make unprofitable fish profitable by adding market value from the fins. The shark fin industry is said to have hired big lobbying firms to pressure senators for the amendments.
The high-power battle is not surprising. Sharks fins are big business. Shark fin soup is pricey, more than $80 a bowl at most restaurants; in dried form, shark fins fetch as much as $299 to $699 a pound. At specialty markets like Wing Hop Fung in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, which also sells ‘delicacies’ such as bird’s nests, they come attractively packaged in colorful tins priced at $499 a pound. By making it “unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin, the proposed bill would likely put a dent in the revenues of places such as Wing Hop Fung.
According to the bill’s proponents, San Diego and Los Angeles are two of the top entry points for shark fin imports. State and federal laws prohibit shark finning in U.S. waters but do not address the trade.
What’s surprising, and disappointing, is that some Chinese leaders, like curator Steve Wong, are staking a higher moral ground, defending the practice not on economic grounds put as part of an ethnic ‘culture.’
Last week, the curator of the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles went on record on National Public Radio (NPR) to add his voice to those opposing a potential ban on the possession and sale of shark fins in the state.
“Any time there's legislation to prevent people from partaking in cultural tradition, I think that raises eyebrows,” he told NPR.
Assemblyman Fong, who is Chinese-American, doesn’t see it that way.
"I grew up on shark fin soup, but when I found out the effect it is having on the shark population two years ago, I stopped eating it," Fong said during a news conference at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences attended by local shark experts, Chinese American chefs and environmentalists.
He likened shark finning to removing the tusks from elephants and the paws from tigers.
"The sharks are at the top of the food chain, and they maintain the balance in the ecosystem. If sharks fall, it will be like a house of cards. The rest of the ocean will fall," he said. "We need to stop this practice at the marketplace."
Another Chinese politician in the shark fin fray is State Sen. Leland Yee, who is running for mayor of San Francisco. Yee has called the proposed ban an "attack on Asian culture."
"Right now, Costco sells shark steak," Yee was quoted by the SF Chronicle as saying. "What are you going to do with the fin from that shark? This is another example in a long line of examples of insensitivity to the culture and traditions of the Asian American community."
Environmentalists see criminalizing possession as the only way to stop shark finning. Discarding the fins of sharks legally harvested is the price for halting the barbaric practice of chopping the limbs of an animal and letting it die a slow death. As for cultural ‘insensitivities’ a similar argument could be made in defense of sati (the Hindu practice of a widows jumping into their husband’s pyre), death by stoning for infidelity (under Islamic law), female circumcision, and a range of other practices that were once accepted as part of a cultural or religious tradition.
Assemblyman Yee, curator Steve Wong and others should rest assured that Chinese culture will survive long after the last slurp over the last bowl of shark fin soup.
Would you support the maiming of animals – cutting off an elephant’s trunk and letting it die a slow death, for instance – in the name of ‘culture?’
That’s about how one half of the debate has shaped up up over the proposed banning of shark fin sales in California.
Shark finning is among the cruelest forms of animal slaughter: the fins and tails are chopped off and the shark is thrown back into the sea. Unable to swim, it sinks to the bottom of the sea and dies. An estimated 70 million sharks are killed this way to meet the demand for shark fin soup served up at Chinese restaurants and weddings.
Chinese restaurant owners, businessmen, and fishermen are up in arms over the ban enshrined in Assembly Bill 376 introduced by legislators Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, and Paul Fong, D-Cupertino. The bill was passed by the Assembly on May 23 and made its way out of the the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water on June 28 with a 7-0 vote. It faces a crucial vote August 15 before the Senate Committee on Appropriations where supporters fear it will be watered down to allow for ‘sustainable’ shark fisheries. This would allow commercial fisheries to make unprofitable fish profitable by adding market value from the fins. The shark fin industry is said to have hired big lobbying firms to pressure senators for the amendments.
The high-power battle is not surprising. Sharks fins are big business. Shark fin soup is pricey, more than $80 a bowl at most restaurants; in dried form, shark fins fetch as much as $299 to $699 a pound. At specialty markets like Wing Hop Fung in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, which also sells ‘delicacies’ such as bird’s nests, they come attractively packaged in colorful tins priced at $499 a pound. By making it “unlawful for any person to possess, sell, offer for sale, trade, or distribute a shark fin, the proposed bill would likely put a dent in the revenues of places such as Wing Hop Fung.
According to the bill’s proponents, San Diego and Los Angeles are two of the top entry points for shark fin imports. State and federal laws prohibit shark finning in U.S. waters but do not address the trade.
What’s surprising, and disappointing, is that some Chinese leaders, like curator Steve Wong, are staking a higher moral ground, defending the practice not on economic grounds put as part of an ethnic ‘culture.’
Last week, the curator of the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles went on record on National Public Radio (NPR) to add his voice to those opposing a potential ban on the possession and sale of shark fins in the state.
“Any time there's legislation to prevent people from partaking in cultural tradition, I think that raises eyebrows,” he told NPR.
Assemblyman Fong, who is Chinese-American, doesn’t see it that way.
"I grew up on shark fin soup, but when I found out the effect it is having on the shark population two years ago, I stopped eating it," Fong said during a news conference at San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences attended by local shark experts, Chinese American chefs and environmentalists.
He likened shark finning to removing the tusks from elephants and the paws from tigers.
"The sharks are at the top of the food chain, and they maintain the balance in the ecosystem. If sharks fall, it will be like a house of cards. The rest of the ocean will fall," he said. "We need to stop this practice at the marketplace."
Another Chinese politician in the shark fin fray is State Sen. Leland Yee, who is running for mayor of San Francisco. Yee has called the proposed ban an "attack on Asian culture."
"Right now, Costco sells shark steak," Yee was quoted by the SF Chronicle as saying. "What are you going to do with the fin from that shark? This is another example in a long line of examples of insensitivity to the culture and traditions of the Asian American community."
Environmentalists see criminalizing possession as the only way to stop shark finning. Discarding the fins of sharks legally harvested is the price for halting the barbaric practice of chopping the limbs of an animal and letting it die a slow death. As for cultural ‘insensitivities’ a similar argument could be made in defense of sati (the Hindu practice of a widows jumping into their husband’s pyre), death by stoning for infidelity (under Islamic law), female circumcision, and a range of other practices that were once accepted as part of a cultural or religious tradition.
Assemblyman Yee, curator Steve Wong and others should rest assured that Chinese culture will survive long after the last slurp over the last bowl of shark fin soup.