社會話題探討:關於食用魚翅(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.

何必吃魚翅？

在恐龍在地球上出現之前兩億年左右，也就是在現代人(Homo sapiens)開始舉辦奢華婚宴之前相當久遠的時候，鯊魚們就已經在海洋中游弋。鯊魚比樹還要古老。它們至少經歷了四次地球物種滅絕，一直活到了今天。

這種古老的食肉動物和當代婚宴之間的聯繫在於，在中國人眼中，請客人吃魚翅羹是慷慨與體面的標誌。由於中國有13億多人口，並且中國人一天比一天富裕，吃魚翅對鯊魚數量可謂影響重大。爲了獲取魚翅，人類每年要捕殺約7000萬條鯊魚。大多數時候，人們在海上用刀把魚鰭割下來，然後便將血淋淋的鯊魚軀幹扔入海里，任由它們死去。

加利福尼亞州立法機構正在討論由民主黨人、美籍華人方文忠(Paul Fong)聯合提議的一項旨在禁止販賣、消費和交易魚翅的議案。夏威夷州、俄勒岡州和華盛頓州已經實施了類似的禁令。加州的魚翅食用量佔到美國魚翅總食用量的85%。州衆議院會議已通過了此項議案，但因擔心法案有歧視美籍華人的嫌疑，州參議院還未對其投票表決。

人們吃什麼確實是一個敏感的話題，也會催生許多虛僞的作風。對於可以吃什麼、不可以吃什麼，不同的文化有着各自的禁忌。穆斯林和猶太教徒不吃豬肉，印度教徒不吃牛肉，而大多數美國人不吃蛇肉或鯨肉。耆那教徒(Jains)和各種文化中的素食主義者都不吃任何動物。

西方人尤其看不慣其它文化社會的人們所吃的東西。他們的出發點大多不合邏輯，有時可能還會觸犯衆怒。他們往往在心裏把動物分爲好幾類：吃的（如豬、羊和雞）、摟抱或撫摸的（貓、狗和馬）以及太醜、太怪或太聰明而不能吃的（比如甲蟲、斑馬和海豚）。許多人都公開對殘暴行爲表示憎惡——例如用棍子獵殺海豹——但卻愛吃小牛肉，或佯裝對自己居住的友好社區的屠宰場裏發生的一切毫不知曉。

美國紀錄片電影製片人邁克爾•摩爾(Michael Moore)在《羅傑和我》(Roger & me)中繪聲繪色地（也可能是不經意地）披露了這種自欺欺人的行徑。在展現密歇根州弗林特(Flint)貧困狀況的一個場景中，有個女人在賣兔子，她問顧客要買“寵物還是兔肉”。如果答案是“寵物”，她就把小兔子交給一個滿心歡喜的孩子。如果答案是“兔肉”，她便當場用一根鉛管把這個可憐的動物打死並把皮剝下來。