“Wild Flavors” or Wild Animals? The Discursive Warfare Surrounding China’s Endangered Wildlife Trade in the (Looming) Age of Green Consumerism

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session and Reception
  In Interactive Paper Session: Environmental Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

The Chinese are notorious for their consumption of wild animals. From rabbits and monkeys to shark fins and tiger bones, this omnivorous culture enjoys exotic meats as both delicacies and tonic. As the Western notion of green consumerism enters China, however, the ancient tradition is slowly falling out of favor. International environmental NGOs (e.g. Wild Aid, TRAFFIC of WWF China, etc.) launched advertising campaigns to dissuade the public from eating endangered wildlife. Curiously, their opponents—advocates for exotic meat consumption—also jumped onto the “green wagon” and marketed wild meats as an “ecological diet.” The opposing rhetoric demonstrates the plasticity of “green consumerism”: If you love animals, should you eat them, or protect them? The ambivalence in the human-animal relationship gives birth to two types of desire, which are manifested in advertisements. This paper compares the pro-wildlife-eating ads by restaurants and tonic manufacturers and the environmental NGO-sponsored ads that support the opposite, and analyze the different cultural, ideological, and psychic functions they perform. Questioning the popular fetishization of the “local” or the “indigenous” over the “global” or the “Western” in the (looming) age of green consumerism, I argue that non-Western and indigenous values could also contribute to environmental degradation when coupled with the greed of consumerism.

Author

• Xinghua Li, Babson College