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My phobia of marriage: shark fins

While I'm a carnivore (more like an omnivore...), I try not to consume things for sheer extravagance. The only reason why shark fins are expensive is because they were once considered a rarity. This is no longer the case as commercial shark finning kills large number of sharks, most of the time only taking the fin of a live shark and throwing it back into the ocean. Unable to swim without a fin, the shark drowns or gets eaten by predators. The large number of carcasses causes pollution and are wasted and the practice is rarely regulated.

What irks me more is the fact that shark fins are naturally tasteless! I can sort of understand why people force feed ducks to induce liver malfunctioning, and taking the tumorous liver and calling it foie gras (not approving of it.) But people enjoy shark fins' taste are really enjoying the soup, and you can very well substitute the fins with noodles and no one would know the difference. Clearly, this practice is clearly out of pure vanity and is an unnecessary killing of animals that are otherwise not considered palatable.

Shark fins are so entrenched into Chinese culture that even the cheapest wedding banquet menu will offer mandatory shark fins. The lack of choice in the chinese wedding customs is what irritates me. Most of the shark fins in Canada are imported with origins difficult to trace, making it impossible to find shark fins that are killed more ethically or sustainably [using the entire shark's body rather than dumping it into the ocean, sustainable hunting by tracking numbers of harvest etc.]

It's also becoming clear to me that my own parents would not attend my wedding unless shark fins are served (as confirmed by a recent, frank discussion with my mom). Not serving shark fins is the ultimate sign of inhospitality and disrespect to the guests. In Canadian culture, it seems like a wedding is a celebration of a union. In Chinese culture, it is still very much a custom celebrating the parents' power, authority and popularity. This explains why Chinese weddings are so huge -- often over 200 guests, with 300-500 in attendance being the normal trend. Many of these "guests" are mere acquaintances who probably have never met the bride and groom. The bigger the wedding party, the more "face" the parents receive. The more people attending, the more shark fins are needed.

Thus, serving shark fins at a Chinese wedding can have a significant impact. While not serving fins may help educate a lot of people about the issue, it is also a very tough statement to make, given the deeply entrenched symbolism and the generally conservative thinking of traditional Chinese people. It will be a judgment call -- whether to stick with your conviction and offend your family and in-laws --especially on a day when you are to embark on a new life with your significant other.

In Asia, there's a growing movement for large institutions (such as the Hong Kong University catering service) to ban shark fins. In the Chinese- Canadian community, however, there's almost no way around this in wedding banquets (other than elopement). Clearly, educating my family about my concerns has not prevented them from ordering and cooking shark fins in my presence. It is even more unlikely that party guests will understand the true statement behind choosing not to serve shark fins.

Banning shark fins in weddings has almost the same effect as banning wedding cake in a western wedding. My battle against shark fin consumption is continually going to be a determining factor in delaying marriage -- until I find a better solution [not that I was planning on getting married any time soon...]

posted by Tiff @ 6:34 PM