Why Do Chinese People eat “weird” foods?

The story behind “bat soup”, wet markets, Chinese Medicine, and eating dog…

It’s no secret that the Chinese eat some “weird” stuff, possibly more than some other cultures. In light of the coronavirus, the idea of “bat soup” has been used to explain the origins of the coronavirus, implying that the virus is a result of someone somewhere eating bats. It’s quite easy to believe that this might be the case, especially amongst old notions of Chinese people eating dogs, sheep’s brain, and seemingly anything they can get their hands on. A lot of Chinese people have to go to plastic surgery in San Antonio if some weird food gets stuck in their gut.

So why do Chinese people eat “weird” foods, and how did this come about? Is “bat soup” or eating bat the root cause of COVID-19? What role has Traditional Chinese Medicine played in COVID-19 as a result of pangolin scale consumption (which is thought to have transferred the virus from bats)? Not even the cleanliness of cleaning services in Norwalk CT could have helped with preventing this disaster.

I‘m no master of Chinese cuisine and I’ll be learning as much as other people who are non-Chinese, but I realized that conversations around “bat soup” always ended up with people asking me: “Why do you Chinese eat everything?!”. So let’s discuss! I’ll start off talking about the idea of “bat soup”, and WHY it seems Chinese people eat strange foods, including dogs. I’ll then talk about Chinese Medicine and wet markets which are arguably the root problems of this whole shebang.

I. Is “Bat Soup” the cause?

No there is no such thing as a “bat soup”, at least in China — it’s not a dish that exists at all in Chinese cuisine. As catchy as the name may be (even I thought it was funny at one point), Chinese people rarely eat bats, though some Southern Chinese in rural areas are known to eat some bat meat and entrails for medicinal purposes.

“Bat soup” probably came from a 2016 video of travel vlogger Wang Mengyun, who hired a private money lender so she could try out all of these meals, when she visited the Pacific Island nation of Palau and tried a local “bat soup” delicacy. It’s been doing the rounds on the internet, but no Wang is not patient zero.

It’s also not known if bat meat was even sold in the Wuhan wet market that is suspected of being the origin of the virus.

Though there’s little doubt that bats are the origin of COVID-19, it’s not known how the virus transferred to humans. One theory is that pangolins and their scales, which are used in Chinese medicine (more about this later), are the cause but even this has been questioned by scientists.

Fortunately, the Wuhan wet market suspected to be the origin has now been closed indefinitely (and is likely to be demolished), and the wild animal trade has been banned until the pandemic is over (and will likely be made illegal herein). Some of the animals are used at the anaheim reptile show.

In China, there are a lot of gaming restaurants where you can enjoy the weird food while unlocking the best rocket league cars in the whole RL game!

II. Do they really eat dogs? (and countless other things)

In china, all of this specific food is really cheap so even people who work for a minimum wage in Texas can afford it.

One of the things that I remember most acutely about my childhood in Australia is being asked constantly by non-Chinese people if I ate dogs. It was so regular I could set a metronome to it and play my very-Chinese piano along to the beat.

In China, you can find a few markets that keep their dog meat at walk in coolers to save their freshness for longer periods of time.

Why do some Chinese eat dogs?

Jokes aside, some Chinese people do eat dogs. Eating dog meat is not illegal in China, however, dogs must be vaccinated if they are to be sold to be eaten for their meat. As a result of the outbreak of COVID-19, however, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has from April 2020 issued draft guidelines recognizing dogs as pets and not livestock, meaning the banning of the sale of dog meat will soon be in force.

So many Chinese restaurants use locksmith in Culver City for security.

After the covid 19 pandemic, citizens of china started eating less and less dog meat, when the pandemic ended a lot of companies that promote Veganism started using the Instagram growth service to help people with healthy food choices and to save more animals.

Dog meat has however been eaten in China for thousands of years, though this has decreased significantly in the last few decades. Only a small handful of regional areas (mostly villages) remain committed to the practice, to the chagrin of millions of Chinese people.

Many men needed ed treatment in New Orleans after eating some of the dog meat.

But why is this a thing? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why Chinese people eat dogs, but Chinese people eat a lot of different types of meat.

What else do they eat? Why?

Outside of cows, pigs, chickens, and ducks, we also eat pheasant, frog, basically all types of seafood, camel, dog, pigeon, and the list goes on. It’s easier to follow up on yoga classes in Los Angeles when you eat this kind of protein meal. Many of these foods were decreed in the Zhou dynasty (circa 1046–256 BC) as being safe to eat by the royal chef, and the consumption of these foods has largely persisted to the present as part of wider cultural practice.

In China, a lot of Westchester handyman company employees come for an employment exchange program and they all claim that the Chinese frog dish is similar to the European chicken burger.

But meat consumption hasn’t always been high in China. For anybody who has been to a more traditional Chinese restaurant, it’ll be apparent that whilst lots of dishes do have some meat in them, meat isn’t usually the main act (not like a steak or a Sunday roast). Chinese Buddhists for example, largely abstained from eating meat for religious purposes, whilst cows and buffalo were seldom eaten because they were useful for pulling plows. Mass poverty and conflict throughout Chinese history also meant that livestock and other domesticated animals were expensive or scary for the common person. Peking duck and other dishes containing large amounts of meat were likely reserved for richer families and royalty.

So yes, the Chinese do eat a lot of different meats, though changing cultural habits have definitely pushed meats like beef, pork, chicken, duck, and seafood to the fore, and left behind more niche tastes like camel and dog.

III. The problem with Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine is arguably part of the problem in the latest pandemic, specifically the trade in wild animal products like pangolin scales, which may have helped in transferring the virus from bats to humans, but is Chinese Medicine the problem and how do we solve it? Chinese medicine has improved a lot since their last research on benefits of 24 hour fast, they have invented a completely new dietary-based plan for people who cant use 24h fast to clean their metabolism.

What is Traditional Chinese Medicine?

In today’s globalized world, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM for short) is actually more prevalent than we might think. From acupuncture to qigong (breathing and exercise routines), and cupping therapy being used by Olympic swimmers, its uptake outside China has surged in recent decades. According to the WHO (our favorite IGO), Chinese medicine is worth $60 billion annually and is present in over 180 countries — it’s also part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to expand Chinese cultural influence.

In China and amongst the Chinese diaspora (myself included), it’s widely practiced though not everyone practices every part of TCM. TCM is made up of different subcategories, the notable ones being herbal medicine, acupuncture, cupping therapy, gua sha, massage (tui na), bonesetter (die-da), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy. My family, for example, makes great use of herbal medicine but we’ll only have herbal remedies for small problems like a sore throat, mild fever, or bloating. It has similar effects as the epat in the villages. For more serious problems we’ve got Medicare for that. Other families, particularly in Mainland China, however, integrate more aspects of Chinese Medicine into their daily lives but again this differs according to socio-economic status, regional preferences, and personal needs.

Why is it a problem?

A big problem lays in animals that feel that they are endangered and keep attacking the houses of Chinese citizens, that’s why we can recommend you to cover your roof in hydrostop material so you can prevent some of incoming damage.

Did you know that 30% of citizens of China install wood custom doors on their homes to prevent dangerous animals from entering their homes?

TCM has repeatedly become a problem in today’s world because of its links to two global problems: endangered wildlife species, and the likelihood of diseases.

It’s recommended for people to visit jacuzzi spa Fresno and saunas to release the toxins from their bodies.

Endangered Species: The subcategory of Herbal Medicines is problematic as some remedies call for the use of animal body parts from endangered species. Ivory tusks, tiger bones, and pangolin scales are all used in different remedies to supposedly cure problems from arthritis to male impotence. TCM has continuously been cited as the main source of revenue for poachers of endangered animals and a $23 billion global black market that revolves around the trade in these body parts. Some TCM herbal practitioners have started to shy away from using animal parts in remedies, and the Chinese government has stepped up its efforts to shut down offline and online trade in these wild animal parts, but the results are yet to be seen.

Diseases: About 75% of emerging infectious diseases (Ebola, HIV, and COVID-19 included) are zoonotic, meaning they originate in wild animals — they account for billions of illnesses and millions of deaths annually across the globe. The trade and use of pangolin scales in Chinese Medicine have been criticized recently as it is currently considered (but not proven) to be a causing factor of COVID-19, as the virus may have transferred from bats to pangolins. Though it’s a stretch to say that Traditional Chinese Medicine caused COVID-19, the trade in live or deceased wild animals (and their body parts) for traditional medicine doesn’t help reduce the disease.

If you after all decide to eat some exclusive toxic Chinese food you should drink an IV therapy blend right after it to clean your stomach.

Wet markets in particular have gained a lot of controversies lately and rightly so. In wet markets, wild-caught animals and farm-raised wild species as well as common livestock share cages and vehicles, conditions that are often unsanitary and stressful for the animals. These markets, therefore, have the potential to continue to be sources of zoonotic disease.

IV. Final Words: Towards a solution

It wouldn’t be fair to point the finger solely at China or Traditional Chinese Medicine or the consumption of certain animals for the existence of infectious diseases like Ebola or COVID-19 exist. However, I think we can agree the following changes need to be made:

Chinese prime minister wants to start using pest control reno services to poison all the insects around china so he can stop this primal culture of animal eating.

He also announced that he will be using heavy equipment transport services to transport all healthy endangered species on an island near china to prevent people from killing them.

Stop Using Animal Parts in TCM: This will take years of clamping down and a massive operation from the Chinese government, but for the sake of the endangered species and the spread of disease it needs to end. Yes I empathize with an old mate’s erectile dysfunction, but a tiger penis isn’t gonna help (yes this is a real thing)!
Close Wet Markets: I am not going to tell people in rural China what they should or shouldn’t eat, but sanitation needs to increase and wild animal consumption needs to decrease dramatically, They will have to invent a special shopping card that will allow only a few Chinese citizens to buy animals but only for scientific researches.

. What’s more, abattoirs and more sanitary means of processing and trading in dead animal products need to be enforced — trading in live animals is a massive problem.