Little by little, Chinese New Year, an event once celebrated here solely by people of Chinese ancestry, has become part of mainstream culture. Many Thais now don red shirts (and not for political reasons) at this time of year and perform rituals such as giving one's house a thorough spring-cleaning before Chinese New Year's Eve and not doing any household chores during the festival period.
While many also hold the traditional wai jao ceremony to pay respect to Chinese deities and ask for good fortune in the year ahead, parents may refuse to adopt all the customs associated with the lunar new year, in particular the practice of family elders giving ang pao (gifts of cash) to younger relatives.
When we borrow traditions from other cultures, I guess we Thais simply do only what is convenient and fun.
But one thing that we fully embrace in Chinese culture is the cuisine. As a land which has received immigrants from many parts of China we are blessed with a great variety of Chinese regional dishes, including treats which have long disappeared in their country of origin.
Food is one of the best facilitators of communication. And at the dinner table, roast duck, dumplings, dim sum or even pricey shark fin soup can be the most subtle of cultural ambassadors.
But I find that Thais tend to have an unusually high regard for shark fin soup. It is rare for us to use the cost of a particular foodstuff to connote our social status. Yet, as Chinese culture continues to expand worldwide, Thais are increasingly using the consumption of this pricey dish as a way to celebrate their wealth and social standing. Shark fin soup was even served at last month's Christmas party for Bangkok Post staff! It was the first time the dish was seen at our annual get-together and its appearance created a good deal of hoo-hah. Approval from the majority. Jeers and boos from a minority of employees who oppose the killing of sharks for their fins.
"Why shark fin soup?" I asked. "Don't worry," a colleague said, trying to soothe my ruffled feathers, "it's not made with real shark fins."
"But that's even worse," I responded in disbelief. "Have we paid an exorbitant sum for fake shark fin soup, just so that we can all feel rich?"
To this day we're still not sure whether the soup served at that staff party was authentic or not. At the time I remember suggesting that duck would be a more suitable alternative since it is acceptable to people of most religions and cultures (not to mention that it's my all time favourite).
But then, slaughtering any animal is a brutal act and we cannot consider ourselves sinless while we still eat meat. But that's a subject that requires a lot more space to debate than is available to me here.
While the killing of animals may be regarded as immoral by people of certain religions, it is socially acceptable in this carnivorous culture of ours. The treatment meted out to sharks is so inhumane, however, that their case deserves special attention. A shark's fins are "harvested" while the animal is still alive. Wounded and bleeding, the animal is then tossed back into the sea to die a painful _ and terribly wasteful _ death. According to Pew Charitable Trusts, the US-based NGO, some 78 million of the estimate global shark population of 104 million have already been slaughtered for their fins.
Shark fin soup first became popular in China during the 10th century due to a belief in its medicinal value. But that has subsequently been exposed as nothing more than a myth. Since they are predators at the top of the food chain, sharks ingest a good deal of harmful pollutants, including extremely toxic substances like mercury, which build up in their body tissue. A study conducted in 2001 by the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research found that 70% of shark fin dishes sampled contained extremely high levels of this hazardous element.
Yet, it takes more than clear scientific evidence to alter eating habits and cultural mores. Consumption of shark fin soup has actually risen in the People's Republic of China since that country embraced an openly capitalist/bourgeois lifestyle.
Sharks play an important role in the marine ecosystem, controlling populations of small fish and crustaceans that eat phytoplankton and algae, organisms that produce a large volume of oxygen. Some 70% of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean and sharks have been helping to maintain this natural equilibrium for 420 million years or so. Without them, oxygen production would surely be disrupted.
There has been a gradual increase in public awareness about the evils of shark-finning in recent years and this has led to some small improvements in the situation. International hotel chains such as the Shangri-La, Peninsula and Conrad have voluntarily removed shark fin soup from their menus and the Singaporean-owned Banyan Tree group has not served the dish in its restaurants for a long time. Many governments have also imposed a ban on this cruel and wasteful practice. Campaigns have been launched in Hong Kong to educate children about the horrors of shark-finning and the risks it poses to the ecology. Yao Min, the former NBA star player turned Shanghai politician, has spearheaded a campaign against shark fin consumption.
Recently, 14 couples in Taiwan decided not to serve shark fin soup at their wedding banquets; this decision alone is estimated to have saved the lives of no less than 1,738 sharks.
As the next lunar new year approaches, activists worldwide are using the occasion to up the ante. Shark Defender, a conservation group, is gathering 100,000 signatures for its Facebook petition calling for people to abstain from shark fin soup during Chinese New Year celebrations. To raise awareness in Thailand, Dive Tribe, a Pattaya-based bunch of conservationists, has organised a publicity stunt in which scuba divers swim with sharks in a large aquarium.
But the most effective campaign will be the one that starts at home. For shark fins are very often consumed at large family gatherings. Back when we were children, our parents could not have known that the costly treat they fed us on festive occasions was laden with mercury. Nor could they have been aware of the ecological danger or the inhumane aspects of shark-finning.
But now the word is out. We know better than our parents did and we have the power to influence the next generation and hopefully stamp out this barbarous and harmful practice.
Anchalee Kongrut is a feature writer for the Bangkok Post.