The newspaper Daily Sunshine (晶报) from Shenzhen in Guangdong province today includes a special section entitled “Evil returns from the grave” (恶的还魂) (or perhaps another translation could be “The recycling of evil”) as a “reflection on the relationship between animals and humans”. The largest part of the newspaper’s front page is taken up by a Xi Jinping headline and a large image on the ongoing standoff on the Korean peninsula. The top corner of the front page refers to the sudden cancelling of the Tarantino film Django Unchained.
In light of all the animal massacres that have been so prominent in China news of late, the Daily Sunshine‘s reflection on this matter is – unsurprisingly – quite morbid, yet it also contains a message of hope.
The opening sentences of the special section sets the scene as follows:
Looking over a series of shocking, ghastly pictures [e.g. of dead pigs, ducks or swans?] causes one to shiver from the very bottom of the soul. What kind of evil is this that transforms cities into slaughterhouses for wild animals? What kind of brutality is this that transforms out stomachs into cemeteries?
Is it ignorance that makes our stomachs into slaughterhouses for animals?, the newspaper asks. A third of all the animal species in the world are on the verge of extinction, it continues, yet are we but helpless in the face of this massacre? Will we let this tragedy play itself out until the bitter end? In Shenzhen, the Daily Mirror consoles itself, people are taking action. Volunteers are joining groups like the Cat Network (猫网) and the Bird Watching Society, and people are restricting their appetites and spreading awareness of animal preservation.
As part of its special section, Daily Sunshine includes an article about an undercover reporter that was sent to a Hakka restaurant in Shenzhen suspected of serving various kinds of wild meat. Indeed, outside the restaurant the journalist saw cages filled with wild mountain fowl and exotic birds, snakes, tortoises, porcupines, etc. Another article ”exposes” the cruel practice of people going up the mountains to catch wild birds for fun and them eating them.
With all this the newspaper admonishes its readers: ”Don’t let your stomach become an animal graveyard”.
Links and sources
Daily Sunshine (晶报): 恶的还魂; 暗访残酷的杀戮曝光 猎鸟从未停