Dark Fin Soup
February 1st 2011 21:00
National Maritime Museum shark products display
Growing up in a traditional Chinese family, it went without saying traditional Chinese cuisine was the main and only part of my diet – hence my aversion to most types of Asian food today. What I dislike so much about traditional Chinese food is the lack of sauce and amount of steaming involved. I happen to hate bland foods. Rice would top my list of my most hated foods.
That said, one of the few traditional foods I could stomach was shark fin soup. I used to really enjoy it when I was a child. Then, about fifteen years ago, I started feeling nauseous from consuming it which led to me giving it up altogether.
The reason why I am having these thoughts is that on the weekend, I attended the Planet Shark exhibition that is currently on at the National Maritime Museum in Sydney. Not a big shark fan, I didn’t expect to leave the exhibition feeling awed by these magnificent creatures. The footage of live sharks being stripped of their fins and then being thrown back into the ocean only to die a slow, painful death moved me to tears. All this pain and suffering, not to mention, waste, just so we can have a bowl of shark fin soup which has no nutritional value and contains so much mercury that pregnant women and children are advised not to consume it. Maybe that was why I was getting sick.
My parents would accuse me of cultural imperialism which may or may not be the case. In my defence, I find it hard to respect or embrace their beliefs when so many of them have no medical proof (“HIV is airborne,” “Drinking hot Coca Cola can cure a cold,” “Washing your hair while you have your periods mean you will die,” etc). Regardless of this, I am glad I have stopped consuming shark fin soup.
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