Chinese seek to pull cats from the menu
10:03 PM PST, December 22 2008
Eating cats clearly has become socially unacceptable for many Chinese. When the Guangzhou-based newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily published an expose this month on a cat-snatching operation, it set off last week's demonstrations.
Chinese websites were filled with outrage.
L.A. Unleashed: the Times' pet blog"Guangdong people are the most unprincipled of the human species!" wrote one person. "They would eat their mothers-in-law if there was no law."
The dispute over eating cat cuts across the fault lines of Chinese society. Among the increasingly Westernized middle class, there is a fast-growing culture of cat fanciers who like them for cuddling, not eating. Restrictions on the size and number of dogs one can have as pets make cats popular pets in the city.
Inside Beijing's largest shopping mall, a dozen pampered felines recently lounged inside a huge display case of a pet store specializing in cats. Well-heeled shoppers strolled by oohing and aahing through the glass.
The pet store was a study in contrasts with the Yongxing- long food shop (the name means "Forever Prosperous") in Guangzhou. Butcher shops in these parts are not for the squeamish since much of the merchandise is sold alive and then butchered in front of the customers.
"Cat meat is good for women. You can eat it in the summer or winter. It is very light. Men usually prefer dog. It is like yin and yang. Cat is yin and dog is yang," said customer Jiang Changlin, who works for the local government.
He recommended that visitors try one of Guangdong's most famous recipes, "dragon fighting tiger," a dish made with both snake and cat, its distinctiveness coming from the competing power of the ingredients.
"Delicious!" Jiang said.
Still eager to sell the cat in the cage, the shop's manager, Tang Huacheng, suggested a simple recipe.
"You just have to boil the cat for a long time," Tang said. "It has a very nice, fresh taste."
Epilogue
After some negotiations, this reporter bought the cat alive for the equivalent of $9. A cage cost an additional $10.
Guangzhou is a dense city with almost no place to leave a cat. A row of apartment houses next to an empty lot seemed like a good place. There were small restaurants at street level. People sat around a plastic table on the sidewalk playing mah-jongg.
The cat, its underbelly white and soft and its hazel eyes clear, appeared tame. It walked calmly to sit under a shrub.
"Oh, we really need a cat here," said one of the women gathered around. "There are mice in the empty lot."
Her accent indicated that she came from northern China, and many of the people around the neighborhood were migrant workers from outside Guangdong. They don't eat cats.
We can only hope for the best.
Eliot Gao and Nicole Liu of The Times' Beijing Bureau contributed to this report.