I’m a high schooler in Guangdong, China, and would love to attend one of your in-person lectures. Are you coming to this region? Is there a place where I can see the times and locations of your lecture tour? Thanks a lot!
I just returned from a three week vacation in China, and I was impressed by the Tibetans, who think about animal suffering a lot. They will eat a yak but not fish or chickens, because it is moral to kill one large animal that can feed many, but immoral to kill a small animal that can feed only one or two people.
That's good news, in particular, for animals in China, which have been suffering HUGELY. However, making Chinese respect animals would be extremely difficult -- even humans are not well respected in China! Anyway, it is great that an influential figure like Singer attempting to make some changes for China, but there is still a long long way to go.
Just to clarify, the large majority of Chinese people do respect other people… and living in harmony––which is sometimes put in spiritual terms––with other people and animals is an important aspect of Confucian culture! It’s something materialistic capitalism could learn from. (Without committing to communism/socialism; Singer is absolutely correct on this
I just noticed that you're a high schooler in Guangdong. You're young and probably more naive (because young people are on average more naive). I'm afraid you may not understand what a "beautiful" country you're living in. Perhaps the brainwashing "education" by the CCP has some effects on this. Probably you would not like my words, but when you know the dark truth of China better, hope that you would not be too surprised and disappointed. Maybe you can start from learning more about the life of animals in the West as compared to that in China, and about the human rights situation in the West as compared to that in China.
Well, maybe you mean "respect" and "harmony" -- with Chinese characteristics, haha... Just take living in harmony with other animals as an example. When you talk about animals like pig or cow with Chinese (btw, I am a Chinese from Hong Kong), what is one of their most common reactions (or maybe even "the" most common reaction)? From my personal experience and observation, they would talk about topics related to eating them (btw, my latest example of such a conversation is between me and my mother about rabbit two days ago). Is this what you mean by living in "harmony" with other animals (by eating them)? I don't mean Chinese culture and society do not have their bright sides. They have, of course. However, contemporary Chinese culture and society indeed have very dark sides. Facing the ugly truth is the first step for improving the situation.
While you’re absolutely right that I’m naive regarding political affairs, I grew up in an international school, many of my relatives are in Canada, and I spend my summers in the US––so less on the brainwashing part. Still, thank you for the advice to seek real-world experiences. I also saw your profile. You see, I come from a family of intellectuals (my great-grandparents were already professors, and my mother is one, too), so I have known many stories of a similar kind (I won’t elaborate on them for obvious reasons, but for one my great-grandfather was killed by the Red Guards). I am, of course, still eager to learn more about this complex history on my own. Regarding animal abuse, I just want to point out the ambiguity of the word “Chinese” as you use it––all I want to say is that generalizing particular instances (even if there’re many of them!) to a nationality/race/gender is usually not a good idea. Re: “harmony,” from a purely philosophical point of view, some would indeed hold the view that eating an animal may be a way of showing respect, establishing good relations, etc. (E.g., in the context of Indigenous studies.) You would disagree, but quite undeniably, there are harmony-seeking meat eaters out there (name your favorite non-vegetarian). On the flip side, I appreciate your agreement that there’re things to be learned from Chinese culture, speaking in the context of extractive capitalism and neoliberalism. But definitely, Chinese society has very dark sides.
I’m a high schooler in Guangdong, China, and would love to attend one of your in-person lectures. Are you coming to this region? Is there a place where I can see the times and locations of your lecture tour? Thanks a lot!
Where is the schedule? I am also in China but of course hard to see your lecture if there is no schedule.
I just returned from a three week vacation in China, and I was impressed by the Tibetans, who think about animal suffering a lot. They will eat a yak but not fish or chickens, because it is moral to kill one large animal that can feed many, but immoral to kill a small animal that can feed only one or two people.
That's good news, in particular, for animals in China, which have been suffering HUGELY. However, making Chinese respect animals would be extremely difficult -- even humans are not well respected in China! Anyway, it is great that an influential figure like Singer attempting to make some changes for China, but there is still a long long way to go.
Just to clarify, the large majority of Chinese people do respect other people… and living in harmony––which is sometimes put in spiritual terms––with other people and animals is an important aspect of Confucian culture! It’s something materialistic capitalism could learn from. (Without committing to communism/socialism; Singer is absolutely correct on this
I just noticed that you're a high schooler in Guangdong. You're young and probably more naive (because young people are on average more naive). I'm afraid you may not understand what a "beautiful" country you're living in. Perhaps the brainwashing "education" by the CCP has some effects on this. Probably you would not like my words, but when you know the dark truth of China better, hope that you would not be too surprised and disappointed. Maybe you can start from learning more about the life of animals in the West as compared to that in China, and about the human rights situation in the West as compared to that in China.
Well, maybe you mean "respect" and "harmony" -- with Chinese characteristics, haha... Just take living in harmony with other animals as an example. When you talk about animals like pig or cow with Chinese (btw, I am a Chinese from Hong Kong), what is one of their most common reactions (or maybe even "the" most common reaction)? From my personal experience and observation, they would talk about topics related to eating them (btw, my latest example of such a conversation is between me and my mother about rabbit two days ago). Is this what you mean by living in "harmony" with other animals (by eating them)? I don't mean Chinese culture and society do not have their bright sides. They have, of course. However, contemporary Chinese culture and society indeed have very dark sides. Facing the ugly truth is the first step for improving the situation.
While you’re absolutely right that I’m naive regarding political affairs, I grew up in an international school, many of my relatives are in Canada, and I spend my summers in the US––so less on the brainwashing part. Still, thank you for the advice to seek real-world experiences. I also saw your profile. You see, I come from a family of intellectuals (my great-grandparents were already professors, and my mother is one, too), so I have known many stories of a similar kind (I won’t elaborate on them for obvious reasons, but for one my great-grandfather was killed by the Red Guards). I am, of course, still eager to learn more about this complex history on my own. Regarding animal abuse, I just want to point out the ambiguity of the word “Chinese” as you use it––all I want to say is that generalizing particular instances (even if there’re many of them!) to a nationality/race/gender is usually not a good idea. Re: “harmony,” from a purely philosophical point of view, some would indeed hold the view that eating an animal may be a way of showing respect, establishing good relations, etc. (E.g., in the context of Indigenous studies.) You would disagree, but quite undeniably, there are harmony-seeking meat eaters out there (name your favorite non-vegetarian). On the flip side, I appreciate your agreement that there’re things to be learned from Chinese culture, speaking in the context of extractive capitalism and neoliberalism. But definitely, Chinese society has very dark sides.
Your project is Bold, Reasoned, and Beautiful.
The perfect person to present ethics - you simply are able to make very complex areas understandable to the ordinary person. Like me.