{"id":1565,"date":"2018-03-02T16:40:03","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T16:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/sci\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2022-05-20T11:47:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T10:47:07","slug":"on-the-meat-edge-meat-consumption-and-reduction-in-middle-class-urban-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/sci\/2018\/03\/02\/on-the-meat-edge-meat-consumption-and-reduction-in-middle-class-urban-china\/","title":{"rendered":"On the \u2018meat edge\u2019? Meat consumption and reduction in middle class urban China"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The researchers suggest we should take the on-going dynamics of everyday life in China as a starting point, rather than simply focusing on creating food transitions through top-down interventions.<\/p>\n

In 2016 two sets of dietary guidelines were released in China promoting a reduction of meat consumption alongside other dietary changes. The international media \u2013\u00a0and climate campaigners \u2013 celebrated China\u2019s plan to cut meat consumption by 50%.<\/a>\u00a0But change is happening related to diets and meat consumption in China despite direct state intervention. In particular, diets are shifting for young and middle-class consumers. In a shock to the meat industries in China and beyond in the past three years sales of China\u2019s\u00a0most loved meat \u2013 pork \u2013 have been falling.<\/a>\u00a0The presumption that meat demand will continue to rise with an increasing Chinese middle class suddenly looks flawed.<\/p>\n

Recent qualitative research \u2013 undertaken as part of a research partnership between the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (Associate Professor Zhu Di) in Beijing and the Sustainable Consumption Institute (Dr Ali Browne & Dr Jo Mylan) at the University of Manchester \u2013 explores these changing dynamics of middle-class meat consumption. Talking to urban Chinese people in Beijing and Shanghai our participants revealed their desires for reducing the quantity of meat consumed in the diet, and increasing the quality of the meat to be consumed.<\/p>\n

The meanings of meat in China<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s important to reflect on the\u00a0symbolic values afforded to meat in the Chinese context.<\/a>\u00a0The meaning of different types of meat has varied across different dynastic periods; however, meat has maintained its symbolic value in terms of celebration and ceremony as well as being associated with\u00a0social status and position.\u00a0For example, pork has always played a leading role in \u201cChinese ancestral rites, wedding banquets, funeral rituals, graduation ceremonies, and communist party festivities. Pork, in other words, is central to all discussions of food in the Chinese world\u201d (Watson, 2014, p. 25).<\/p>\n

Meat has historically been a rare and luxury food as well as having associations with celebration and social occasions. With greater availability of meat on the market and\u00a0rising incomes<\/a>,\u00a0people have come to enjoy and feel entitled to\u00a0more frequent consumption of meat products.<\/a>\u00a0Meat consumption in China has risen with massive increases in urbanisation, a growing middle class,\u00a0increased eating out<\/a>,\u00a0and changing consumer preferences. Across China \u2018meat\u2019 (hun \u8364) is considered as a core ingredient of many meals. Traditionally, it has been incorporated as flavour, featuring as small pieces distributed throughout many meat\/vegetable dishes.<\/p>\n

Signs of Changing Diets in Middle-Class China: Meat Eating on the Move<\/p>\n

As governments and other actors look to influence meat consumption practices to improve health and sustainability there are a number of things that should be considered. The first is a need to look at how \u2018foodscapes\u2019 are changing in urban China. In cities like Beijing and Shanghai informal, smaller street vendors are slowly disappearing: replaced by 24-hour convenience stores and larger, formal restaurants. Our participants reflected that such changing systems of food provision within urban China make it more\u00a0difficult to participate in meat reducing diets.<\/a>\u00a0Larger quantities of meat have become woven into societal expectations about \u2018good\u2019 meals particularly when dining in restaurants. Some of our participants revealed the difficulties of eating a \u2018good\u2019 vegetarian meal, predominantly when eating outside of the home. Instead, there was a need to adopt dietary flexibility when practising vegetarianism or meat reduction. Some participants talked of needing to eat \u2018meat edge\u2019 foods (eating only the vegetables contained within mixed vegetable\/meat dishes) when eating out or with older family members.<\/p>\n

Partaking in meat reduction was also perceived to be difficult due to intergenerational ideas about health, familial responsibilities and ethics of care (filial piety \u2013 xi\u00e0o\u5b5d). For those attempting meat reduced lifestyles, it was identified as easier to navigate their diets on their own or with peers. For families where there were\u00a0multiple generations living with each other<\/a>,\u00a0the sense of respect for elders embedded in ideas of filial piety was holding back deeper practices of meat reduction or vegetarianism. Participants expressed a desire not to challenge their parents\u2019 or grandparents\u2019 dietary preferences or needs \u2013especially those family members who may have memories of food scarcity. These familial restrictions on meat avoidance were also embedded in intergenerational ideas of health and dietary diversity.<\/p>\n

The influence of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can be observed in our participants\u2019 views on the link between health and dietary diversity. A \u2018good diet\u2019 encompassed a diversity of food types, and on that basis, participants spoke of the irreplaceability of meat and animal sources of protein (such as milk, cheese, yoghurt). The hybridising of values about dietary diversity and health from both traditional and western-inspired discourses were underpinning participants\u2019 desires for meat reduced diets, as opposed to full dietary exclusion associated with fully vegetarian or vegan lifestyles.<\/p>\n

Our study suggests that long-established conceptions of diet and health are on the move in dynamics that precede China\u2019s 2016 Health Guidelines. Traditional views of diet are morphing with scientific information gathered from international and Chinese social media, the World Health Organisation and other international sources. A new set of values and views around health were emerging in the everyday lives of our participants \u2013 blending traditional ways of viewing meats\u2019 role within the diet with new, scientific evidence of the negative impacts of increasing meat consumption on health.<\/p>\n

Environmental sustainability messages concerning reducing meat consumption were rarely invoked in conversations about meat reduction or vegetarianism with our participants. Changing diets for both health and sustainability in China will take more than the release of government food pyramid guidelines. As such, those seeking to influence more sustainable dietary patterns in China might consider ways to leverage already shifting social values around health, beauty and diet across the Chinese middle classes as a potential route for change. Deeper consideration also needs to be given to the shifting systems of food provision within the Chinese context and how these spaces of \u2018eating out\u2019 can be made more conducive to \u2018meat reducing\u2019 or vegetarian diets.<\/p>\n

Reference and further reading:<\/h3>\n

Ministry of Public Health.\u00a0\u2018Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents 2016\u2019<\/em>(\u4e2d\u56fd\u5c45\u6c11\u81b3\u98df\u6307\u53572016\u5e74); State Council\u00a0\u2018Outline of Food and Nutrition in China 2014-2020\u2019<\/em>\u00a0issued by the State Council (\u4e2d\u56fd\u98df\u7269\u4e0e\u8425\u517b\u53d1\u5c55\u7eb2\u89812014\u20142020\u5e74)
Watson, J. L. (2014). Meat: A Cultural Biography in (South) China, in J.A. Klein & A. Murcott (eds),\u00a0Food Consumption in Global Perspective: Essays in the Anthropology of Food in Honour of Jack Goody<\/em>, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.25-44.<\/p>\n

People:<\/h4>\n