Exploring affective ethics and moral actions in the grassroots animal movement in China

怀疑动物传染病起源于现在臭名昭著的中国湿货市场，沿着针对玉林狗肉节的高调抗议活动，使中国的动物与人类关系成为人们关注的焦点。然而，一段时间以来，中国人与动物的关系一直是一个不断变化的关键问题。后毛泽东时代不断增长的人口和财富导致了世界上最高的肉类消费配额之一，以及高强度农业技术的进口，而这些技术往往在原产国被逐步淘汰（Park & Singer 2012）。虽然人们从肉类生产的源头转移到城市，但中产阶级的增长与宠物所有权的增加同时发生。这些变化伴随着最近动物行动主义的迅速增加，最初关注环境问题，但越来越多地关注伴侣动物和更广泛的动物关系（Li 2006）。对这场运动的批评者试图将其视为来自西方的进口，而支持者则试图将其追溯到传统的儒家或道家的自然观，或佛教的同情思想（Fiskesjo 2017）。虽然一些学者提出，行动主义和社会运动是形成新的道德存在方式的例子，其中演员打破预先存在的道德和规范，以发挥可以被称为自由的形式，创造新的个人道德（戴夫2012）。

The suspected origin of zoonotic diseases in the now infamous wet-markets of China, along with the high-profile protests against the yearly Yulin dog meat festival have brought animal-human relations in China into the spotlight. However, relations between people and animals in China have been a changing and crucial issue for some time. A growing population and wealth in the post-Mao era has resulted in one of the highest meat consumption quotas in the world, and the importation of high-intensity farming techniques, often as they are being phased out in the countries of origin (Park & Singer 2012). Whilst people move away from the source of meat production and into the cities, the middle class has grown concurrently with an increase in pet ownership. These changes have been accompanied by a recent rapid increase in animal activism, initially focusing on environmental issues but increasing focusing on companion animals and relations to animals more widely (Li 2006). Critics of the movement have tried to dismiss it as an import from the West, whilst supporters have attempted to trace it back to traditional Confucian or Taoist conceptions of nature, or Buddhist ideas of compassion (Fiskesjo 2017). Whilst some scholars have proposed instead that activism and social movements are examples of the formation of new ethical ways of being, where actors break from pre-existing moralities and norms to exert what could be termed a form of freedom, creating new personal ethics (Dave 2012).