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

中国现在臭名昭著的湿货市场被怀疑是人畜共患病的源头，再加上一年一度的玉林狗肉节遭到高调抗议，中国的人与人之间的关系成为了聚光灯下的焦点。然而，在中国笔下，人与动物的关系一段时间以来一直是一个变化着的、至关重要的问题。后毛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，以及高强度耕作技术的进口，这些技术通常在原产国被逐步淘汰(Park&Singer 2012)。随着人们从肉类生产的源头转移到城市，中产阶级的增长与宠物拥有量的增加同步增长。伴随着这些变化的是最近动物激进主义的迅速增加，最初关注环境问题，但越来越多地关注同伴动物和更广泛的与动物的关系(Li 2006)。这场运动的批评者试图对其不屑一顾，认为它是从西方输入的，而支持者则试图将其追溯到传统的儒家或道家的自然观，或佛教的同情心思想(Fiskejo 2017)。相反，一些学者提出，激进主义和社会运动是形成新的伦理生存方式的例子，在这种方式中，行为者打破了先前存在的道德和规范，施加了可以被称为一种自由的形式，创造了新的个人伦理(Dave 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).