Chinese Takeaways: Vegetarian culture in contemporary China

Abstract

Vegetarianism has a long tradition in Chinese culture. Both Chinese Buddhism and Daoism promote a vegetarian diet based on the teaching of not taking life. Both also have had a long and fine vegetarian cuisine culture as a healthy lifestyle and a culinary art form. Bean curd was invented by the Chinese some 2,000 years ago. However, if you visit China today, it is not easy to find a vegetarian restaurant or come across a vegetarian. Interestingly, in the past few years, vegetarian restaurants started to appear in major Chinese cities in increasing numbers. This paper first provides an overview of the Chinese vegetarian tradition for the cultural context, and then focuses on vegetarianism in contemporary China. It presents the results from a recent survey on Chinese vegetarian culture before discussing the implications of the study, in particular in relation to ethical eating and animal welfare as a new consideration in Chinese vegetarianism, Chinese health issues associated with meat eating, and a general characterization of the vegetarian culture in contemporary China.