17-year old activistWhen I try to look back on how China changed since I first met the country, early 1990s, especially the fierce online debates among its citizens continue to fascinate me. Take for example the protest in Guangdong against the eating of cats (here summarized by the excellent ChinaSmack). Obvious, not everybody is submerged in gloomy deliberations about the economic crisis. Some actually decide to fight for moral values.
This is not your typical NIMBY-protest like you see them in large numbers in China, but this is a middle-class like protest for moral values. If you would have told me back in the 1990s this would happen, I would not have taken you very serious.
Even more, when you look how the authorities react - represented by both the media and the police - you see a fairly relaxed attitude. TV-reporters interview the protesters, police inspects their leaflets and everybody moves on.
The netizens react divided, as always, suggesting pigs and mosquito's deserve equal protection as cats. Still 35 percent finds them delicious.
More pictures and debate at ChinaSMACK.
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Howard Frenchby Fons1 via Flickr
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