Wet Markets, a Thread

There's a lot of talk about "wet markets" in China, to the point where it has become largely a slur for any and all things deems "unsanitary" or "gross" or "unconscionable" about some minority eating habits.

(1/17)

So, let's get in to it. What is a "wet market?" It's not nearly the Texas Chainsaw Massacre fetid slaughterhouse floor you might think it is. It is, in essence, a market for farm-fresh goods - perishables.

(2/17)

This includes slaughtered-at-purchase meats, yes (they're not slaughtering pigs or cows on-site, mind you... those are a little unwieldy to keep in a vendor-booth... more like chickens and fish).

(3/17)

It's also, at least as much, a place where people go to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, and other goods - typically directly from the farmers who've trucked or carted them into town that morning.

(4/17)

Why is this important?
Chinese people - now this might sound strange at first, but I'll explain, so bear with me - have trust issues with their government.

(5/17)

Does this come as a shock to you? It shouldn't. Take even a cursory look at China' history & see at most times in its history, the people are only grudgingly tolerating the government's eternal bullshittery. Take a look at all the peasant rebellions.

(6/17)

China's relationship to food and trust has been shaken a bit too frequently. I recall my own 1st yr here - 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics - when it broke that a company making baby-formula had been cutting it with Melamine (that is, a chemical fire-retardant)...

(7/17)

to make it "look" like it had more protein than it actually did. 300k people sick, 54k infants hospital'd, & 12 died. That's just one scandal, from 12 years ago, and Chinese people would still often rather fly to AU than buy CN-produced baby-formula. Can you blame them?

(8/17)

So, suffice it to say there are some longstanding trust issues with food that one cannot actually stand there and *see* being prepared... from field to plate.

(9/17)

That's half the fun of a lot of small restaurants in China... You can watch, within minutes, every step for the process - going from a lump of dough and a bubbling cauldron, to a delicious bowl of noodles.

(10/17)

Wet markets provide that for many, in a way that more Western-conventional supermarkets often do not. Supermarkets in cities like Shanghai often go out-of-their-way to look and feel overtly "foreign" in order to make them seem, ironically, more trustworthy.

(11/17)

Those that don't go for that hyperwestern aesthetic, instead go the route of the ... "wet market"... of having live animals in the tanks, and those animals they can't keep live in supermarkets, *very* prominently on-display as being ultra, super fresh.

(12/17)

So, what is a "wet market?" It's pretty much a farmers' market. That's it. Farmers' markets that - worldwide - about 5 billion people rely on for their daily nutritional needs.

(13/17)

What do people mean when they invoke the term "wet market" and bring up bats, pangolins, and bear bile?

That's a different thing. Those are Exotic Animal Mkts. & those are bad. Those shouldn't exist, cruel, dangerous, & their continued operation is rightly to be derided

(14/17)

They're also relatively rare. Not everyone- indeed very, vanishingly few people in China (though again, that's in terms of China's overall population, so the naked numbers can look shocking to Western eyes) - ever have been in one, much less frequent or buy from them.

(15/17)

They're primarily for the "Traditional Chinese Medicine" quacks. They more like the Vodoun Witch Doctor's shop, or Joe Exotic's tiger zoo... yeah they're there, and they suck, but they're still there. Even though we all know that they really shouldn't be.

(16/17)

So, in conclusion:
* "wet markets" - not bad, actually pretty good!
* "exotic animal markets" & quack TCM shops - bad places that should be shut down

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

(Fin/17)