8 ms·

China's effort to reduce shark fin soup consumption was incredibly effective. I hope this will be equally successful.

daslicious 10y ago
interesting. i would have thought they would choose not to enforce
ChicagoBoy11 10y ago
... and apparently one of the most effective strategies was using Yao Ming and Jackie Chan as spokespeople against shark fin consumption!
- Waterluvian 10y ago
  I remember the day Mr. T convinced me not to do drugs.
  - addicted 10y ago
    Drugs are biologically and psychologically addictive. Stuff like ivory have social appeal. The only reason they are valuable (like diamonds) is because others think they are valuable. So having celebrities decry them hits them directly at their source of appeal unlike drugs. This doesn't affect the bs medicinal market directly but if it reduces the value but keeps the cost high anyways (thanks to additional penalties) it may make the medicines less appealing to those who are price conscious. Of course this is discrimination against the poor and could be a genuine issue if they had real medicinal value but since they actually don't it's much more defensible.
    - Flimm 10y ago
      I think drugs have a social component too. No one is addicted to drugs before trying them for the first time.
  - pselbert 10y ago
    Public awareness campaigns were key in stopping the ivory trade within the United States (before it was ramped up again by the Chinese). Demand is the real problem, and creating the image that ivory (or shark fin soup) isn't cool is extremely effective.
    - StavrosK 10y ago
      Do you have any example of such a campaign? I'm only aware of things like "drugs aren't cool", which isn't going to sway anyone. I wonder what an effective example of a public awareness campaign looks like.
      - adamnemecek 10y ago
        I think that the second wave of KKK was stopped by something like this. The shark fin campaign in China was also a success.
      - wavefunction 10y ago
        The US undertook a widespread anti-littering campaign in the 1950s. We of course still have rubbish making it's way onto our road and walk ways but it's nothing compared to much of the rest of the world.
        ghaff 10y ago
        And it's nothing compared to what it used to be like in the US. Many people used to think nothing of just tossing food trash out the window. The whole anti-littering campaign story is interesting. Apparently the original campaign that everyone (at least everyone over a certain age) remembers with the crying "Indian" (who was actually an Italian-American actor) wasn't really all that effective. One of the later campaigns that were considered more effective included "Don't Mess with Texas" which featured actors like Chuck Norris.
    - matthewmarkus 10y ago
      Calling public awareness campaigns "extremely effective" is a vast simplification of the matter. Public awareness campaigns are good at pushing a substance towards being banned. Once a substance is prohibited, it is subject to the "forbidden fruit" effect, which I've mentioned below [1]. Additionally, if public awareness campaigns continue under a ban, they're likely to induce a "boomerang" effect. For instance, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign may have promoted drug use and pro-cannabis attitudes in the young [2]. Crazy, right? Well, California did just legalize marijuana! My guess is that parent is obliquely referring to that phenomenon. In my chosen domain of rhinos, it is starting to look as though the public awareness campaigns run from 2008 to 2014 very well could've accidently spread the message that rhino horn is rare, risky, and desirable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287393 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287393 [2] http://findings.org.uk/docs/Ashton_M_1.pdf http://findings.org.uk/docs/Ashton_M_1.pdf
  - Camillo 10y ago
    To be fair, you also had countless celebrities broadcasting the message that drugs are cool and awesome.
  - ulisesrmzroche 10y ago
    Propaganda doesn't work on the good stuff.
- adamnemecek 10y ago
  Yao Ming is actually doing a lot for this cause as well. I posted about this a while back as well https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8271382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8271382
justicezyx 10y ago
Kudos to Chinese government to work together with international society and celebrities to raise the awareness of normal Chinese people. Shark fin was considered a delicacy, but in fact not tasty at all. Most people just need to get the truth be told to them in a way that they are willing to listen, Cheng Long and Yao Ming are perfect public faces for such effort.
- kahrkunne 10y ago
  > Shark fin was considered a delicacy, but in fact not tasty at all. What a meaningless statement - that is as subjective as can be.
  - inimino 10y ago
    Not really. Think tofu. 99/100 people will agree it is boring.
  - justicezyx 10y ago
    I assume you are not Chinese. Shark fin is populated almost everywhere as some kind of unbelievable delicacy, only the most previleged individuals can afford them. Such illusion is portraited in books, films, casual chats, etc. This type of mysterious image of a thing, which actually is neither delicious nor highly nutritious, makes any banning of such thing impossible. Bescause everyone is convinced that it is that good, including those who are in charge of making the decision. It was only after many years of gradual shift in public perception that makes the eventual tide turn happens. Now most people would agree that shark fin is expensive, because they are from sharks, not because they are incredibly delicious. When I said "not tasty at all", that definitely is subjective. But at the same time it is reprentative. Because shark fin tastes just like "fen si", with fishy scent. "Fen si" is something that every Chinese eat daily. That is quite different from what one would expect from the images of popular sources. If something just tastes like another thing that one eats daily, does that make it a delicacy at all?!
    - brianwawok 10y ago
      I think lobster is not tasty at all. It used to be fed to prisoners 200 years ago. How do we get people to stop fawning over it and admit it's an ocean cochroach?

interesting. i would have thought they would choose not to enforce

... and apparently one of the most effective strategies was using Yao Ming and Jackie Chan as spokespeople against shark fin consumption!

Waterluvian 10y ago
I remember the day Mr. T convinced me not to do drugs.
- addicted 10y ago
  Drugs are biologically and psychologically addictive. Stuff like ivory have social appeal. The only reason they are valuable (like diamonds) is because others think they are valuable. So having celebrities decry them hits them directly at their source of appeal unlike drugs. This doesn't affect the bs medicinal market directly but if it reduces the value but keeps the cost high anyways (thanks to additional penalties) it may make the medicines less appealing to those who are price conscious. Of course this is discrimination against the poor and could be a genuine issue if they had real medicinal value but since they actually don't it's much more defensible.
  - Flimm 10y ago
    I think drugs have a social component too. No one is addicted to drugs before trying them for the first time.
- pselbert 10y ago
  Public awareness campaigns were key in stopping the ivory trade within the United States (before it was ramped up again by the Chinese). Demand is the real problem, and creating the image that ivory (or shark fin soup) isn't cool is extremely effective.
  - StavrosK 10y ago
    Do you have any example of such a campaign? I'm only aware of things like "drugs aren't cool", which isn't going to sway anyone. I wonder what an effective example of a public awareness campaign looks like.
    - adamnemecek 10y ago
      I think that the second wave of KKK was stopped by something like this. The shark fin campaign in China was also a success.
    - wavefunction 10y ago
      The US undertook a widespread anti-littering campaign in the 1950s. We of course still have rubbish making it's way onto our road and walk ways but it's nothing compared to much of the rest of the world.
      - ghaff 10y ago
        And it's nothing compared to what it used to be like in the US. Many people used to think nothing of just tossing food trash out the window. The whole anti-littering campaign story is interesting. Apparently the original campaign that everyone (at least everyone over a certain age) remembers with the crying "Indian" (who was actually an Italian-American actor) wasn't really all that effective. One of the later campaigns that were considered more effective included "Don't Mess with Texas" which featured actors like Chuck Norris.
  - matthewmarkus 10y ago
    Calling public awareness campaigns "extremely effective" is a vast simplification of the matter. Public awareness campaigns are good at pushing a substance towards being banned. Once a substance is prohibited, it is subject to the "forbidden fruit" effect, which I've mentioned below [1]. Additionally, if public awareness campaigns continue under a ban, they're likely to induce a "boomerang" effect. For instance, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign may have promoted drug use and pro-cannabis attitudes in the young [2]. Crazy, right? Well, California did just legalize marijuana! My guess is that parent is obliquely referring to that phenomenon. In my chosen domain of rhinos, it is starting to look as though the public awareness campaigns run from 2008 to 2014 very well could've accidently spread the message that rhino horn is rare, risky, and desirable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287393 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13287393 [2] http://findings.org.uk/docs/Ashton_M_1.pdf http://findings.org.uk/docs/Ashton_M_1.pdf
- Camillo 10y ago
  To be fair, you also had countless celebrities broadcasting the message that drugs are cool and awesome.
- ulisesrmzroche 10y ago
  Propaganda doesn't work on the good stuff.
adamnemecek 10y ago
Yao Ming is actually doing a lot for this cause as well. I posted about this a while back as well https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8271382 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8271382

justicezyx 10y ago

Kudos to Chinese government to work together with international society and celebrities to raise the awareness of normal Chinese people. Shark fin was considered a delicacy, but in fact not tasty at all. Most people just need to get the truth be told to them in a way that they are willing to listen, Cheng Long and Yao Ming are perfect public faces for such effort.

kahrkunne 10y ago
> Shark fin was considered a delicacy, but in fact not tasty at all. What a meaningless statement - that is as subjective as can be.
- inimino 10y ago
  Not really. Think tofu. 99/100 people will agree it is boring.
- justicezyx 10y ago
  I assume you are not Chinese. Shark fin is populated almost everywhere as some kind of unbelievable delicacy, only the most previleged individuals can afford them. Such illusion is portraited in books, films, casual chats, etc. This type of mysterious image of a thing, which actually is neither delicious nor highly nutritious, makes any banning of such thing impossible. Bescause everyone is convinced that it is that good, including those who are in charge of making the decision. It was only after many years of gradual shift in public perception that makes the eventual tide turn happens. Now most people would agree that shark fin is expensive, because they are from sharks, not because they are incredibly delicious. When I said "not tasty at all", that definitely is subjective. But at the same time it is reprentative. Because shark fin tastes just like "fen si", with fishy scent. "Fen si" is something that every Chinese eat daily. That is quite different from what one would expect from the images of popular sources. If something just tastes like another thing that one eats daily, does that make it a delicacy at all?!
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    I think lobster is not tasty at all. It used to be fed to prisoners 200 years ago. How do we get people to stop fawning over it and admit it's an ocean cochroach?