Shark fin soup

Taste for Shark Fin Fades Slightly in China

For something that doesn't really taste all that great, shark fin soup is a ridiculously popular and prestigious dish in Chinese culture. I had the chance to taste it at my uncle's 80th birthday at a restaurant that still had some fins from before they banned it in California. I shudder to think at the cost, but then again, that's how it should be. Expensive, so that fewer people can buy it, thus decreasing the demand for shark fin, hopefully. The shark fin in the soup is pretty tasteless; it's really just there for texture. The majority of the taste comes from the broth it's in. I think when I ate mine, I tried a little bit of it, then gave the rest to my parents (or someone) because I didn't care for it much and was already full from the ridiculous amount of food that had already come out.

Personally, I don't have anything against the dish itself, nor the fact that it involves eating shark. I do not, however, condone the practice of finning - the practice of just cutting off the shark's fin and dumping the body back in the ocean to die - and the fact that, in order to keep up with the demand, suppliers are depleting the shark population, which has huge effects on oceanic ecosystems. If there were a way to use both the fins and the body for the shark, instead of just dumping it, along with a way to contain overfishing, I don't think there would be too much of an issue with eating it; on the contrary, I think it's a part of the culture and perfectly fine to eat if caught in an ethical way.

But controversy aside, I wanted to take a look at why Shark Fin Soup carries so much cultural capital and prestige with it, and its history, and how it got to this point - and by quick look, mostly I mean looking at wikipedia and the links in the references and on google. Hooray, "research."

From what I've been reading - both on wiki and other sites like NY Times and Time Magazine - the soup itself originated during the Ming dynasty and was a delicacy only for the rich (presumably because it was pretty dangerous to catch, not to mention difficult). However, in the recent years, due to a rising affluent middle/upper middle Chinese population, more Chinese families can afford to splurge on the soup.

I'd also hazard a guess that as the number of affluent families increase, so too does the need to differentiate and to distinguish themselves from those families they consider beneath them in status. Doing so involves the consumption of not only foods, but other status symbols that carry cultural capital and prestige. Hence the increase in demand for shark fin soup. My hypothesis would be that if one were to observe the social status/class of the people who consume shark fin soup, the majority of these families would fall within that grey area of families who are trying to change classes, or whom are at the top of the middle class or bottom of the upper class. Those families are at the highest risk (or potential) of social mobility, and probably the ones that require the most conspicuous consumption of goods that will help them stay in their desired social class. Just a theory though. It could also be lots and lots of really rich people.

Also interesting, and slightly tangentially related, according to someone interviewed by the Times, is that the three treasures of the sea in China are abalone, shark fin, and sea cucumber. I never would have expected sea cucumber to make that list on account of... how easy it is to catch them. Unless sea cucumbers secretly had these mouths with rows and rows of teeth. That would be terrifying.

Further reading:
Bird, Maryanne. "Man Bites Shark." Times online. February 2001. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,100660,00.html?iid=fb_share

Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark_fin_soup

Qin, Amy. NYTimes.com "Taste for Shark Fin Fades Slightly in China." (see link at top)