The difficulties of being a vegetarian in China
Updated
Chinese cuisine is popular the world over, but one group who struggle with it is vegetarians. Meat is nearly always on the table, no matter what part of China the cuisine comes from.
It is so ubiquitous that Zhang Xiuyan has long grown used to the difficulties of being a vegetarian in China.
The 67-year-old cannot eat meat because it upsets her stomach.
"Every time I go out, I encounter the same situation," she says.
"I tell them 'I don't eat meat, so in the soup, please don't include chicken or duck. And in the fried rice I can't have pork'.
"But when they serve it, there's always a little bit of meat."
Ms Zhang says it's sometimes just an issue of communication.
"For example, when they serve green beans, there's some pork mince in the sauce. I say 'how come there's still meat?'" she says.
"And the waiters look and say, 'Oh that? That shouldn't be a problem!'"
Number of China's vegetarians growing
Ms Zhang is among 50 million Chinese who are believed to be vegetarian, a bit under 4 per cent of the massive 1.4 billion population.
By comparison, around 11 per cent of Australians are vegetarian, while in India up to 40 per cent of the country goes meat-free.
Traditionally in poorer times meat was a luxury, with most of those who avoided it from China's religious minority groups.
But times are changing, and with them cultural attitudes.
"In recent years it's changed. Now when I tell them, they say 'Oh you're a vegetarian, no problem," Ms Zhang says.
Beijing resident Belle Zhao is another vegetarian who has also had difficulties at restaurants.
"At some of the noodle restaurants here, even if you order a bowl with no meat, the broth is always made from meat stock," she says.
"We vegetarians can always taste it!"
She says a recent trip with friends up to China's north-east proved more difficult than other parts of the country.
"The food in the north-east is really meaty, so there wasn't a single dish we ordered that was vegetarian," she says.
"Every plate on the table in one way or another had a little bit of meat in it."
'Are you a Muslim?'
It's also a challenge vegetarians from abroad face too.
Like the others, Jasmine Barrett, an Australian, faces a common assumption when she orders a meaty dish.
"When I tell people I don't eat meat I often get asked 'are you a Muslim?' Which I think is kind of funny," she says.
"I generally try to avoid telling people why I don't eat meat, but if they ask I say it's because I like animals.
"And I don't want to imply because somebody does eat meat they don't love animals."
She says discussions about meat eating generally are respectful in China, but sometimes it's a little difficult to find common ground.
"When I'm speaking to Chinese people generally they think foreigners have different ideas about the world, and if [I choose] not to eat meat that must be something that we don't really understand because we don't see things from the same perspective," she says.
Luckily for Jasmine, Beijing has an increasing number of vegetarian restaurants, some inspired by a Buddhist ethos, others simply promoting a meat-free lifestyle.
China's meat consumption has rapidly risen in line with the country's economic growth, but the average Chinese person still only consumes about half as much meat each year as the average Australian.
Experts fear if Chinese meat consumption were to match Western levels, there could be devastating environmental consequences.
So Ms Zhang says increasing awareness of vegetarian needs is long overdue.
"With more people becoming vegetarians, restaurants are making changes," she says.
"They have to stay in business by catering to the increasing number of non-meat eaters.
"So these days when I go out to restaurants, there are still some problems, but it's not anywhere as bad as it used to be."
Topics: diet-and-nutrition, food-and-cooking, food-safety, food-and-beverage, health, china, asia
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