1. I am ethnic Han Chinese
2. I lived in china for 2 1/2 years
Not entirely sure what that has got to do with what I said, so I’ll have to take a stab in the dark...
China’s population is so vast and its people’s cultures are so diverse, it’s impossible to arrive at the conclusion that only a very small and negligible part of the population eats wild animals simply based on your 2 1/2 years’ experience of living in China, which is likely to be centered in a particular place, and involve you encountering a very small sliver of the entire population. So I’d say your statement is probably no better than that of an article which was backed by numbers (albeit very roughly), or the statement of a farmer who actually engages in such trade, in terms of accuracy.
And that’s not even taking into consideration how long ago the experience you’re talking about is.
3. HK is also notorious for their diet of birds nest and sharkfins etc.
Sure, but do we consume it live, and are these foods equally dangerous for consumption, as in that they also have a high probability of carrying viruses that, once consumed, can easily be contagious between humans?
I’ve just read an article that says the long time it takes to manufacture birds’ nests makes them less likely to be transmitters of infectious deadly viruses than birds themselves when consumed. As for sharkfins, I did a quick search, and didn’t find any reports of them being carriers of infectious viruses. The closest I can find is that they contain metals that may be harmful to the human body (infertility, etc.), but that isn’t something that can be easily transmitted.
Besides, I haven’t seen HKers biting into raw sharkfins or birds’ nests and tearing them apart with their teeth alone.
