With that I refer to “Companies, ministries take shark’s fin off menus” (Nov 12). I am impressed to see more organisations officially taking shark fin dish out of the menu at their functions. It is a great step forward to save sharks.
However I feel that there is still a large group of people not taking any initiative to say “No” to shark’s fin. They are mainly the people from the older generation, who are resistant to move away their favourite dish. They valued and viewed shark’s fin as a symbol of power according to the Chinese tradition. They would have shark’s fins at family dinners.
The challenge now is was how to communicate the message clearly behind this decision to the elder dinner guests. The desire for shark’s fin certainly stems from ignorance of the truth and a long entrenched perception of it as a symbol of affluence.
We can tell the older generation people that it is ridiculous to kill millions of sharks for the non-existent "status" that egotistical humans try to label themselves with by consuming shark fin soup - tasteless meat and flavourful, rich chicken broth that is, of course, just as delicious without the fin. Both sharks and humankind will be much happier with the fins where they should belong instead of landing on our dinner tables.
Creating anti-shark’s fin cards to be placed on every dining table is another great idea to serve as a reminder to all dinners. Avoid printing graphic images or preachy messages inside the cards. Instead we very gently encouraged our guests in a bilingual few-liner to abstain from shark’s fin because of the environmental impact. These lovely cards sparked some animated discussions during the dinner and will eventually convince more guests through the spread of words from one person to another.
When everyone plays their part and stop eating shark’s fin, I have the confidence that sharks will not become extinct one day!