It's hard to imagine what Alice Wong's office was thinking when it decided to hold a press conference at which our local MP would slurp down a bowl of perhaps the most controversial item on the political menu - shark fin soup.
The scene was deeply offensive to those concerned about animal cruelty and the health of our ecosystem. Many shark fins are harvested by finning (capturing a shark, cutting off its fin, throwing it back into the ocean to bleed to death.) As well, a number of shark species are threatened or endangered and their demise would have a devastating impact on our oceans.
The scene was also problematic on a race level. Only Asian media were invited to the press conference.
Ouch.
As we have reported, Wong's office said there was no intention of excluding the mainstream or non-Asian media. This was just an oversight.
Maybe so, but the optics are bad. The Richmond News has never been inundated with so many letters, all of which expressed disgust at what many viewed as Wong's in-your-face defense of an indefensible Chinese tradition. Even the Biennale exhibit of Miss Mao on the head of Lenin didn't generate so many letters in a 24-hour period.
It could be that the shark fin Wong was eating came from a non-threatened species of shark that was harvested ethically. The problem is, we don't know and have no way to find out. These sharks are harvested in foreign waters and the product is not adequately labelled.
Moreover, this very real environmental concern has metastasized into some very hot emotions about race and cultural accommodation. It's hard to see what Wong was hoping for out of this. If it was to secure support from a certain segment of the Chinese community, she may have done that, but at a price. Such a display has the potential of creating a damaging ethnic divide. Let's not bite at us-vs.-them thinking. Remember, most of the leading opponents of shark fin soup are Chinese. We need to keep our eyes on the fin.
