Oh my......I- I- am speechless. As a Vietnamese, I got a reaction from reading that but.... My first thought would be to deem it cultural appropriation...but, not sure... I'll translate for anyone else that stumbles upon this image... Cây Hương = Civet (which in Vietnam isn't really eaten....more of a China thing, but still) Rùa Núi = Mountain Turtle (which is I think the Annam turtle? Though they are either imported or farmed now....) Lợn Rừng = Wild Boar (which is pretty good, but it's common globally) I just dont understand how they managed to create it in a borderline offensive way...
I'll need to explain some things on here as well..... I dont see the education value in the theming of this, which I feel could be deemed cultural appropriation. Why would you use the language in an uneducational way? Who in London is going to understand that menu (its literally just a menu, so I guess the educational value is little in it)? But using the items of a culture as pure decoration and having no context or education around it? The informational paragraph says that "turtles are eaten", almost 10 million a year. Most of these turtles are farmed, and most if not all are imported from China into Vietnam (using Vietnam as the example because I think it's aimed towards Vietnam). How would we source 10 million annual turtles from a population of turtles that's virtually extinct in the wild?? Along with the Annam Leaf Turtles, softshell turtles are also farmed, to add to my statement on Asian cultures eating turtles. This is also the same case with civets, which isn't as "industrialised" as farmed turtles, but in many places the civets are farmed and not wild. I feel that this is a bit of context that is left out of a lot of conservationist's messages, and whilst I agree with the conservation works and missions, I feel it unfairly paints Asia as a place of eating wild animals barbarically, in which the West ignores their own people shooting and eating wild deer, raccoons, squirrels, and even bats (this is in the US that I'm referring to but I'm sure that bushmeat is common WORLDWIDE and a lot in the West). Not to mention that a lot of the West's influence in Asia had bad effects on the wildlife, so it can't be entirely blamed on us...
@ZooBinh Oh yes, I'm not a great fan of the 'Holier than thou' attitude countries in the West pick up to denounce Eastern/African countries of wildlife crimes. We both have problems, and as you say, we both hunt wild animals and we both have highly endangered species in our country!
