8 Animals Eaten Alive In China – Graphic Content

Table of Contents

• 1 Animals eaten alive:
  • 1.1 Oysters
  • 1.2 Drunken Shrimps
  • 1.3 Dead and Alive Fish
  • 1.4 Snakes
  • 1.5 Live Fresh Donkey
  • 1.6 Raw alive monkey brain
  • 1.7 Baby Mice 三吱儿
  • 1.8 Alive baby duck embryos
  • 1.9 Others
• 2 Sources and Photos:
  • 2.1 Post Author
    • 2.1.1 Dominique Musorrafiti
  • 2.2 Related

Some religious people are forbidden to eat any portion that is cut from animals that are still alive.

On the contrary, the practice of eating alive animals is widespread around Asia. Monkey brains, fishes, baby mice, donkeys, snakes in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and even China are considered delicious and synonymous with freshness.

Related: Traditional Chinese Medicine animal markets, Yulin dog festivals, Traditional Chinese Medicine Animals: a list of species threatened by TCM

Animals eaten alive:

Oysters

Oysters are the most common animal often eaten raw and alive even in the West.

In fact, they are considered healthiest when eaten raw on the half shell.

Drunken Shrimps

A popular traditional Chinese dish is Zui Xia, Drunken Shrimps. It is also possible to find it in some Chinese Restaurants in the United States. Freshwater shrimps are dipped in an alcoholic drink, usually baijiu.

In the beginning, the shrimps try to jump around to escape and the consumers have to catch them.

Once intoxicated, the shrimps are easier to eat. They only die, finally, when being chewed.

Modified recipes are used in different parts of China. This dish is quite expensive because to serve the shrimps alive, it must be prepared quickly and the chef must be skillful.

The dish is banned in China, but it’s still possible to find it.

Dead and Alive Fish

Another popular alive food in China is Ying Yang Yu, Dead and Alive Fish because the fish’s body is rapidly deep-fried and served while the head, not fried, is still fresh and moving.

It is prepared extremely quickly, with care not to damage the internal organs, so the fish can remain alive for 30 minutes.

It is served with sweet and sour sauce on the body.

One of the reasons that make this dish popular is because the restaurant boasts about how fresh the fish is.

Snakes

Alive snakes are specialties of Chinese chefs.

Also, this dish is prepared very quickly so that the customers can eat snake meat when it is still alive and moving.

The chef, faster as he can, cut the head, remove the skin, remove the bowels, in such a way as to eliminate the parasites, cut the meat, and serve the raw snake.

Raw alive snake meat sometimes was reported by the media, eaten by peasants without chef’s help.

You can watch a video here.

Live Fresh Donkey

Not so popular in all China is to eat Huo Jiao Lu (活叫驴), Live Fresh Donkey.

The animal has its legs tied and its body held down, while the chef cuts its body and serves the meat immediately to customers.

Some media reported that alive raw donkey meat could be sold from peddlers in Henan and Hubei even if the Chinese government banned it.

Raw alive monkey brain

Raw alive monkey brain is a special dish affordable only by very rich people and is possible to order it only in Guangdong and, once, in Hong Kong.

The chef puts a live monkey beneath a table with its head poking up through a hole, the customers then eat its brains while it screams.

This dish is very expensive.

Sometimes customers that order this dish want to prove their richness and bravery, but many can’t swallow a single bite.

The dish was banned in China.

A scene from the 1978 movie Faces of Death by John Alan Schwartz

A representation of how the monkey brain is eaten

Baby Mice 三吱儿

Newborn mice (San Zhi Er) are eaten alive with chopsticks and served in a spicy sauce.

They are called “three squeaks babies” because they would scream three times: the first time when they are grabbed with the chopsticks, the second time when they are dipped in the sauce, and the third final squeak inside the mouth of the customer.

Also, this dish has been banned in China.

Here you can check the page in Baike Baidu, the Chinese Wikipedia. Here instead you can watch a video whose vision is not recommended for a sensitive audience.

Alive baby duck embryos

Alive duck embryos (活珠子) are a famous Nanjing speciality.

Duck embryos are eaten when the egg is about to hatch into life but it does not fully form.

Sometimes, in other areas, the egg is boiled before being consumed. 活珠子 is a variation of Balut, Duck Embryo, a dish originally from the Philippines.

The main difference with the original recipe is that instead of eating the eggs boiled, in China they eat them raw.

Raw alive embryo

Cooked embryo

Others

Every year Chinese media reported about cases of Chinese peasants that eaten raw alive meat. Two of the most particular are the cases of Wen Xide and Jiang Musheng.

Wen Xide is a peasant from of Wangzhuang village, Zhumadian. The 41 years old man said, in 2009, he ate alive snakes with a cold beer.

In 2007 Jiang Musheng, from a village in Shangrao, Jiangxi province claimed that eating live frogs cured his intestinal problems. He also eats live mice and baby rats.

The 66-year-old man admitted once he ate 20 mice in a single day.

Sources and Photos:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_animals#cite_note-Reuters-6 , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_live_seafood , http://www.reuters.com/ , http://www.chinawhisper.com, http://www.cracked.com/ , http://news.sina.com.cn/http://bbs.voc.com.cn/topic-4859619-1-1.html , http://travel.sina.com.cn/food/2008-10-23/102931653.shtml , http://baike.baidu.com/view/865526.htm , http://app1.chinadaily.com.cn/star/2004/0219/cu18-1.html , http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9dc_1371560196

via Cina Oggi

Topic: faces of death monkey, animals eaten alive, do people eat gorillas, eating animals alive videos, mouse Chinese food, do Chinese eat rats, eating rats alive, mouse Chinese food, who eats mice

Post Author

Dominique Musorrafiti

CHINA-UNDERGROUND. Ciao! My name is Dominique. I’m Italian and I’m proud to be a mix. My father was an Italian chemical engineer and high school teacher, with Greek and Polish heritage. My mother is Haitian, she was high school language teacher, with Dominican, Spanish, French, Portuguese, African and Native American heritage. Being a mix makes me appreciate to want to understand different cultures and lifestyles. I grew up in Italy, lived few years in Haiti, travel around main European capitals, lived seven years in China, six in Spain and UK. Traveling makes me feel that we can learn something from every situation in every part of the world.

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