THE CHINESE PERCEPTION OF WILDLIFE - Wildlife Conservation in China: Preserving the Habitat of China's Wild West - page 75

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It bears reiterating that the prevalence of utilitarian and dominionistic and/or aesthetic
views is hardly uniquely Chinese, nor do these views, in themselves, prevent good land
management. In particular, the utilitarian outlook was recently found to be among the
most common in a large-scale survey of the U.S. public, 82 and even ranked number one
when data were obtained from references in newspapers rather than from random surveys
of individuals. 83 Further, the prevalence of both the utilitarian and dominionistic attitudes
expressed in the American press was found to increase as one looked further back in time
toward the year 1900. 84 To the degree that China is still not as “modern” as the United
States, one should therefore not be surprised to find these attitudes still strong.
Chinese perceptions of nature and wildlife are not monolithic, and simplifications are
always dangerous. Regardless of the historical period or particular ethnic group, however,
it seems safe to say that very few Chinese object to consumptive use. Views toward na-
ture were, and are, almost entirely based on the needs and desires of civilized mankind;
a unity was always seen between the two, but that unity did not necessarily mean that
wild or dangerous nature was respected (or left alone). 85 If not being used, wild animals
must certainly be controlled.
By far the predominant view among Chinese is that of wildlife as something to be used
by mankind. This utilitarian 86 attitude is so entrenched that it is more easily recognized by
Westerners than by Chinese themselves. While some Chinese scientists (and to a lesser de-
gree, members of the general populace) are beginning to emphasize other values for wildlife,
the utilitarian perspective remains strong today. Difficult as this is to accept for urban-based
Westerners, it should be remembered that, on a global spatial scale and an historical temporal
scale, it is the newer, more ecologically based view of wildlife that is the exception, and the
current Chinese utilitarian view that is the norm.
Raising wild animals in captivity is a common theme throughout Chinese history and
remains pervasive today. But we should not be surprised to encounter such strong emphases
in Chinese culture, with its long history of domestication. Han culture is deeply rooted in the
intensive agriculture of the Yellow River basin, the “cradle” of Chinese civilization, which is
considered to have advanced only after the great river was “controlled” by the great emperor
Yu. 87 With the land needing cultivation, ideas of mastery and manipulation over nature come
easily. It is but a small transition to imagine that, like crops, wildlife can be better off under
the care and kindness of educated and benevolent mankind. And with increased science and
technology, the ability to cultivate wild animals has gradually increased to meet the long-
standing interest in doing so. It is this topic, captive breeding of wildlife in China, to which
we turn our attention next.