Changing Chinese Culture Essay

The Yulin festival shines a light on a changing Chinese culture. What is happening on the small scale depicts the reality of what is happening on the large scale. China is changing, and one of the most vivid examples of this change is how Chinese treat dogs. In 1980, Keeping dogs as pets was banned because having dog as pets was considered as bourgeois affectation (Peter). Also, because the government thought people should focus on improving their own lives instead of raising dogs and because raising dogs weren’t part of their culture because dogs used to be guards, herders or meals than companions. Moreover, keeping dogs as pet would cost a lot of money. However, Chinese restrictions were loosened in the 1990s and early 2000. In 2003 Chinese were allowed to own dogs (Peter). Dog lovers are a relatively new breed in China. In 2012, China had more than one million registered pet dogs and thousands of others are unlicensed (Peter). There are many reasons why the idea of having dogs have changed recently. The First reason is because the improvement in the economy changed people’s life. Chinese can now seek out what Western consumers have long enjoyed: cars, flat-screen TVs

The change that happened in China is good ,but not only the government is responsible for protecting dogs, people must teach themselves how treat dogs well. The Dog Meat Festival of Yulin shows how Chinese people have different perspective about dogs. Some of the Chinese believe that dogs meet bring good luck and health so they should eat it. However, many other Chinese specially these days think that they don’t have to eat dogs. Furthermore, the idea of having dogs as pets has changed significantly in China. For example, in 2011, Chinese activists stopped a car transporting dogs to a restaurant and paid 115,000 yuan (then, around $17,000) to free the animals