Bullfighting in Beijing? No way, say Chinese

But a funny thing happened on the way to the bullring. In a country known for its often-brutal treatment of animals and its anything-goes capitalism, a public outcry halted the project in its tracks. Chagrined promoters aren't talking, while emboldened activists voice hope that their win will spur the passage of new laws to strengthen animal rights.

"This is a very significant victory," said Zhang Luping, head of the Beijing Human and Animal Environmental Education Center. "It shows that ordinary people's voices can be heard in China and that policies can be changed."

The treatment of animals in China still leaves a lot to be desired. For-profit zoos often mistreat them, selling unwanted ones as exotic restaurant fare and feeding live animals to other beasts for visitors' amusement. Tigers are drugged and tied to concrete slabs so tourists can have their pictures snapped on the felines' backs.

There are still thriving markets in ivory, fur and various endangered-species parts for virility treatments. And live bears are constricted in tiny cages and "milked" of their bile, used for medicine, with permanently implanted metal catheters puncturing their gallbladders.

But animal rights groups say they're impressed by how fast the attitudes of average Chinese are changing. A few years ago, there wasn't even a good term in Chinese for "animal welfare," said Jill Robinson, founder of Animals Asia. Now dongwufuli is in widespread use as public support for a broad range of environmental issues surges.

"In the past two years alone, you've seen enormous change," she said.

Driving the shift, animal rights groups say, are economic, social and cultural factors that suggest how quickly China is adapting to global sensibilities.

A rapid improvement in living standards, particularly in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, has swelled the middle class. As this group has become more materially comfortable, its interest in quality-of-life issues such as the environment has increased dramatically.

"As people's lifestyles have improved, they've become more and more sensitive toward animals," said Wang Shi, secretary-general of the Chinese Culture Promotion Society, a government-linked civic group. "It's becoming a universal value, like Western classical music."

New social structures also have heightened respect for the birds and the beasts. As growing numbers of people move from the countryside into urban apartments, the average family size is declining and the number of people living alone is rising.

Animal Companions

This has spurred pet ownership as animals take on the role of companions. In China's past, there were few exceptions to their function of providing food, wool, protection or something else of economic value. Beijing officials got a taste of the new attitude when they sought to discourage pet ownership through high license fees in 1995, a policy that was largely reversed under pressure from outspoken residents.

Activists and sociologists point out that harsh treatment of animals is not a Chinese tradition, at least not an old one. Rural culture has for centuries respected animals, which are seen as an important part of local life, the economy and people's hopes for success.

During the tough years following China's 1949 Communist revolution, however, when famines swept the country, and later, as the Cultural Revolution spread social upheaval, there was little scope for worrying about much beyond human survival.

"Because of the social problems, the people-to-people tensions and overpopulation, we lost our traditions," said Mang Ping, associate professor of traditional culture at the Central Institute of Socialism, based in Beijing. "During the famines in Inner Mongolia, people started killing rare yellow goats in large numbers -- driving it onto the endangered species list -- to avoid starvation."

Word of Beijing Wildlife Park's plans to introduce bullfighting -- seen locally as a way to stimulate tourism and promote economic growth -- came in early March from Shen Baochang, the Communist Party secretary from Daxing, a district on the outskirts of the capital where the private zoo complex is located.

Media reports cited plans to bring Spanish bullfighters to China so the Chinese could learn the trade. European and American bulls would be imported with the option of replacing them with local animals later.

As word spread, however, animal rights groups kicked into gear. They wrote articles, pressured lawmakers and held seminars. They marshaled counter-arguments. They appealed to Chinese civility. They persuaded National People's Congress representatives, who added their voices to the howls of protest coming from nongovernmental groups across China.