Cultural identities of Chinese business: networks of the shark-fin business in Hong Kong

Abstract

From a global standard, shark-fin consumption certainly violates international norms on bio-diversity and endangers the existence of the shark species. Furthermore, the commercial shark-fin industry generates additional adverse environmental impacts. Nevertheless, shark-fin consumption has served an important role in the cultural aspect of Chinese ‘foodway’. More importantly, the business relations and networks behind this industry have never been comprehensively studied. In so doing, this paper employs first hand interviews with the traders and processors, as well as official statistics from the government of Hong Kong, to come up with one of the most comprehensive and in-depth pieces of research on the business relations and the cultural aspects of shark-fin business in Hong Kong. In addition, we will explore the theoretical as well as the cultural dimensions of shark-fin business in trying to question the meaning of Chinese business networks. One of the key findings of this piece of research is that the collective activities of shark-fin consumption, business relations and networks are embedded along the historically, socially and culturally constructed Chinese identity. The implication is that such orchestration between culture and business can have far-reaching consequences to other Chinese businesses.

Keywords:

• consumption
• foodway
• Hong Kong
• guanxi
• networks
• shark-fin

Acknowledgements

We thank the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Judy Mills and Rob Parry-Jones from Trade Records Analysis of Flora and Fauna in Commerce (TRAFFIC), East Asia Networks and Sharkfin and Marine Products Association Ltd in Hong Kong for providing research support and business information. Part of the research was supported by Lingnan University research grants (RES-007/989). Thanks are also due to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department. This paper was presented in the ChinaWorld International Conference ‘Made in China vs. Made by Chinese: Global Identities of Chinese Business’ on 19–20 March 2007 at Durham University, United Kingdom. Thanks to the audiences for their comments. Thanks are due to Chak Yan Chang, who insightfully launched this project. We also thank Mr Kai Sui Tsang for help collecting data from 2006–08. Finally, we would like to thank the many participants and processors who provided lots of information during the interviews, as well as the editor and reviewers of Asia Pacific Business Review.

Notes

1. Before the Second World War, guests to a rich family's wedding banquet in Hong Kong were entitled to enjoy opium (Sinn 2005, 16–42).

2. This point was raised by Professor Brian Hook on an occasion when this paper was first presented. We thank him for his insightful idea.

3. The shark-fin business and trade in Hong Kong has become one of the major concerns for the WWF. See Press Release from the WWF at http://www.wwf.org/new/news/pr138.htm. The WWF also published a research paper on the endangered species entitled: TRAFFIC. See ‘World Trade in Sharks: A Traffic Overview’, Traffic (USA), 16(1) (May 1997): 1–5 at http://www.worldwildlife.org/new/traffic/may97/shark.htm.