Take it Slowly--- the recent online campaign of PETA Asia

Over the years, PETA Asia has been developing steadily in mainland China. The strategies can be concluded as two main methods, one is to invite celebrities to become spokesperson and gain publicity and awareness from the public. And the other way is to take action against cruel animal treatment. Its key messages are: becoming a vegetarian to save the planet and anti fur in fashion industry.

Generally, the public takes a hesitate attitude towards vegetarian and anti-fur action.Thousands of years' culture has made being a vegetarian more connected to Buddhism, while normal daily Chinese food contains various vegetables and sometimes it doesn't make any differences between normal food and vegetarian food. Chinese people take food as part of the culture and holds pride for it.

However, the celebrity approach PETA Asia has taken has shown quite great influence to younger generation who are more concerned about environment and global warming. And then their opinion will influence the whole family. Combined with the religious effect, more and more people are either becoming a vegetarian or accepting vegetarian lifestyle.

As PETA's approach is much mild compared to its style in western world, Chinese people find it more acceptable.

The latest celebrity for PETA is a Taiwanese actress, and the above posters enjoyed high exposure on media.

However, recently PETA launched a new online campaign on one of the most popular social media website in China: Douban.com, with the slogan as "Fish is your Friend, not Food."

The moment this slogan appears on Douban, discussions went heated. Most people got irritated and think PETA is being "ridiculous".

One Douban user said: "No more dogs and cats for food, that's what we are supposed to do. No chicken and no fish? That's just too extreme."

Days after the campaign launched, a new online campaign was set up by Douban users, called "Veges are your friend, not food." For the sarcasm to PETA, they used pictures of vegetables made into cute shapes.

This is followed by some bloggers revealing PETA being extreme activist groups in foreign countries and called for public's alert of "What kind of actual organization is PETA". Articles have numerous visits and been copied to all major forums, which has clearly effected PETA's reputation among online communities.

To try to convert Chinese people into vegetarians, it takes time. Nobody could change overnight from eating dogs into becoming friends with fish. Years of efforts from PETA and other NGO such as WWF has greatly improved the situation for animal rights in China. However, it should not be taken for granted that the same pace would work to change people's eating habits.

Nothing extreme can work out in China, and the fundamental reason lies in Confucianism. As an activist group famous for all kinds of extreme escudo events, PETA needs to take it a bit slowly.

Related links:

PETA Asia:http://www.petaasiapacific.com/

Douban Group:http://www.douban.com/online/10361633/