Please support this campaign to stop the trapping of birds in China
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
Shi Jin
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
Shi Jin
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Tearing down the nets (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Shi Jin
- Start date
Mike
That would be great.
Anything anyone reading this could do to make this happen would be highly appreciated.
Please note that the site is now in Chinese and English.
And now has accounts and photos of 6 "cases".
Contributions from local birders and photographers are urgently required.
The only way this site will make a difference is if it gets traction in local social media.
Best regards from Beijing.
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
thrush
Craig Brelsford (大山雀)
Dear Shi Jin, I'm happy to have contributed a photo to your Web page.
Thanks Craig
Appreciate your support. Thanks also to Jonathan, Tom, Nemo and the Migratory Birds Protection Group of Hunan Province.
The site has been recently updated and now also includes 17 links to articles from China's media concerning the crimes against birds and bird protection (15 of which were published in the past two weeks).
The tide is at last beginning to turn.
Cheers.
Shi Jin
Appreciate your support. Thanks also to Jonathan, Tom, Nemo and the Migratory Birds Protection Group of Hunan Province.
The site has been recently updated and now also includes 17 links to articles from China's media concerning the crimes against birds and bird protection (15 of which were published in the past two weeks).
The tide is at last beginning to turn.
Cheers.
Shi Jin
thrush
Craig Brelsford (大山雀)
I wouldn't go that far. The tide COULD be turning, but we won't know for a while whether it's actually turned.
For now, let me paraphrase the great Ronald Reagan, in his speech in Berlin:
"Chinese Citizens: Tear Down Those Nets!"
Craig
We have different views on this. Funnily enough, I believe what I wrote to be accurate. Baidu or Google any combination of relevant words for the last 18 days and compare the results with any 12 month period since [search engine] records began and let's go offline to discuss.
In fact, I felt so upbeat about this, I wrote an article about it. It's called Finding Nemo, and can be read here: www.ChineseCurrents.com
In the meantime, if anyone has any photos and stories to share (or knows someone who has) please let me know.
Thanks.
We have different views on this. Funnily enough, I believe what I wrote to be accurate. Baidu or Google any combination of relevant words for the last 18 days and compare the results with any 12 month period since [search engine] records began and let's go offline to discuss.
In fact, I felt so upbeat about this, I wrote an article about it. It's called Finding Nemo, and can be read here: www.ChineseCurrents.com
In the meantime, if anyone has any photos and stories to share (or knows someone who has) please let me know.
Thanks.
thrush
Craig Brelsford (大山雀)
And it may be accurate. And I want it so very much to be accurate.
Very good piece of writing about Nemo, Shi Jin. Very good indeed.
I very much appreciate your characterization of this current period as a kind of Dark Ages for Chinese birding, and for the environment in general. For example, here in Shanghai, a city of 20 million people (the size of a mid-sized European country), there may be a few hundred serious birders at most. I think I know just about all the major people on the Web site of the Shanghai Wild Bird Society.
In China, there is indifference bordering on hostility to the environment and wild animals. I find in many Chinese an old-fashioned, 19th-century-ish, adversarial attitude toward nature.
I'm not a student of the Cultural Revolution, but I have read a few books about it and seen a few movies. I'm wondering what effect the old "Kill the Sparrows!" campaign still has on the Chinese people. You know, that shameful event in Chinese history has never been repudiated. As far as I know, no one has stood up and said, "That was a disastrous mistake."
There are millions of people alive today who remember the "Kill the Sparrows!" campaign. They remember how the state, the most powerful element in society, ordered the people to commit a monstrous affront against nature.
Despite the lack of an official repudiation of "Kill the Sparrows," it may be possible for an environmental renaissance to occur in China. I myself, in my speeches to Chinese photographers and birders, have called on the Chinese to create a "Great Wall of the Environment"--that is, a national mobilization to save the environment on par with the national mobilization that created the Great Wall hundreds of years ago.
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MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
The persecution of birds was stopped by an ornithologist called Zheng Zuo Xin. He wrote a book called "The Economic Significance of Birds" which persuaded the senior leadership that the campaign was doing more harm than good.
Not surprisingly he was revered as the father of modern Chinese ornithology and shortly before his deth was honoured as President of the IOC.
He also wrote the Synopsis of the Avifauna of China - the first attempt to map the taxonomy and distribution of all the birds in China - and the foundational work that everything else is built from.
Cheers
Mike
Not surprisingly he was revered as the father of modern Chinese ornithology and shortly before his deth was honoured as President of the IOC.
He also wrote the Synopsis of the Avifauna of China - the first attempt to map the taxonomy and distribution of all the birds in China - and the foundational work that everything else is built from.
Cheers
Mike
Thanks Mike
That's really good to know. It's also very helpful. It's now clear what the title of the Chinese translation of my Finding Nemo article should be: Finding Comrade Zheng
Thanks also CJW (I can't access FB in China, but great to know it's on there)
And thanks to Dong Bei for contributing the kind of poignant image to the website that changes attitudes. If you haven't seen it do have a look here www.ChineseCurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
For those whose Chinese is almost as bad as mine: baohu niaolei means protect [China's] birds.
A call to action if ever there was one.
That's really good to know. It's also very helpful. It's now clear what the title of the Chinese translation of my Finding Nemo article should be: Finding Comrade Zheng
Thanks also CJW (I can't access FB in China, but great to know it's on there)
And thanks to Dong Bei for contributing the kind of poignant image to the website that changes attitudes. If you haven't seen it do have a look here www.ChineseCurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
For those whose Chinese is almost as bad as mine: baohu niaolei means protect [China's] birds.
A call to action if ever there was one.
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thrush
Craig Brelsford (大山雀)
Good to know. Gracias, Mike.
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
A couple of articles from the online edition of the China Daily yesterday and today
Click here
and here
Cheers
Mike
Click here
and here
Cheers
Mike
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Netting migratory birds for consumption or pleasure, rare or not, is happening all over the Eurasian continent. Even in 'developed' Western Europe hunters in Spain, France and Italy catch and shoot illegally and legally, for food or just for fun, enormous amounts of birds migrating to Northern Europe and Russia and back to Africa. And no one in those countries with any power to change it seems to really care, even under pressure of 100.000's bird lovers (via petitions etc.). Wouldn't it be great if China would be faster in tackeling these outrages acts, being an example for the rest of the world?
Some other afwul news I received that may concern birders in China is the massive slaughter of Amur Falcons (+100000 per year!) in NE India. See more here At least it is in the open now.
Many luck with all your actions.
Bart
Some other afwul news I received that may concern birders in China is the massive slaughter of Amur Falcons (+100000 per year!) in NE India. See more here At least it is in the open now.
Many luck with all your actions.
Bart
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Thanks Mike and Creba
Creba, I like that thought. Nothing would shame certain European governments more than for China to be seen to be getting its bird-protection house in order.
Mike, thanks for the links. Brilliant stuff. We have a good friend, who's an editor of the China Daily. He was the one who managed to get an army platoon over to Tianjin to help a group of local heroes there pull up hundreds of metres of nets. He's also been spreading the word amongst his colleagues and associates. So much so that on Super Thursday (1st November), 6 (SIX!!) artcles were published in the China Daily in support of The Cause.
All the links to those articles (and many more supportive reports) are at the bottom of Baohu Niaolei (Protect [China's] Birds). The link is here: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
The tide is turning.
Creba, I like that thought. Nothing would shame certain European governments more than for China to be seen to be getting its bird-protection house in order.
Mike, thanks for the links. Brilliant stuff. We have a good friend, who's an editor of the China Daily. He was the one who managed to get an army platoon over to Tianjin to help a group of local heroes there pull up hundreds of metres of nets. He's also been spreading the word amongst his colleagues and associates. So much so that on Super Thursday (1st November), 6 (SIX!!) artcles were published in the China Daily in support of The Cause.
All the links to those articles (and many more supportive reports) are at the bottom of Baohu Niaolei (Protect [China's] Birds). The link is here: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baohuniaolei.html
The tide is turning.
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The campaign continues to gather pace.
The media blitz in the English-language Chinese press was good to see, but of course counts for very little unless the issues are reported in the local media.
I am happy to report that the 护鸟 "bird protection" meme continues to be a hot topic. In the last 24 hours, there were 8 different reports (including an article in the People's Daily).
Also, Terry Townshend, of Birding Beijing fame ( http://birdingbeijing.com/ ) recently recorded an interview on Talking Naturally, in which he talks about illegal netting in China. It can be heard here:
http://www.talking-naturally.co.uk/...-illegal-bird-trapping-in-china/#comment-8277
It's obviously a popular site, because I've spent a good part of the day posting supportive comments from listeners onto the baohuniaolei website:
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/Baohuniaolei.html
Best regards from Beijing
The media blitz in the English-language Chinese press was good to see, but of course counts for very little unless the issues are reported in the local media.
I am happy to report that the 护鸟 "bird protection" meme continues to be a hot topic. In the last 24 hours, there were 8 different reports (including an article in the People's Daily).
Also, Terry Townshend, of Birding Beijing fame ( http://birdingbeijing.com/ ) recently recorded an interview on Talking Naturally, in which he talks about illegal netting in China. It can be heard here:
http://www.talking-naturally.co.uk/...-illegal-bird-trapping-in-china/#comment-8277
It's obviously a popular site, because I've spent a good part of the day posting supportive comments from listeners onto the baohuniaolei website:
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/Baohuniaolei.html
Best regards from Beijing
There have now been a couple of dozen messages of support from all over the world. These can be read on the comments page: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/comment.html
The Chinese-language news section yesterday received 150 unique visitors from mainland China: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baodao.html
A TRANSLATED "pick of the day" has been added to the English-language Bird Protection News section:
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html
There you can read the Tianjin Daily News report of the authorites' crackdown on the trading of wild birds (dead and alive) in Qilihai and nearby towns and counties. You can also read about Mr Zhang, who was a poacher at Dongting Lake in Hunan province, before he turned game keeper.
The "huniao" (protect birds) meme on Sina Weibo continues to gather pace: There are now 126,516 articles on the subject. More than double that of 20 days ago.
Warm regards from a cold and grey Beijing.
The Chinese-language news section yesterday received 150 unique visitors from mainland China: http://www.chinesecurrents.com/baodao.html
A TRANSLATED "pick of the day" has been added to the English-language Bird Protection News section:
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html
There you can read the Tianjin Daily News report of the authorites' crackdown on the trading of wild birds (dead and alive) in Qilihai and nearby towns and counties. You can also read about Mr Zhang, who was a poacher at Dongting Lake in Hunan province, before he turned game keeper.
The "huniao" (protect birds) meme on Sina Weibo continues to gather pace: There are now 126,516 articles on the subject. More than double that of 20 days ago.
Warm regards from a cold and grey Beijing.
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Yesterday at Beidagang, in Tianjin, 38 Oriental White Storks were poisoned.
Sadly, 11 have died, and a further 27 have been affected.
Please go to the link below for the latest update.
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html
There you can leave a message of support for the volunteers who are nursing the sick birds back to health, and who are continuing to scour the countryside looking for the birds that have dispersed from the site of the poisoning.
Sadly, 11 have died, and a further 27 have been affected.
Please go to the link below for the latest update.
http://www.chinesecurrents.com/news.html
There you can leave a message of support for the volunteers who are nursing the sick birds back to health, and who are continuing to scour the countryside looking for the birds that have dispersed from the site of the poisoning.
