Veganism is on the rise in China, but what are the unique challenges faced by the country’s fledgling vegan society? We spoke to the CVS team about plant-based trends and championing animal justice within a unique cultural and political setting.

The launch of the China Vegan Society (CVS), under the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation,  presents an exciting opportunity for individuals, businesses, and organisations to work towards a plant-based future. The Society’s launch on May 22, 2021, follows a growing trend of veganism in China and aims to take veganism to the mainstream. With increasing awareness in China about climate change, animal welfare, and public health after the Covid-19 pandemic, it is an opportune time to launch. CVS is exploring the best ways to work within Chinese contexts, focusing on the balance between respecting and improving government policies, facilitating transformations in the food systems, and promoting plant-based transitions in both the private sector and the general public.   

The founder of the China Vegan Society, Jian Yi (简艺), previously founded the Good Food Fund, which promotes food system transformations in China with a focus on the concept of “plant-forward” diets (85% plant-based), local, seasonal, and organically-produced food. A veteran vegan activist and filmmaker, Jian Yi authored Eating As an Act of Civility: China’s Veg*n Movement In The 2010s, a paper written in the first-person perspective and finished in 2020 to review China’s vegetarian/vegan movement in the past decade. The paper subsequently led to this new venture of CVS, where Jian Yi and a seven-person team of vegan advocates and community leaders has already found celebrity support, both domestically and internationally, including actor Joaquin Phoenix, philosopher Peter Singer, photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, scientist and educator Jane Goodall, and more.

In the wake of the launch, the Surge team was excited to speak with Nancy Zhou, Executive Director at the China Vegan Society, about their aims, successes, and challenges. 

Through education, partnerships, and professional services, CVS hopes to “promote veganism in a way that aligns with Chinese lifestyles and culture,” while challenging the mainstream cultural perception of veganism in China. One unique challenge facing the vegan movement in China is not its novelty, but its ancient roots: orthodox Buddhists adhere to the doctrine of “five-pungents veganism” (no animal products or pungent vegetables such as onions and garlic). This association with traditional religious beliefs puts off many secular Chinese, particularly young people, who dismiss it as “old-fashioned” and “unscientific”.  The Society wants to break away from this cultural baggage and work on “framing veganism in a different way that is not a religious dogma.”

In order to address this issue and promote veganism, their strategic plan includes empowering and uniting vegan advocates and entrepreneurs, educating the public, and encouraging government policy innovations. While in the early stages they will be focusing more on grassroots outreach, over the mid and long-term they aim to connect with more stakeholders and assist in policy research and innovation. CVS hopes that these innovative collaborations and strategies will shift the cultural perception of veganism in China towards one of diversity, compassion, and positive social change. 

These collaborations will also highlight the importance of vegan businesses and products in the continued growth of veganism in China. According to the CVS team, if you want to make an impact in China, you have to speak business.

“There have been some brands that have been quite influential,” said Global communications director Carrie Davies. “Beyond Meat got people’s attention in China when they went public and their stock price skyrocketed. In China, people started to look differently at the vegan industry at that point. Ever since then, there has been a huge proliferation of plant-based meat companies all fighting for market share.”

The massive success of global brands like Beyond Meat and Oatly have begun to change people’s perceptions of veganism and have demonstrated that veganism is not only gaining popularity, it is also opening up lucrative business opportunities. 

A recent Good Food Institute report found that “the market size of the Chinese domestic plant-based meat industry was about 6.1 billion yuan (910 million USD), reflecting a year-on-year increase of 14.2 per cent.” The report also found that despite 90 per cent of participants not identifying as either vegan, ovo-lacto vegetarian, or pescatarian, 86.7 per cent of participants had consumed plant-based meat products. Clearly, there is a demand for plant-based products, but these are not necessarily being associated with the adoption of a vegan lifestyle. 

CVS closely follows vegan business developments in China to better understand how the current trends in plant-based businesses and products can positively contribute towards the popularisation of a vegan lifestyle. Given the growing popularity of veganism in China and the exciting business opportunities that plant-based trends offer, you may think that their aims are relatively simple to achieve. However, CVS’s plans will face many challenges, including the ever-growing consumption of meat, policy challenges or unique policy contexts, and being a small team with big dreams.

China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of pork and the second-largest producer of chicken after the US. Despite the impacts of African Swine Fever (ASF) on China’s pig population and the increased awareness of zoonotic diseases, people's appetite for meat is set to continue to grow with the OECD-FAO Agricultural outlook report forecasting a continued increase (from 2021-2029) in beef, pork, and sheep consumption.

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While a 2016 Guardian article claimed that the Chinese government announced a plan to reduce the country's meat consumption by 50 per cent by 2030 in its dietary guidelines, CVS and other vegan advocates in China have attempted to verify this claim without success. Although the government did update its dietary guidelines in 2016 to specify the recommended proportions of livestock meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs which should make up citizens’ animal protein intake, the guidelines did not reduce the total recommended daily intake of animal proteins at all - on the contrary, the recommendation for maximum daily animal protein intake per person was increased from 225 grams to 250 grams. 

The China Vegan Society will have their work cut out for them in implementing their plans in line with local governmental guidelines: “We're not technically activists,” said Davies. “What we do is promote a kinder, healthier, and more sustainable lifestyle.”  

Given the cultural, political and economic context of operating within China, CVS believes that it would be counterproductive to place itself in opposition to any specific industry. This means an adjustment of its outreach and activism strategies. Zhou says the Society’s policy innovation initiatives will start with research, as well as outlining “financial incentives and the prospect of positive international relations on the environment and health.”

In setting up CVS, Zhou said that “we have drawn our inspirations from all over the place,” including various organisations in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the US. However, many of the approaches or activities these organisations have taken will be adjusted in accordance with Chinese culture and the sheer size of the country.

CVS’s team is well aware of the policy contexts for animal rights advocacy. “For example, rather than engaging in direct animal welfare advocacy that casts them in opposition to animal agriculture and other powerful industries or causes them to be confused with an animal rescue agency, CVS may use an alternative approach, such as fostering animal compassion by sharing stories about pets and pet care.

“I have met a lot of vegan-curious people who have started questioning whether they should eat meat because they have a pet,” noted Davies. “They thought, ‘I wouldn’t eat my dog, why would I eat a pig?’ Not all people are raised to have compassion for animals, but when they have their own personal experiences [with animals], that is when they start seeing things differently.” There are many dedicated organisations engaging in animal rescue and advocacy in China, and CVS refers people and animals in need to these.

CVS’s approach to advocacy challenges the homogeneity of activism, often purported by Western animal activists, and demonstrates that animal activism is not simply a global “one size fits all” endeavour. As Davies comments, China has a very different cultural and political environment from the Western movements that many look to for reference. “We can’t follow the global playbook over here; it would not work.”

Instead, the China Vegan Society has had to curate a localised approach that appeals to Chinese culture and works with governments and industries - playing the long game in the road to cultural and systematic change'.

How to get involved

The China Vegan Society has clear strategies that work within the broader political and social environment. However, these are big tasks for a small team. They only have three members working full time for the organisation, while the rest work part-time. Building up and operating the new platform on WeChat (China’s main social media app, with 1.2 billion monthly users) is a top priority, as well as a series of events and outreach campaigns to increase awareness about the fledgling organization and set the foundations for future impact. These tasks, along with policy research and other long-term engagements, will keep the small team very busy. Still, putting their mission and values at the forefront makes it easy for CVS to attract the right talent, and they are confident they can achieve their goals. 

Another project the team is working on is a WeChat ‘mini programme’ - an app that is accessed and operated within WeChat, rather than as a native app. The app will function as a “vegan wiki” with a database of third-party information about vegan foods, lifestyles, businesses, news, events, and regional communities. Zhou comments that “there is a lot of great information about veganism already on WeChat, but there is not a place to gather all of these resources.”

The registration-based app will also reinforce users’ commitment to veganism with its “vegan pledge” feature - when they register, users answer questions about whether they are new or experienced vegans, and indicate their alignment with CVS’s key values regarding environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and health. Users will be able to upload information that they think would help other vegans and non-vegans, and those new to veganism will also have the opportunity to get support through local communities, events, and more. The mini programme will aim to consolidate CVS’s outreach offerings into an easily accessible format for vegans and non-vegans alike.

CVS also plans to have a vegan festival every year, potentially in partnership with other vegan organizations and conventions. There are also plans to hold an annual year-end fundraiser.

For anyone based in China, WeChat is the best way to get connected and up-to-date with the China Vegan Society. On their WeChat account, you can learn more about veganism and also help to promote their work by sharing the content. CVS is currently seeking assistance from volunteers, particularly in the areas of translation and research. For English speakers, the China Vegan Society has created an international website in English that introduces the organisation, their aims, team members, achievements, and initiatives. Volunteer opportunities for English speakers could be to contribute articles or conduct interviews with relevant individuals to share on the website. The team would like to hear any ideas people want to contribute to the website.

Visit www.chinavegans.org.

Samantha Hind is a WRoCAH-funded PhD candidate at the University of Sheffield. She has been undertaking an internship with Surge as part of her PhD that explores representations of flesh in 21st-century speculative fiction, and she has an interest in critical animal studies and environmental humanities, more broadly. Her social media channels include Twitter, the ShARC website and a personal website.

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