Tank to Table: Hong Kong’s Wet Markets and the Geographies of Lively Commodification Beyond Companionship

Abstract

<p>We argue for a radical reconfiguration of existing theorizations of the “lively commodity”—beings captured, cultivated, and traded for their very lives—on more inclusive terms. Specifically, we advocate the inclusion of animals intended for dietary consumption, in recognition of the demonstrable centrality of encounters between human beings in their role as consumers and the animals and animal parts offered for sale in Hong Kong’s many wet markets to the processes of commodification. Based on semistructured interviews with vendors and consumers (n = 86) and a variety of modes of ethnographic observation (including narrative, photography, and several forms of videography), we analyze three groups of practices and strategies for structuring and negotiating productive encounters (which we label provoking motion, stimulating appetite, and maintaining life) observed in twenty-seven different wet markets across Hong Kong between June and September 2022. Our analysis also suggests critical issues and directions for future research rooted in, at minimum, crucial differences in the scalar, temporal, ecological, and ethical dimensions of diverse processes of lively commodification.</p>

我们主张彻底重建更具包容性的“活物商品”(被捕获、培育和交易的活物)理论。应当考虑用于食材的动物；在香港生鲜市场中, 作为消费者的人类和出售的动物及其部位相互接触, 应当认识到这种接触在商品化过程中显著的中心地位。基于对供应商和消费者的半结构化采访(n = 86)和各种民族志考察方式(叙事、摄影和各类视频), 对2022年6月至9月香港27个生鲜市场进行了考察, 分析了构建和协商有效接触的三组实践和策略: 激发行为、刺激食欲和维持生命。针对活物商品化过程中尺度、时间、生态和伦理上的差异, 我们的分析还提出了未来研究的关键问题和方向。