I admit being prone to this at some point with Chinese culture and the real reason why they’re into anything that comes in fives is really due to the Five Elements being this deeply enshrined in them, so the Five Elements belief influences everything and anything else. So we have five tastes, five colours, five elements and so on, because they’re connected to the Five Elements in some way or another. So this is what a surface level understanding of a foreign culture looks like, that’s to give you an example that has happened to me before.
When it comes to Islamic countries believing that dogs are dirty, my understanding is that it came from mere common sense especially when it comes to things like echinococcus. Let’s not also forget that in Islam, they permit dogs within reason like hunting and guarding. Some Islamic sects/denominations like the Sufis like dogs very much, so this seems like a surface level understanding of what Islam is. I may not know much about Islam myself, but it’s clear to me that this is a superficial knowledge of Islam. This reveals the person’s ignorance more than Islam itself.
In the case with Iran, it was really dog-centric at some point due to Zoroastrianism (a religion indigenous to Iran) having a high opinion of them when it was the majority religion. When you have a superficial understanding of a certain culture, it either reveals ignorance or contempt or perhaps both. Especially in the case with China, Indonesia and Vietnam where speaking from experience it’s easier to focus on the animal abuse side of things instead of their more compassionate, practical side. Even if animal abuse does exist in those countries, that doesn’t mean everybody else there does it let alone forever.
Let’s not forget that in Chinese history where early on, dogs were used for pest control the same way they come to do with cats. Even today there are likely some Chinese who still use dogs for pest control, which’s also the case in Indonesia and Vietnam really. At other times I feel Chinese attitudes to dogs are incredibly complex, they may not always like dogs but they don’t always hate them either. So you have beliefs where dogs are used to detect evil spirits, but also as the guises of evil spirits themselves when used by sorcerers. Same with cats to some extent, so their attitudes to and use of animals are complex.
I don’t think it can be easily narrowed down to something that seems intrinsic to a given culture, especially something like China since its own attitudes to animals do change over time and may vary depending on the individual. Or for another matter Vietnam to a possible extent, well any other East Asian country really. I also think West Asian countries can’t be easily boiled down to being a bunch of dog haters either, since that hasn’t stopped them from using dogs for guarding, shepherding and hunting so they do see value in having dogs around.
Even if there are animal abusers out there among them, that doesn’t mean all of them are like this to the point where it says more about somebody’s contempt for them than who they really are. Almost nobody in the Anglophone side of the word is alarmed over dog poisoners in Europe, even though they’re a big problem over there to the point where they evidently hate East and West Asians for whatever they do. It’s not about animal welfare, but contemptuous racism and why it hurts those who they’ve targeted.
That shows a superficial understanding of their cultures laced with hatred, to the point where they’re never really interested in animal welfare. It can be overcome, if someone is willing to learn from it.
fynm 