[Wen Shixian] Animal ethics and intangible cultural heritage "circus performance"

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Important: Circus performances have a long history and are included in the national intangible cultural heritage list.

With the development of animal ethics and the implementation of relevant animal protection policies, circus performances have encountered many criticisms and boycotts from the media and the public.

The closure of the circus at the Guangzhou Zoo has led to extensive discussions on animal ethics in the media and society.

This paper believes that to solve the animal ethical dilemma of circus performances, the circus industry should develop simultaneously with animal protection policies.

While providing entertainment performances for the public, it should also pay more attention to popularizing animal knowledge and animal ethics education for the public.

Keywords: circus performance; cultural heritage; animal ethics; animal protection Author profile: Wen Shixian 1982-), male, from Qianxi County, Hebei Province, PhD, associate professor of the School of Tourism Management, South China Normal University.

Circus performance is an entertainment activity formed in history and is still common in circuses and various zoos.

In ancient times,"circus" was a hundred operas that used people to ride horses and domesticate horses and various animals to perform various skills.

With the passage of time, the content and form of "circus" have gradually enriched, forming a pattern that integrates animal training, special effects, comical, and magic.

It can be said that circus performance is an art form that uses taming animals as a performance method.

It demonstrates man's exploration and conquest of animals and nature.

In 2008, the Ministry of Culture included the circus in the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage lists, which means that the traditional circus industry has entered the national cultural heritage protection system and should receive corresponding financial and policy support.

However, in the actual operation process, there is a contradiction between the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and animal protection.

In recent years, with the advancement of animal ethics and the introduction of a series of animal protection policies, people have shown a conflicted attitude towards circus performances.

On the one hand, people like to be close to animals and watch various amazing performances of animals; on the other hand, people express their sadness at the domestication of animals and the violence and pain they suffer during the domestication process.

As Mr.

Duan Yifu Yi Fu Tuan, a humanistic geographer, pointed out,"In the complex relationship between man and nature, the relationship between man and animals is the aspect where the most problems arise and the deepest manifestations of human sins." Animals provide humans with the need for warmth, spiritual comfort and physical and mental enjoyment.

It can be said that animals have become an indispensable part of human life.

Therefore, human society should have gratitude and reverence for animals.

In recent years, under the requirements of animal protectionism and related animal protection policies, major circuses and zoos have reduced or canceled circus performances.

In August 2017, Guangzhou Zoo terminated its cooperative relationship with the circus in the park, which led to fierce conflicts and disputes between the two sides.

This incident caused widespread discussion among the news media and ordinary people.

From the perspective of animal protection, this is undoubtedly a manifestation of the progress of social civilization and animal ethics.

However, it was a major blow to the circus industry.

This not only means that the circus industry has lost its survival foundation, but also completely denies the cultural beliefs of circus artists.

1.

The historical evolution of animal ethics

Animals are an important resource on which human society relies for survival.

Since the birth of mankind, it has been accompanied by the conquest, domestication, servitude and consumption of animals.

Especially for hunter-gatherer tribes, humans and animals go hand in hand.

In the process of human conquering animals, different forms of animal ethics gradually emerged.

Ethnographic research shows that many tribes regard animals as natural creatures with souls.

On the one hand, they hunt animals for food, and on the other hand, they also hold awe of animals to achieve harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

With the progress of human civilization, mankind's understanding of animals is gradually deepening, and the ethical relationship between man and animals is also undergoing corresponding historical evolution.

In the creation myths of various nations in the world, there are discussions on the relationship between man and animals, which reflect the original form of the relationship between man and animals.

In the Genesis Bible, a classic Western Christianity, it is described that God shaped people in his own image and blessed them to "be fruitful and multiply, spread over the whole earth, govern the land, and govern the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, and the living creatures on the earth." The Bible divides the relationship between humans and animals into a hierarchical structure, which has become the source of Western animal ethics.

Before the European Enlightenment, Western scholars generally believed that animals were soulless and irrational.

Under this understanding, people lack basic ethical care for animals.

Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher, advocated that nature has a hierarchical structure and that those with low rational abilities exist for those with higher abilities.

He pointed out in his book "Political Science","Plants exist for the birth of animals, and other animals survive for humans.

Animals are domesticated for ease of use and as people's food.

Although not all wild animals, most of them exist as people's delicacy, providing people with clothes and various utensils." Human beings are the masters of all things, and human beings have the right to control all kinds of life in nature.

This idea once dominated the development of Western animal ethics.

Although some scholars later opposed cruelty to animals, this was not out of ethical concern for animals, but the fear that committing atrocities to animals would affect human morality.

The most typical example is the view of the medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas, who believed that irrational creatures cannot dominate their own behavior and that irrational creatures exist for the benefit of rational creatures.

He clearly pointed out,"People cannot treat animals cruelly, but not for their own sake, but because being cruel to animals also transfers this thinking to the way they treat other people." This perception determines people's behavioral attitude towards animals.

According to Dr.

Peter Singer, an advocate of the animal liberation movement, in the history of the relationship between man and animals,"the last and most absurd Christian creed that brought the most painful consequences to animals was the result of the Descartes philosophy in the first half of the 17th century." Influenced by mechanics, Dr.

Descartes Rene Descartes maintained that all life is composed of matter and its behavior should be determined by the laws of machinery.

In Descartes's philosophical thinking, animals were just machines made by God, and animals had no language similar to humans.

From this, Descartes concluded: "Beasts are not just less rational than humans, but have no reason at all, because learning to speak requires little reason." Therefore, animals cannot enjoy happiness like humans, nor can they have pain or any other sensation.

Descartes 'theory provided strong theoretical support for the popular live animal experiments in Europe at that time.

At that time, anesthesia had not yet been invented, and experiments on live animals must cause extreme pain in animals.

Descartes 'philosophical theory largely relieved the anxiety and uneasiness of animal experimenters when they faced the painful struggle of animals.

With the development of science and technology, people have gradually realized that animals are also conscious and rational creatures.

Voltaire, the French Enlightenment thinker, opposed the view of animals as machines without reason and emotion.

He accused angrily,"How ignorant and pitiful it is to say that livestock are machines without knowledge and emotion, always do their movements in the same posture, learn nothing, seek improvement, etc.!" Since then, more and more scholars have paid attention to animal rationality and emphasized that humans should have moral responsibility towards animals.

According to Dr.

Immanuel Kant, our responsibility to animals is our indirect responsibility to humans.

Abuse of animals can make human nature cruel and ruthless.

But Kant was not opposed to humans using animals.

He was only opposed to cruelty to animals for the sake of competition.

The same view was expressed by the British philosopher Dr.

David Hume, who argued,"If there are such creatures that live in harmony with humans, although they are rational, have such low power in both body and soul that they are unable to resist any, and the most serious provocations we impose must never make us feel the effect of their resentment; The inevitable consequence, I think, is that we should treat these creatures respectfully by the laws of humanity, but exactly without any restriction of justice about them, who cannot have any rights or ownership except such an arbitrary monarch." It can be seen from the above views that the so-called animal ethics was not recognized before the Western Enlightenment.

People only believed that human moral concepts should be extended to other animals.

In the 19th century, Darwin's theory of evolution was put forward, which reversed people's previous misunderstandings about animals from a biological perspective.

In the book "The Descent of Man", Darwin used a lot of evidence to show that "there are no fundamental psychological differences between humans and other higher mammals." The proposition of biological evolution laid a solid theoretical foundation for the emergence of animal ethics.

With the comprehensive innovation of animal understanding, people have given animals more human care, and people's animal ethics have also undergone major changes.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Schweitzer emphasized that the ethics of reverence for life is truly complete ethics, and the reverence for life here includes the lives of all living things.

He pointed out,"The great mistake of all ethics in the past was that it believed that ethics only involved people's behavior towards people.

But the key lies in how people treat the world and all the life they come into contact with.

Only when man believes that plant, animal and human life are sacred, and only when man helps life in crisis can he be ethical." In dealing with the relationship between humans and animals, the ethical concept of reverence for life brings us many lessons.

When humans use animals to serve themselves, they need to care about the various sufferings they endure and minimize the occurrence of such sufferings.

Since the 20th century, the call for animal rights and animal welfare has become increasingly louder.

In 1975, American animal ethicist Peter Singer published the book "Animal Liberation", which is considered to be the Bible of the animal liberation movement.

The book opposes species discrimination and advocates equal consideration of different lives.

Based on this belief, Peter Singer strongly advocates vegetarian food to reduce the suffering caused by humans to animals during breeding and slaughtering.

Peter Singer's views are extreme and therefore difficult to accept by ordinary people.

Later, American scholar Dr.

Hughes proposed the concept of "animal welfare", which is usually defined as a state of well-being in which animals 'basic needs are met and their suffering is minimized.

Hughes defines animal welfare broadly.

At present, the internationally accepted animal welfare is the "Five Freedoms" principles summarized by Colin Spalding in his book Animal Welfare, namely, physiological welfare, environmental welfare, health welfare, behavioral welfare and psychological welfare.

Animal welfare theory maintains that humans can use animals, but humans must treat animals with humanitarian care.

The idea of animal welfare has caused widespread influence around the world, and some countries even use it as a normative guideline for the animal breeding industry.

American philosopher Tom Regan proposed the concept of animal rights in an effort to provide philosophical support for animal welfare and animal rights theories.

In the book "Arguing for Animal Rights", Regan dialectically pointed out from a philosophical level that animals also have some basic rights according to the principle of consistency.

Regan believes that as long as it is a subject of life, it has inherent value and moral rights.

He advocated that animals, as subjects of life, should enjoy basic moral rights and enjoy such rights equally with humans.

The views of animal welfare and animal rights have also been opposed and criticized by some scholars.

For example, Dr.

Lawrence C.Becker emphasized that "the welfare of humans has moral priority over the welfare of animals." People such as R.G.

Frey and Alan White directly denied the idea that animals have rights.

It can be seen from the above arguments that Western academic circles still have major differences on animal rights and animal ethics issues.

However, from a practical perspective, countries around the world have made varying degrees of efforts to protect animals and improve animal living conditions.

In China's traditional Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, there are rich discussions on the relationship between humans and animals.

Confucianism emphasizes the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.

For example, the Confucian classic "The Doctrine of the Mean" states that "all things are nurtured together without harming each other, and the Tao goes hand in hand without contradicting each other." The Buddhist family emphasized the equality of all beings, avoided killing and advocated vegetarian food, which was very consistent with the views of the Western Animal Liberation Movement.

In his "Qi Things Chapter", Zhuangzi proposed the view of nature that "heaven and earth coexist with me, and all things are one with me".

In Taoist thought, the concept of "waiting for all things to coexist with life and death" puts man and animals on equal footing.

status.

Although it is common to use and eat animals in China society, the harmonious coexistence of man and animals has always been emphasized in the concept of China.

Domestic livestock, in particular, have become an important part of family members in a sense.

However, the research of China scholars on animal ethics and animal protection issues in the modern sense lags behind.

On the one hand, China scholars explore animal ethics from traditional thoughts, but also draw lessons from and reflect on Western animal ethics.

Li Shanmei and others believe that Western animal ethics originated from Western environmental ethics, while China's animal ethics is based on compassion.

Although the two have their own characteristics in theory and practice, they reach the same goal through different paths.

Generally speaking, China scholars are conservative about animal ethics.

Some scholars reflect on Western animal ethics from a legal perspective.

Chen Benhan and Zhou Ping believe that "animals cannot become the subject of human morality and law.

Animals are still special things in terms of law." Sun Jiang pointed out that it is unrealistic to talk about radical animal rights theories in our country at present, while relatively moderate animal welfare theories are more suitable for our country's specific national conditions and are realistic and operable.

From a policy perspective, the China government has gradually accepted the ethical concept of animal welfare, and has successively promulgated and improved laws and regulations on animal protection.

At the same time, in China's civil society, the call for animal protectionism is growing, which reflects the improvement of the relationship between humans and animals and the advancement of people's animal ethics.

As a national-level intangible cultural heritage, circus performances are difficult to gain widespread public support like other intangible cultural heritage.

In the words of animal protectionism, the ancient entertainment project of circus performances has become the object of criticism from the media and the public.

2.

The advancement of animal ethics and the decline of the circus industry

Circus has a history of thousands of years in China and is an important recreational activity in traditional society.

According to textual research, the word "circus" first appeared in the Han Dynasty.

"On Salt and Iron" written by Huan Kuan in the Han Dynasty records: "Today, the people carve things that are not accurate, depict useless weapons, play with black yellow and mixed blue, and embroider clothes with five-color colors, tease Pu people and mixed women, all animals compete in a circus to fight tigers, Tang antimony chases people, strange insect Huda." Huan Kuan's account provides us with two pieces of information: one is that circus appeared as a proper term for the first time; the other is that a large number of recreational activities for domesticating animals appeared during this period.

In the Hundred Operas of the Han Dynasty,"elephant training, tiger training, reindeer training, and snake training have all been found, and these beasts have obviously been tame and docile." It can be said that the recreational activities based on domestication of animals in ancient society are the prototype of today's circus performance skills.

Entering the Tang Dynasty, circus performance skills further matured, and the varieties of domesticated animals further expanded.

From elephants and rhinos to cockfights and crickets, they are all domesticated.

"Elephant training" and "rhinoceros training" were important circus performance events during the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty murals of Sangyuan Temple in Xizang depict a strong man wrestling with an elephant, making the elephant pretend to fall; there is also a handstand movement made by making the elephant's forefeet and nose serve as the fulcrum, and its hind feet are in the air.

The Song Dynasty was another climax period in the history of circus development.

Its main achievements were the combination of riding and shooting and the increase of performance content.

According to Meng Yuansheng of the Song Dynasty,"Tokyo Menghua Lu", there were already circus shows such as "monkeys presenting hundreds of operas","fish jumping over the dragon gate","ordering bees and butterflies" and "chasing ants" at that time.

"Tokyo Menghualu·Driving up Baojin Tower and the Armies to Present Hundreds of Operas" describes in detail the circus performance at that time: "After the dance was completed, the various classes often entered and waited for the horses presented by their children.

One person went out empty-handed first, which is called 'leading the horse'.

The next time, one person grinds the flag and steps out, which is called the "opening flag." The second time, there was a horse holding a red embroidered ball, hitting it with a red brocade rope and throwing it to the ground.

Several horses chased and shot it.

On the left, it was called 'raising hands to shoot' and on the right, it was called 'dragging hydrange'..."It can be seen from the above records that the circus performances at that time had superb performance skills and clever program arrangements.

The development of circus performances reflected that people had rich cognitive experience in animal habits at that time and were able to control all kinds of animals for people's entertainment.

Circus performances are not only popular among the people, but are also deeply loved by princes and aristocrats.

In the imperial palaces of the Tang and Song Dynasties, a large number of rare birds and beasts were domesticated, and high circus performance skills were demonstrated.

After the Tang and Song Dynasties, the entertainment interest of the rulers gradually shifted to opera and opera.

Circus performances have become difficult to perform in the Jianghu, and most of them are performed in the form of horse racing and selling tricks among the people.

In daily life, circus performances have become a means of livelihood for circus artists, while domesticated animals have become their close companions and source of income.

Circus performances are not unique to China.

Countries around the world have different forms of circus performances.

The earliest circus to appear in Western historical records is the Philip Aitre Circus founded in London, England in 1769.

In the early 19th century, the American Lingling Circus used imported elephants to conduct touring exhibitions to attract the public, and circus performances were all the rage in North America.

Western circus performances have formed circuses represented by Lingling Circus, Cirque du Soleil, and New York's Big Apple Circus.

With the increase of cultural exchanges between China and the West, circus exchange activities between China and the West have gradually emerged.

In the late 19th century, Western circuses entered China to perform circus performances, bringing many new performance forms to the China circus industry.

Although circus artists had special skills and brought rich entertainment activities to people's lives, they were relegated to the lowest class in feudal society.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the children of artists could not take the imperial examinations, making it difficult for them to move into the upper class.

This also prompted the skills of circus performance to be passed down within specific groups.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the party and government regarded circus and acrobatics as important parts of traditional culture.

The social status of circus artists was improved, and circus performances once became an important medium for international cultural exchanges.

During this period, the Soviet circus and acrobatic troupes from France, Mongolia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and other countries successively came to China to visit and perform.

In the 1960s, in order to enrich the cultural life of the people,"Beijing, Shanghai, and Qiqihar established large-scale circus teams, and Dalian, Wuhan, Anhui and other provinces and cities also staged large-style performances." Circus performances were once prosperous in China's civil society.

For animals in nature, learning to survive is the entire content of their life training.

However, for animals in the circus, they must learn to cooperate with the instructions of the circus entertainers and learn extraordinary movement skills to receive better treatment.

In traditional circus performances, animals are often seen performing incorrectly and being beaten by circus entertainers.

Nowadays, with the development of animal ethics, people pay more respect and care for animals, and violent behavior by circus artists is rarely seen in circus performances.

The development of animal ethics has had a major impact on the domestication concept of the circus industry, and has also greatly changed the performance form and enjoyment of the circus.

Circus performances are not only restricted by animal ethics, but also subject to various animal protection policies.

Currently, more and more countries and regions ban or restrict animal performances.

In July 2010, my country's Forestry Administration issued the "Notice on Cleaning up, Rectification, Supervision and Inspection of Wild Animal Domestication and Breeding Activities of Wildlife Watching and Exhibition Units", requiring the immediate cessation of vulgar advertising, zero-distance contact between wild animals and audiences, abusive performances, and various improper behaviors such as illegal operation of wild animal products.

In the same year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Management of Zoos", requiring zoos and other parks in various places to immediately carry out the cleanup and rectification of various animal performance projects.

In July 2013, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "National Zoological Development Outline", proposing that the overall goal of the development of China's zoos in the next ten years is to realize the transformation from traditional zoos to modern zoos, and clearly pointed out that it is necessary to put an end to any act of insulting, abusing, intimidating and beating animals, and to put an end to all kinds of animal performances.

In July 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development promulgated the national industry standard "Zoological Management Code", which clarified the five major benefits of animals in the general principles.

At the same time, the regulations clearly stipulated that zoos should not carry out the following activities: "1.

Use wild animals for performances; 2.

Eat live animals within the sight of tourists; 3.

Use wild animals as props for commercial activities." The successive introduction of these policies has greatly improved the quality of life of animals performing in zoos and circuses.

Under the restrictions of relevant policies, domestic circuses and zoos have significantly reduced the number and types of animal performances.

3.

Analysis of the Guangzhou Zoo shutting down the circus incident

In modern times, circuses and zoos have been coexisting, and circus performances have enabled residents to get closer to wild animals.

However, modern zoos are no longer simply places for tourists to watch animals, but are public welfare institutions scientifically operated under government supervision and have multiple functions such as animal protection, animal research, science education, and leisure and entertainment.

With the development of animal ethics and the implementation of animal protection policies, domestic zoos have gradually reduced or cancelled circus performances.

The reason why the Guangzhou Zoo's closure of the circus has attracted widespread attention in society, to some extent, reflects people's current profound reflection on the relationship between humans and animals.

1.

The break between Guangzhou Zoo and Circus

Guangzhou Zoo has a long history.

Its predecessor was Yonghan Park established by the National Government on Zhongshan 4th Road in Guangzhou City in 1928.

At that time, more than 60 species of animals and more than 200 were exhibited.

In July 1956, the Guangzhou City government expropriated the Mayinggang area on Xianlie Road as a new zoo site, which was officially completed and opened to the public in October 1958.

As early as 2002, Guangzhou Zoo established its own research center to specialize in wildlife protection research.

Since 2006, the park has been recognized as a science popularization education base in Guangzhou City, a youth science and technology education base in Guangdong Province, and a national youth science and technology education base.

It can be said that Guangzhou Zoo is undergoing a transformation from a traditional zoo to a modern zoo.

Historically, Guangzhou Zoo has also tried to operate a circus performance business to increase operating income.

However, due to the lack of circus artists, its circus performance projects have always been difficult to develop.

In 1993, Guangzhou Zoo went to Guangde County, Anhui Province, the hometown of circus, to ask for "foreign aid." At the invitation of the Guangzhou Zoo, Huang Yingzhi, a trainer from Guangde County, Anhui Province, brought his circus party to Guangzhou.

Also moving to Guangzhou with Huang Yingzhi and others were Siberian tigers, chimpanzees, black bears, monkeys and other animals from the circus.

At the beginning, the zoo and the circus had a cooperative relationship.

The circus included both zoo staff and circus artists from Guangde County, Anhui Province.

In the Guangzhou Zoo, they used human-induced training methods to conduct animal performances to citizens and tourists in the form of fees.

In 2012, Guangzhou Zoo named the circus performance venue the "Animal Behavior Exhibition Hall".

It can be seen from this name change that the circus is consciously avoiding the term "circus performance".

The circus has been engaged in circus performances at the Guangzhou Zoo for more than 20 years, and its relationship with the zoo has also changed from an initial partner to a leasing relationship.

Guangzhou Zoo only provides a performance venue for the circus, and the circus has become an independent operating unit in the zoo.

After the contract expired in August 2017, Guangzhou Zoo no longer renewed its venue lease contract with the circus.

In fact, as early as half a year ago, the Guangzhou Zoo informed the circus about taking back the venue, but the circus has been unwilling to accept this fact.

In the days after the zoo management issued a notice to terminate the lease contract, the circus led by Huang Yingzhi was still trying to maintain normal operations of the circus activities.

On September 7, 2017, the zoo management enclosed the "Animal Behavior Exhibition Hall" and the circus's ticketing performance was forced to stop.

At present, legal proceedings have been sought in the dispute between the Guangzhou Zoo and the circus.

Huang Yingzhi said that the circus did not violate the lease contract intentionally, but had objective reasons that prevented it from withdrawing from the venue.

The circus has domesticated more than 40 first-and second-class national protected animals, including tigers and bears, and has a dozen employees.

The relocation of these animals and people cannot be completed overnight, especially since the relocation of animals requires review and approval by the forestry, construction, environmental protection and tourism departments.

With the advancement of animal ethics, the government and the public are calling for the renovation of urban zoos.

Currently, most zoos are phasing out or eliminating circus activities.

The break between the Guangzhou Zoo and the circus is a response to current policy pressure and public opinion pressure.

Some scholars pointed out that "displaying animals is the lowest level of science popularization education, and letting people develop love for animals during the visit is the real purpose of science popularization." According to Guangzhou Zoo managers, after the Animal Behavior Exhibition Hall was closed, it was replaced by building a non-commercial science popularization exhibition hall.

Moving towards animal science popularization and animal education is the choice of most zoos at present.

2.

The public opinion direction behind shutting down the circus

The closure of the circus at the Guangzhou Zoo was originally an ordinary civil dispute, but it triggered follow-up reports from many news media.

The news media's coverage is not about the incident itself, but about the reflection and discussion of the animal ethics behind it.

For example, the Southern Metropolis Daily published an article "Guangzhou Zoo bids farewell to the circus city and people need to grow", which pointed out that "circus performances are not illegal, but they are increasingly inconsistent with the values and judgment standards that people are growing up.

Zoos follow government management regulations and industry constraints, and gradually express their rejection of expired circus performance contracts, which is actually a demonstration of the subtle spiritual growth of a city." The Paper also published a series of commentary articles and explained animal ethical issues such as animal liberation and animal welfare.

In the statements of mainstream news media, most believe that this incident reflects the progress of urban civilization and care for animals.

News media reports on the Guangzhou Zoo's closure of circus performances as of March 20, 2018)

As far as ordinary people are concerned, on the one hand, they regret the closure of the circus, and on the other hand, they also recognize and support it.

People gradually realized that behind the wonderful circus performances, there is actually a distortion of animal nature and a deprivation of animal freedom.

As one tourist said in an interview,"I agree very much to cancel the circus.

Because training animals is cruel.

Even if it is not abuse, it is not good for animals, because this is not the nature of animals.

On the surface, it looks like it's fun, but in fact the training behind it must be very cruel." From this point of view, it can be seen that the animal ethics concepts of ordinary residents are being updated and advanced.

As Tom Regan said,"The attitude towards animals can reveal the greatness of a country and its moral progress." It can be said that it is precisely because of the progress of human civilization that ordinary people have gradually lost interest in circus performances.

In this debate about "animal protection" and "intangible cultural heritage", industry insiders in the circus industry tried to defend themselves.

As early as a few years ago, Yang Hengjun, chairman of the China Yongqiao Circus Association, explained the circus's animal husbandry behavior in an interview with the People's Daily.

He pointed out,"Animals are the lifeblood of circuses.

Real circuses will not abuse animals.

Instead, they are afraid that animals will be touched or sick." Huang Yingzhi also said in an interview with reporters,"They communicate more with animals than domestication.

Animals and people in the circus are equal and have feelings for each other.

There is absolutely no abuse or cruel training.

Circus is a national intangible cultural heritage.

The existence of circuses is a respect for circus culture and folk artists and should not be abandoned." From the above remarks, we can see the embarrassing situation of circus performances under the current discourse of animal ethics and animal protection.

On the one hand, circus performances, as intangible cultural heritage, contain rich historical value and artistic value; on the other hand, circus performances are contrary to the current mainstream society's animal protection discourse.

Although circus entertainers claim that there is no animal abuse, they have difficulty presenting the real situation behind the scenes of the circus performance, so it is difficult to dispel the doubts of ordinary people about the animal breeding and animal taming process.

Domestication of animals is a question of animal behavior.

To what extent can animals be domesticated? What kind of pain and anxiety do they suffer during the domestication process? It is difficult to measure these problems scientifically and effectively.

This has also become a scientific problem and moral dilemma facing the current circus industry.

IV.

Conclusion

With the progress of civilization, people's animal ethics have shifted from dominating animals in the past to paying attention to animal welfare and animal rights.

This shift has not only received widespread support from the public, but also received support from national policies and laws.

It is in the process of transformation of animal ethics that circus performances are increasingly questioned and criticized by the public.

Especially in China, on the one hand, circus performances should be respected and protected as intangible cultural heritage, but at the same time they are also subject to restrictions from relevant policies and criticism from animal conservationists.

How to seek new development in the context of animal welfare and animal protection is a problem that the current circus industry must think about and solve.

In fact, humans have the natural need to be close to nature and animals.

Especially in urbanized and industrialized environments, people's opportunities to come into contact with nature and animals are decreasing day by day, and zoos and circus performances are the most direct ways for people to come into contact with animals.

While emphasizing the protection and respect of animals, we must also see the anti-breeding effect brought to the public during animal performances.

In terms of animal protection and animal ethics education, the circus industry has its irreplaceable advantages.

The development of the circus industry should keep pace with the current concept of animal ethics, that is, while providing entertainment performances for the public, we should also pay more attention to the popularization of animal knowledge and animal ethics education for the public.

Circus artists should find their own balance between circus performances and animal ethics.

Only in this way can the circus industry continue and develop in the progress of social civilization and moral ethics.

(This article was published in "Cultural Heritage", No.

5, 2018.

The annotations are omitted.

See the original issue for details)