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

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.本研究主张以更具包容性的框架，对“鲜活商品（lively commodity）”这一既有理论建构进行彻底重构——所谓鲜活商品，指为其生命本身而被捕获、培育与交易的生命体。具体而言，本研究主张将供食用的动物纳入该理论范畴，原因在于：消费者与香港众多湿货街市（wet market）中售卖的动物及其躯体部分之间的互动，已被证实是商品化（commodification）进程的核心环节。本研究基于对摊贩与消费者开展的半结构化访谈（semistructured interviews，有效样本量n=86），以及包括叙事记录、摄影与多种形式摄像在内的多元民族志观察（ethnographic observation）方法，对2022年6月至9月间香港境内27家不同湿货街市中观察到的三类构建与协商有效互动的实践与策略展开分析——本研究将这三类策略分别命名为“触发互动（provoking motion）”、“激发食欲（stimulating appetite）”与“维持生命（maintaining life）”。本研究的分析还揭示了未来研究的关键议题与方向，这些议题与方向至少植根于各类鲜活商品商品化进程在尺度、时间、生态与伦理维度上的显著差异。