China often gets a bad rap when it comes to animal protection, and there are, no doubt, many reasons to believe that the state of the movement to protect animals from exploitation is, to say the least, challenging in the world’s most populous country. At the same time, if we are to maintain our sanity, it’s important to be aware that people who care, and care deeply, about animals are everywhere, in every country, part of every culture. We are all linked in our common goal to stop the abuse, and we should all be buoyed by the fact that there is no place on earth where we are not part of the fabric of society.
“Every Cat Has His Own Cinema”
It’s always nice to see this fact proven, and that is occuring right now in Shanghai where a group known as Clover Protector — which has the motto “caring for animals and treating them as equals” — is currently holding an art exhibition of watercolors, acrylic paintings and collage, all highlighting the plight of stray animals. The three artists who make up the group, Annie Yang, Wang Xi and Zhang Xian, are donating the proceeds of the sale of the work to animal protection causes. According to Yang, “My school has a tradition of adopting stray cats and I’ve always been very touched by them. We shouldn’t just take care of our own pets, lovely stray animals should be cared for too. So we decided to hold this exhibition to raise awareness.”