Young people across China are becoming vegetarians for a variety of reasons, from weight loss to worries about the quality of meat

    A vegetarian diet, once associated with monks or priests, has become fashionable in China, spawning the launch of a raft of restaurants catering to a new no-meat clientele.

    Several online surveys conducted by AC Nielsen, a leading global provider of market research information services, show that young people make up the majority of Chinese vegetarians. For the young, saying no to meat is a way to express their lifestyles and values.

    In addition to the pursuit of health and respect for animals, people who choose to be vegetarians also say they have no confidence in the safety of meat. Often they are wary of the food given to farm animals. Although choosing a vegetarian diet is just about food, it shows a new attitude to the world around.

    Vegetarians can be divided into two groups: strict vegetarians (vegan) and ordinary vegetarians (vegetarians), but in the eyes of non-vegetarians, the difference between the two is negligible, that is "none of them eat meat."

    "After I had been a vegetarian for some time I met my boyfriend Gu Yue, but I felt strongly after a while that I had fallen in love with a ‘killer,'" said Ning Er, who works in a foreign company in Beijing. Gu was born in Guangdong Province. People there are famous for their love of meat. There is a saying that "they can eat everything flying in the sky except for the planes, and everything running on the ground except for the trains." The difference in eating habits between Ning and Gu caused many conflicts. "Although he is a nice guy, I made up my mind several times to break up with him," said Ning.

    Gu gradually came to agree with his girlfriend that rejecting meat was the right thing to do and quit. He said it was a vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai called Jujube Tree that caused his transformation.

    On each wooden table in Jujube Tree there is a small sign that says, "Pure persistence, for our planet, for your health." The boss of the restaurant, Zeng Fangying, is a vegetarian. Several years ago, her mother-in-law was diagnosed with cancer and was told she had six months to live. After switching to a vegetarian diet her mother-in-law lived several years longer. Zeng became a vegetarian after that. "The vegetarian lifestyle gives me new understanding toward life," she said.

    In addition to respecting all life, some turn to vegetarianism because they believe it helps protect the environment and prevent world hunger. Zhou Yongshan is a young teacher from Taiwan. He is busy giving lectures around China on how to eat healthily. "The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by an ox per year equals that emitted by a car," he said. Raising poultry on a large scale needs more feed, which needs more land and leads to the cutting of the trees. Sandstorms across China have become increasingly serious in recent years, and huge areas of grassland have become deserts due to overgrazing. All these have sounded alarm bells and led to a rising tide of vegetarians, according to Zhou.

    Ning said she did not think about this much when she became a vegetarian at first. Initially she just wanted to lose weight. At first, she worried that a vegetarian diet might not provide enough nutrition, but a professor from the School of Life Sciences of Peking University told her that a vegetarian diet could provide more direct nutrition than meat. "The nutrition of meat also comes from the plants," she said. Now Ning, and many others like her, form a growing voice of vegetarianism around China, which could see diets and restaurants changing dramatically in years to come.

    在中国, 年轻人开始成为素食者, 他们出于各种原因, 从减肥到担心肉的质量.

    一向与和尚或神父相联系的素食饮食,现在在中国已变得很时尚, 这种形势下出现了许多素食餐馆,它们满足那些新出现的、不吃肉的客人.

    一个世界领先市场研究信息服务供应商, AC.尼尔森所做的在线调查显示中国素食者,年轻人占了大多数. 对年轻人来说, 对肉说不表达了他们生活方式与价值观.

    除了追求健康与尊重动物,那些选择成为素食者的人们还说他们对肉的安全缺乏信心. 通常他们会注意饲养动物的食物. 尽管选择素食饮食只是关于食物, 但这显示了人们对周围世界的新态度.

    素食者可分为两种: 一种是严格素食者(纯素食者),另一种是一般素食者(素食者), 但是在非素食者的眼中,他们之间的差别是微小的,  那就是"他们都不吃肉".

  " 在我成为素食者一段时间之后,我遇到我的男朋友顾悦, 一段时间后,我强烈地感觉我曾爱上了一个"杀手",在北京一家外资公司工作的宁儿这么说. 顾悦出生在广东省, 在那儿的人以爱吃肉而著名. 有句话说"他们可以食一切天上飞的动物,除了飞机, 食地上一切奔跑的动物,除了火车." 顾与宁在饮食习惯上的不同引发了许多冲突."  虽然他是一个不错的男子, 我几次下决心想与他分手,"宁说.

   渐渐地顾开始同意了他女友的观点, 认为拒绝食肉是一件做得对的事, 并戒掉了食肉.他说，在上海有一家叫枣树的餐馆，就是这家餐馆促成了他的对肉的变革。

   在枣树的每一只木头餐桌上，都标有一个小的记号，上面说“为了我们的星球，为了我们的健康而进行纯粹的坚持。”餐馆的老板曾芳颖，就是一位素食者。几年前，她的婆婆被诊断为癌症，并告知只有六个月可活。当她婆婆吃素食之后，就活了几年。这之后，曾就成了素食者。“素食者的生活方式给予我对生活新的理解，”她说。

    除了对所有生命的尊重，有些人转而奉行素食主义，因为他们坚信这种生活方式可以有助于保护我伞兵环境，并防止世界饥饿。周咏珊是来自台湾的一名年轻教师。他正忙于在中国各地做关于如何健康饮食的讲座。“每年一头年所发出的二氧化碳量等同于一辆汽车所排出的量，”他说。在规模地饲养家禽需要更多的喂养，这需要更多的土地，这就得砍伐树。在近几年来，中国各地的沙尘暴变得越来越严重，由于过度放牧，大面积草场已成为沙漠。所有这些都敲响了警钟，导致了素食浪潮的席卷，根据周所说。

    宁说，之初成为素食者并没有想得那么多。她最初只是想减肥。开始，她担心素食饮食可能不会提供足够的营养，但北京大学科学生命学院的一位教授告诉她素食饮食比肉能提供更多的营养。“肉的营养也是从植物上汲取，”她说。 现在，宁与许多其他像她一样的人，在中国大地发出一种日渐响亮的声音，素食主义，在未来几年，这将使我们看到中国人的饮食与餐馆会有巨大的变化。