Fishy trick: Magic with goldfish stokes anger

Click here for the article or here for the full magic trick.

Summary:

Hundreds of millions of Chinese watched this trick being performed on the eve of the new year festival and for many it immediately rang warning bells. Animal activists recall a similar trick that the Japanese did where the fish were fed magnets so that they could be controlled and now activists are worried the same thing is going on here. Those activists go on to say that "it is very dangerous for a country if it advocates abusing animals to entertain its people." They go so far to request that the trick not be performed again but the trick will indeed have an encore on Thursday, where the magician will reveal his secrets due to pressure. The magician of course claims that the goldfish are living happily but people still want experts to exaime the fish.

Significance:

Considering all the animal trafficking that goes on in China, you would think that something regarding goldfish would barely be an issue, if at all. I find it odd that they're willing to hunt animals to extinction but training goldfish to do tricks is apparently crossing the line. Releasing this news story is a great way to make it seem like they're putting their foot down when in reality they're doing nothing. The sheer fact that the magician is willing to reveal his secret should be enough evidence that there's no foul play. There's so many bigger environmental issues to deal with in China and this being the one that makes headlines shows one of two things, either they're ignorant (which I don't believe to be the case), or they've simply become numb to the declining situation concerning animals. But at the end of the day if everyone feels good about themselves then I guess that's all that matters. In the grand scheme of things I see this as something to get people's minds off of the plethora of issues plaguing China. However, I can't completely dismiss this story since it's not without precedent but if the trick does turn out to be legit then a lot of people will feel silly for having ruined the magic. Also, this is clearly a blow to democracy because I think it won't be long before we start seeing goldfish warfare, at which point we'll have to bow down to our new Chinese overlords. But in all seriousness, this shows that the Chinese people can in fact and do care for the environment.