Wuhan in Regional Context

The Feudal Wuhan

The demography of Wuhan area during the feudal times is difficult to speculate because of the unclear, old demographic units that were used such as “male”, “family”, or “young”. However, most historians agreed that the population of the region fluctuated around 30,000 before the Qing dynasty (1644) due to its low population capacity. The earliest evident demographic record of Wuhan was in 1711 under the Qianlong Emperor with a change of demographic unit from “young male” to indicating 28,216 “mouths (people)”. Wuchang had always been the most populated among the three feudal cities that were united to be Wuhan until the age of international trade (since early 18th century), where the population and economic growth had shifted from Wuchang to Hankou. Hankou became known as one of the "Three Greatest Tea Markets of China" at the time. Its (Hankou)'s population, grew steadily from 99,401 in 1772, to 99,381 in 1858, then to 180,980 in 1888. Hankou was even panegyrized as the "Chicago of China" later by the Harper's magazine in 1918, both for its economic and cultural values.

As Capital of the Republic of China

The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 taken place in Wuchang was a turn of history for China, the long reign of feudal emperors had come to an end, and for the first time in history republic landed in China. The date, October 10, then became a national holiday. Just two years after Xinhai Revolution in 1913, Hankou's population reached 800,000, accounting for two third of the total population of the Wuhan area. The total population of the Wuhan area, according to a governmental record of the Republic of China, had reached 1.2 million by August 1913, excluding slums from outside of the cities. From then until the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, Wuhan continued to grow as an industrial core with more than 500 private factories. In 1926, Wuhan was formed as the capital of the Republic of China by uniting Hanyang, Hankou, and Wuchang.

From 1949 until now

After 8 years of Sino-Japanese war and 4 more years of civil war, the Communist Party took hold of Wuhan in 1949. Though its population reduced to 1.02 million, Wuhan continued to thrive. Its population went up to 2.07 million in 1953, to 3.22 million in 1964, with 2.92 million urban population. Its urban population rate of 90% in 1964, stood out against the national urban population rate of only 18% in 1965. From then before the establishment of One-Child Policy in 1979, Wuhan’s population continued to grow. In the 1982 census, Wuhan’s total population remained around 3.24 million, with an increased rural population of 0.62 million (19%). The urban area increased in 1982 to 174 square kilometers from 34.7 square kilometers in 1949. By 2019, the urban area of Wuhan has grown exponentially to 1619 square kilometers and 8,494 square kilometers in total, making Wuhan the 6th largest city by area and 9th largest populated city in China, with an urban population of 8,896,900 and in total roughly 19 million. Wuhan is also the ninth biggest economy by GDP in China with a GDP of 1.48 trillion Yuan ($208 billion) in 2018.

Diversity of the markets

Traditionally, people of Wuhan, as well as China, have favored fresh produces from the wet markets. The term "wet market" originated in Hong Kong and Singapore English to distinguish markets selling fresh meat, fish, produce and other perishable goods; in distinction to "dry market" which sells packaged and durable goods. Often wet markets are specified by its scales and produces into wet markets (sells wet meat), live animal wet markets (sells live animal and slaughters at demand of customers), and wildlife markets (sells and slaughters wild animal species). In most Chinese big cities, consumption of wild meats is not common (CNN, 2020). Many wet markets are like farmer’s markets in the U.S. which sells products directly from farmers’ hands. In many parts of China, they are an essential part of the cityscape. They help to achieve place-making, employment, affordable and fresh food.

"Wildlife" farming

It is often omitted that where the produce of wild animals in wet markets come from, people usually assume that all, if not at least most, of them are poached from the wild. Actually, the contrary is true, the majority of markets that contain "wild animals" are actually bred and farmed in captivity, for example swan goose (dayan), frogs, or snakes. Only a small proportion of wild animals sold at wet markets are actually poached from the wild. In a fieldwork research by Fearnley about wild swan goose farmers in Jiangxi Province, he discovered factors that have brought farmers into the breeding of wild animals since the late 1990s. The independent smallholding farmers are either driven out of business from major sectors in livestock farming, such as pork or poultry. Many of them were forced to sign contracts to an industrial food company in order to stay in business. Some found a different way to meet the consumers’ demand, by farming wild animals. This allowed them to increase value to their produces without illegally poaching from the wild. Most of the “wild animals farming” happens on small scales in rural areas, therefore it is less likely they are afflicted to diseases.

Future of Wet Markets

Although, signs have shown food insecurity is linked to many wet markets, which is partly true. Abolishing all wet markets "may give the illusion of solving the cause of the current situation but the real problems are deeper than that", Petr Matous from University of Sydney's environmental and humanitarian engineer wrote in an email. Because illegal wildlife poaching and trading is likely to go on even wet markets disappear. As suggested by CNN that “even better regulation might not fully stop the illegal wildlife trade if demand persists”. It would also have a devastating effect on the national and regional economy if all wet markets are to be abolished all together. As Not only do wet markets provide food security for income communities as suggested by Matous, they also provide more than 14 millions job associated with wild life farming. The wet markets are worth more than $73 billion according to a 2017 Chinese government report. The government should also enforce stronger regulations and managements on wet markets, specifically on its hygiene and food security.

However, in recent years, wet markets have lost much ground to supermarkets and online grocery stores, especially among younger consumers. Backed by internet giants such as Alibaba’s Hema (Freshhippo) with generous discounts and pledges for safety and traceability of its produce, online groceries have become especially successful during the travel restriction in China, driving trends away from wet markets. Therefore, the future Chinese generation might become less attached to wildlife animal consumptions both for its inconvenience and the lesson they learned from the current pandemic.