A Day for Animals? The World Animal Day in Modern China, 1930s–1940s

Abstract

This article examines how the October 4 observance of World Animal Day (WAD) in China during the 1930s and 1940s functioned as a multifaceted platform appropriated by various actors. Under the rhetoric of animal protection, WAD was mobilized to advance both discourses of Buddhist revival and the Nationalist Government’s appeasement policy, while also creating openings for social commentary and critical reflection on pressing political and moral concerns. Initiated under the influence of Lü Bicheng’s early advocacy in 1931, the China Society for the Protection of Animals (CSPA), led by lay Buddhist elites, reinterpreted Buddhist principles of nonkilling and vegetarianism through the modern idiom of animal protection, positioning WAD as a central vehicle for advancing these ideals in public life. Between 1934 and 1937, the Nationalist Government formally endorsed the event, treating it as a tool for domestic moral cultivation and a symbolic demonstration intended to bolster its broader peace-oriented narrative during the appeasement era. Within this context, its ritualized and religiously inflected commemorations also provided a venue for alternative voices to express dissent and critique. Public criticisms targeted not only the CSPA’s detachment from the practical challenges of animal welfare, but also the government’s prioritization of performative gestures over addressing human suffering and its failure to respond decisively to Japanese aggression amid national criseis. Rather than generating broad-based ethical consensus, WAD’s ceremonial framework struggled to secure resonance among the wider populace. By the late 1940s, it had become largely confined to Buddhist circles and faded from national visibility.