Pei Su of ACTAsia on humane education in China

The Sentience Institute Podcast

We welcome the Chinese government's policy on the various other nonprofit organizations that they support, and I think this is all a very positive development on the ground… [But] to reduce meat consumption is probably one of the hardest issues… The challenge we are facing today is that most of the Chinese majority don't understand animal welfare issues or rights issues.

- Pei Su

ACTAsia is a humane education nonprofit based in China. But which intervention types are most tractable in the Chinese context? And what can other advocates do to assist the work there?

After interning for several animal advocacy organizations and working for World Animal Protection, Pei Su co-founded ACTAsia, where she is now Executive Director.

Topics discussed in the episode:

• ACTAsia's role in China (2:12)
• ACTAsia's Caring For Life program (10:27)
• The tractability of legislative and institutional change to benefit animals in China (18:13)
• Opportunities and responsibilities arising from new technologies like improved artificial intelligence (27:00)
• How animal advocates can ensure that they interact positively with the cultural and legal context in China (31:38)
• The quality of the candidates for leadership roles in animal advocacy organizations in China (37:00)
• Funding constraints and fundraising difficulties for ACTAsia (46:30)
• How talented individuals in the West can best help ACTAsia and Chinese animal advocacy organizations (52:05)
• How Chinese animal advocates can build experience (55:53)
• The use of for-profit experience compared to animal advocacy experience (1:00:02)
• ACTAsia’s expansion and interaction with advocates in other Asian countries (1:02:54)

Resources discussed in the episode:

Resources by or about ACTAsia:

• Caring for Life's page on ACTAsia's website
• Changing China Report
• ACTAsia's work training professionals
• Unbound Project’s post about Pei Su’s personal story
• Pei Su’s webinar on concepts and lessons on humane education

SI’s resources:

• Foundational questions summaries

Other resources:

• UN statistics on China’s farmed animal population (via OPP)
• The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture publicly acknowledging the concept of farmed animal welfare
• The recommendations of the Chinese Nutrition Society
• Students for High Impact Charity and “High School EA Outreach”
• Animal Charity Evaluators’ report on the allocation of resources in the farmed animal movement
• 80,000 Hours on China specialists
• The 2016 Chinese charity law

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