This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

The Chinese have a centuries-old love affair with pork. It constitutes 70% of the meat in their diet. Mao Zedong even called pork a “national treasure.” However, that pork was the “the other white meat,” not phosphorescent blue. Yes. Blue. Shanghai supermarket shoppers were surprised when the pork they brought home recently glowed a faint blue under dim light. An investigation determined that the blue pork wasn’t from alien pigs or a genetic modification gone terribly wrong. The blue glow was an uncommon byproduct of bacterial contamination. Although the health department said the pork was safe to eat after cooking, no one wanted to try. Can you blame them? While westerners will gladly eat Day-Glo orange sweet-and-sour pork, glowing blue meat is just too much. I will not eat it, Sam I am. I will not eat blue pork, no ma’am.

With thanks to David Boyd for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.