The information comes from the Internet.
About horses
Horses, this is an animal whose recognition is comparable to that of cats and dogs, maybe someone has never seen a horse, but it is impossible for someone not to know about horses.
This herbivorous animal of the genus Equidonus is tall and muscular, with four long, solid legs and a wide variety of colors of hair, including light brown, reddish brown, red ochre, white, black, and more. But no matter what color it is, its fur has a silky sheen; The long hair on the tail is flowing, and it runs like a streamer.
The mainland has always created countless works of art based on the theme of horses, and of course not only because of their beauty, this will be said later.
Although there are only two subspecies of horses, domestic horses and wild horses, horses are divided into grassland, desert, mountain, and forest species according to the natural environment of their place of origin. Basically, the difference in performance between these three species can be guessed by the name, and it is worth mentioning that the forest species is the most hardy.
Horses live an average lifespan of 30-35 years and up to 60 years.
The influence of horses on Chinese history
In the earliest and earliest times, the primitive tribes of China certainly knew about horses, and they only thought that it was a kind of meat that ran fast. It wasn't until the development of society that there were more and more things that needed to be done, so some tribesmen began to think: Can they ask the horses to help pull some heavy loads? So humans began to domesticate horses, which dates back 6,000 years.
As wild horses were domesticated into domestic horses, humans began to discover the advantages of horses: stamina, speed, sensitivity, and loyalty. The document "Xunzi · Unmasking Chapter" records that "Xi Zhong made a chariot and rode a horse by Du Zuo", which means that in the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, people explored other applications of horses, not only to carry heavy loads, but also to drive horses to gallop and transmit important information.
Then the horse was classified as: domestic horses, cargo horses, war horses, chariot horses, and since then, the transportation and trade efficiency of human society has been greatly improved, and the development of horses has begun to be deeply bound, and in each subsequent period, horses have been bred as important partners.
Even later, horses influenced the thoughts and spirit of the ancients, and many literati and writers used horses as the theme to praise their beautiful character. There is a passage in the ancient book "Zhou Li· Xia Guan" that elevates the horse to a very high status. It is written: "Horses above eight feet are dragons", which shows that horses were used by the people as early as the pre-Qin period to associate with dragons! You must know that the dragon has always been a symbol of the highest status, such as the "true dragon son of heaven".
As a result, traditional ideas and spiritual symbols such as the Ryoma spirit and the horse to success appeared.
It can be seen that the domestication and application of ancient horses did bring great convenience to the lives of the ancients, which promoted the development of transportation, trade, transportation, and exchanges between different ethnic groups.
A country that loves horse meat
According to statistics, 4.7 million horses are slaughtered every year in the world for food, some of which are specially bred for food, and some are retired from racetracks. Some countries like the smell and muscular taste of horse meat, and the two most representative countries are Japan and Kazakhstan.
The taste of the Japanese is really heavy, it can be said that everything can be sashimi, yes, horse meat they also sashimi, even horse offal, they dare to eat it raw! However, such a diet is considered a niche even in Japan, and they use more horse meat to cook sukiyaki, which is commonly referred to as a relatively light hot pot.
Kazakhstan is different, they really treat horse meat as a traditional delicacy. Kazakhstan is known as the "country on horseback", and horses are deeply bound to the lives of the nomadic people in the country, and basically eat, drink, live and travel cannot do without horses. Kazakhstan ranks among the top 10 horses in the world, with a 2021 data showing that the number of first horses in Kazakhstan is 3,118,200.
They have a lot of horse meat dishes, such as horse meat sausages, horse jerky, braised horse meat, horse meat pots, boiled horse meat, etc., and people really want to make good food.
There are actually many ways to make horse meat on the mainland, and there are people who love to eat horse meat, but there are very few. This seems a little strange in a continent where you can make both bugs and rats into a delicacy? In fact, the second paragraph explains a lot.
Why is eating horse meat not popular in the mainland?
With the improvement of living standards, people's concept has changed from "eat enough, eat well" to "eat novelty", and all kinds of delicacies that have never been seen in 5,000 years of history have appeared in our field of vision, and most of them have died suddenly before they are promoted. And horse meat is also a new delicacy, although the mainland has a history of eating horse meat, but this diet has never been promoted.
I think there are four reasons for this.
First of all, of course, is the significance of horses to the continent. Horses can be said to have influenced the development of continental history. They are more like companions than food, and they have played an important role since ancient times. In ancient times, they could help transport goods, they could be used to travel, and they could even be used to defend the country; In modern times, they can also play a role in horse racing, equestrian and sports entertainment. Therefore, it is difficult for Chinese people who value love and righteousness to recognize their contributions, and it is difficult to associate them with food.
The second is that the taste is not adapted. Because most people rarely or never eat horse meat, everyone is not very comfortable with the taste of horse meat, and it is difficult to treat it as a regular food, which will amplify the unique fishy smell of horse meat. Their fishy smell stems from their well-developed sweat glands, which are difficult to eradicate in all kinds of cooking methods; And because horses are always running and moving, they have a lot of muscles on their bodies, and the taste is really a bit stiff, and most people don't know how to deal with it.
Then there's the high cost of horse meat. They are not common in their own right, pork, chicken, lamb, duck, fish, beef, and other meats are widely available in the market, but horse meat is rare. And because of the rarity and high cost of transportation and slaughter, the price of horse meat is also high, and the cost performance is very low.
Finally, the reputation is not very good. It's not that horses have a bad reputation, but that some unscrupulous people will sell the meat of cheap old horses retired from horse racing or equestrian rings as beef. As soon as the matter was revealed, the possible horse was implicated, and was incidentally hated by some people who hated opportunism.
One is because of the heavy taste of horse meat, which is not suitable for the traditional Chinese three dishes and one soup, and the mainstream concept of light diet does not meet the taste of the vast majority of Chinese people. This fishy smell of horse meat is caused by overdeveloped sweat glands. The smell of horse meat is like the earthy smell of some river fish, and it cannot be washed away.
postscript
To sum up, the reason why horse meat is not popular in the mainland is mainly due to taste and cultural factors, and the inadaptability of taste is also caused by culture (if you eat less, you are not used to it).
The mainland's 5,000-year-old cultural heritage has led to the transmission of many deep-rooted virtues. We recognize the contribution of horses to Chinese history, so it's hard to treat them as food, but rather appreciate them.