An email to a friend – on respect for other life forms

Old C.,

Your giving up abruptly your hobby of killing butterflies to make specimens reflected that you had begun to love such small creatures which do not have a big brain. You might even have begun to respect life itself.

Non-religious respect for other life forms comes only after the respect for other fellow humans, especially those who are disadvantaged, less educated or less capable.

The butterfly and all other animals are still seen as lesser life forms in the Chinese, as well as many other traditional values, and also in certain religions. In a scientific perspective this is by no means true, despite most creatures have definitely less genes than us humans. Yet our empathy and sympathy for our fellow humans may extend not only to cover those highly intelligent domesticated animals, but also other creatures of the wild including your beloved butterfly. Such extended empathy and sympathy emerge only after our human life has in the first place become easier and peaceful.
If you are still surviving in the jungle or on the savannah, being a potential prey to all kinds of fierce predators, and you are hungry, your empathy and sympathy for even a badly injured fawn can hardly show.

Hong Kong has long been an international city since the early days of the British rule. Sublimated Western values, those from the Anglo-Saxon world in particular, have since infiltrated into the traditional Chinese culture, directly and indirectly modifying it by means of all forms of media, say, publications, radios, TV programmes, movies, etc.
You may not be the least surprised that dog meat is still a delicacy in Mainland China. Yet here in Hong Kong one could get jailed for just inflicting cruelty on his own cute chowchow, not to mention killing a mongrel for the Cantonese cuisine. It is now common sense here the dog is not a source of animal protein.
Although you were taught no more than a bit of Confucius and science in the school, these definitely were not all you had for your overall education. Some knowledge and values of yours must be self-taught, judging from the fact that, unlike many other schoolboys, you were more inquisitive, and eager to learn just anything, during those school days.

When it comes to children's instinctive behaviours, I would like to add a few lines to your remarks.
There is a difference between the sexes. Boys are boys, and girls are girls. Boys normally like guns and swords more than girls do. The average boys are more aggressive, less empathetic and sympathetic. And more boys want to be a hero than girls. So boys just like to eliminate enemies, or simply kill something, including the hungry fish in the sea and your beloved butterflies in the air, when there are no enemies around.