Venue: Hawaii

Date: 24-27 March 2022

Donkey hide, once used in Pakistan’s renowned tanning industry, has recently seen a more profitable international market. Many companies from China, Pakistan’s all-weather friend and a major investor in recent years, have shown interest in its massive population of 5.6 million donkeys for preparing ejiao. As the country has seen an increase of almost 300,000 donkeys in the last three years (Pakistan's Economic Survey 2021), this supports the government's plans to export a large number of donkeys to China for much-needed foreign exchange reserves. However, the impacts of this massive trade on the lives and livelihood of poor donkey keepers in rural areas of Pakistan go unnoticed. In this talk, I explore the social life of ejiao (Appadurai 1986) and ask how a massive demand for ejiao in China influences everyday human-animal relatedness developed through years of intimacy, care, and belonging in neighboring countries, such as Pakistan. This talk explores the global impacts of ejiao production through a closer analysis of its supply chain, and critically evaluates its deep impact on rural lifeworlds, human-animal companionship, and the wellbeing of donkeys and donkey keepers.