Motivated by wildlife protection campaigns and Buddha’s teachings, more than 50 million Chinese defied deep-rooted tradition of meat eating and turned vegetarians, making the Communist nation one of the fast emerging countries with vegan population.

Although there are no official statistics about China’s vegetarian population, Public Radio International, an independent non-profit multi-media organisation, reported in July that China’s vegan population has reached more than 50 million, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today.

According to the world vegetarian outfits, India where the vegetarianism was rooted in the religion and culture estimated to have over 500 million vegetarians, who shun meat in their meal, the Xinhua reported.

For the Chinese vegetarians, their traditional New Year currently being celebrated all over the country is perhaps the toughest time to maintain their eating habits when faced with the country’s deep-rooted tradition of sharing meat dishes.

Read more: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2014-02-01/china/46897400_1_faye-wong-vegetarian-meat-dishes