[12] Shark fins are believed in Chinese culture to have properties of boosting sexual potency, enhancing skin quality, increasing qi or energy, preventing heart disease, and lowering cholesterol.

[13] In traditional Chinese medicine, shark fins are believed to help in areas of rejuvenation, appetite enhancement, and blood nourishment and to be beneficial to vital energy, kidneys, lungs, bones, and many other parts of the body.

[16] For nursing mothers, young children, and pregnant women or those who wish to be, the United States Food and Drug Administration has advised avoiding consumption of fish high in mercury.

[32] Consumption of shark fin soup had risen dramatically with the affluence of the middle class, as Chinese communities around the world enjoyed increasing income levels.

[24][35][36] It was used to communicate wealth, power, and prestige,[35][36] as it was believed to show respect, honor, and appreciation to guests as well as to intimidate them as the serving of such a dish often implies that the host is willing to use cruelty and brutality to achieve their goals,[24][13] with 58% of those questioned in the WWF survey indicating they ate the soup at a celebration or gathering.

This was more than balanced by an increase in demand from the Chinese mainland,[34] where economic growth put the expensive delicacy within the reach of an expanding middle class.

[30] A survey carried out in China in 2006 by WildAid and the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association found that 35% of participants said they had consumed shark fin soup in the last year,[28] while 83% of participants in an online survey conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature said that they had consumed shark fin soup at some time.

[37] The movement against shark fin soup began in 2006, when WildAid enlisted Chinese basketball star Yao Ming as spokesperson for a public relations campaign against the dish.

Businessman-turned-environmentalist Jim Zhang helped to raise concern within China's government, which pledged in 2012 to ban shark fin soup from official banquets within three years.

[41] A 2018 WildAid report mentioned Thailand as an emerging market for shark fin soup, citing a 2017 survey where 57% of urban Thai respondents consumed the dish, most commonly at weddings, restaurants, and business meetings.

[47][48] The largest supermarket chains in Singapore – Cold Storage and NTUC FairPrice – have stopped selling shark fins, citing sustainability concerns.

[51] In the United States, Hawaii,[52] Washington,[53] Oregon,[54][55] California,[56] Guam,[57] and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands have banned the sale and possession of shark fins, effectively eliminating the availability of the soup.

[67] On 2 July 2012, the State Council of the People's Republic of China declared that shark fin soup can no longer be served at official banquets.

[69] High-profile names such as Gordon Ramsay, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and Charles Clover, author of The End of the Line: How Overfishing Is Changing the World and What We Eat, have lent their support to the charity's 'Hacked Off' campaign.

[70] In 2019, environmental NGO WildAid partnered with Plan B Media on a public awareness campaign to discourage sharkfin soup consumption in Taiwan.

[72] A popular, low-cost imitation shark fin soup (碗仔翅) made using vermicelli is widely available in Asia.

The shark fin is replaced with an imitation and edible mushrooms, kelps, seaweeds, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and beaten eggs are added, as in the traditional soup.

[79] In 2015, a seafood company from San Francisco was working on a variation of imitation shark fin using algae-derived ingredients and recombinant proteins.

Imitation shark fin, konjac gel, and other alternatives can be purchased in preserved form from Asian supermarkets and convenience stores.

Although this soup was inexpensive and lacked the authentic flavor, since it was cheap, tasty and contained many ingredients, it was popular among the poor and became one of the famous street snacks of Hong Kong.

[citation needed] Apart from the street vendor version, imitation shark fin soup may also be found in fast-food stores and expensive Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, and also on mainland China.

[82] Thus, imitation shark fin soup may have to change its Cantonese name since "wun tsai chi" (碗仔翅, lit.