杯觥蛇隱——從華西街蛇店看臺灣食蛇興衰史

Hidden Serpents beneath the Toasts: The Rise and Decline of Snake Consumption in Taiwan through the Snake Restaurants of Huaxi Street

2018年華西街「亞洲蛇肉店」歇業「象徵臺灣以蛇肉專賣「現場宰蛇與觀光夜市為核心的成規模食蛇消費退場。相較食狗議題臺灣食蛇文化仍少有系統整理。本文以報刊材料為主參照動物文化史華西街空間研究及蛇類商業利用調查成果，回溯戰後臺灣食蛇文化的形成、興盛與式微，並以華西街蛇店為代表場域分析食蛇如何在國家縱容、觀光凝視與權慾展演交織下，遭合理化為可被觀看與消費的獵奇景象。本文援引《金枝》順勢巫術概念，說明蛇製品療效想像，並指出高等教育普及、全民健保醫療技術進步及國際動保輿論，如何促成食蛇祛魅。食蛇文化退場並非單純文明進步，而是涉及多數暴力、集體嗜血與非人化邏輯的歷史進程，仍有反思必要。

The closure of Asia Snake Meat Restaurant on Huaxi Street in 2018 marked the retreat of a large-scale form of snake consumption in Taiwan centered on snake-meat specialty stores, on-site slaughter, and tourist night markets. Compared with the issue of dog consumption, Taiwan’s snake-eating culture has received little systematic scholarly attention. Drawing primarily on newspaper materials, while referring to existing studies on animal cultural history, Huaxi Street as urban space, and the commercial use of snakes, this article traces the formation, flourishing, and decline of snake-eating culture in postwar Taiwan. Taking Huaxi Street snake restaurants as a representative site, it examines how snake eating was legitimized as a spectacle to be viewed and consumed through the convergence of state tolerance, tourist gazes, and the performative display of power. This article adopts James G. Frazer’s concept of homeopathic magic in The Golden Bough to explain the imagined medicinal effects attributed to snake products. It further shows how the expansion of higher education, the implementation of National Health Insurance, advances in medical technology, and international animal protection discourses collectively contributed to the disenchantment of snake consumption. The retreat of snake consumption should not be understood simply as the outcome of civilizational progress, but as a historical process involving the tyranny of the majority, collective bloodlust, and logics of dehumanization, all of which warrant continued critical reflection.