Everywhere I went, it seemed as if people of all ages were waiting in agonizingly long lines outside popup crayfish-themed restaurants. Advertisements claiming “exclusive new innovative fresh” crayfish dishes plastered shop windows. Limited edition crayfish-flavored snacks replaced the regular Lays, Pretz, and Pringles chips at my grocery store, and even KFC was jumping on the bandwagon with their own roasted chicken and crayfish creations!

It was the summer of 2017, and I was shook. This was not just because I automatically associate crayfish with the gumbos and seafood boils of the the American South. Oh no, it was because it felt like everyone and their grandma became crawdad crazy! I had to know more.

I gleaned from my colleagues, some of whom were exchanging buckets of steamed crayfish as gifts, that the word crayfish in Chinese, xiǎo lóngxiā 小龙虾 (pronounced shaow long sha), meant “little lobsters,” and “Crayfish Season” runs from June through September. I learned from them that part of the popularity surrounding crayfish is that many people actually think they’re eating lobsters. On the flipside, I also spoke with a few people who were loathe to even touch them as crayfish are natural bottom feeders. I even had a fun little debate with friends over whether crayfish are overly hyped – as in, are they actually worth eating or is the various sauces that suck people in?

It was while researching crayfish in China that I stumbled upon a surprising truth: what I had been eating is an invasive species from the USA! No wonder they seemed familiar. Yet, how did Louisiana crayfish invade China? How did China become the world’s largest producer of crayfish? Is there a connection between crayfish in China and the dead?!

My post seeks to answer these questions and more! So, let’s grab a beer, put on some cheap disposable gloves, and delve into the saucy, steaming bucket of crayfish history!

Wait, Louisiana? Doesn’t China have their own variety of crayfish?

Well yes, actually they do. China has four indigenous types of crayfish: the Northeast black crayfish (dōngběi hēi 东北黑), the Nanjing black crayfish (nánjīng hēi 南京黑), Shishi’s crayfish (石狮 shíshī), and the Korean black crayfish (hánguó hēi xiǎo 韩国黑). Historically, none of them were considered a “delicacy,” much less food fit for normal consumption.

Much like how lobster in the USA was once labeled the “poor man’s chicken” and only good for fertilizer and feeding prisoners and slaves, the Chinese public considered the crayfish to be equally gross.  It wouldn’t be until the 1960s that crayfish as a lucrative food venture in China would take off.

Yet, I must pause here to state that the REAL start to this journey is prefaced by the import of a different, larger and slimier Louisiana critter to Japan: the American Bullfrog.

Leap (Bull)frogging through History

According to the American Historical Society, American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeina) were imported over from New Orleans, Louisiana in 1918 by Japanese marine biologist Watase Shōzaburō as an easy-to-farm, cheap source of protein. A few bullfrogs escaped the farm and, unfortunately, took to their new environment too well, decimating native frog and insect populations all over Japan.

What in the World do Bullfrogs in Japan have to do with Crayfish?

During the Great Depression (1930s), piggybacking off the idea of bullfrogs being a viable source of food, another entrepreneur brought over about twenty Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) to Japan from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA as bullfrog feed. Mirroring the bullfrogs’ adaptability, these crayfish thrived in the Japanese climate, and when a few covertly infiltrated the Japanese waterways, their population exploded. Sadly, neither the bullfrogs nor the crayfish idea took off in Japan, leaving the country with two terribly invasive species to contend with to this day.

A lighter, more nostalgic consequence is that many Japanese children now share fond memories of fishing for the destructive crayfish:

In the Shōwa era (1926–89), crayfish catching was one of the most popular pastimes for Japanese children. All you had to do was tie a piece of squid, available from sweetshops, onto the end of a piece of string as bait and cast it into a pond or irrigation trench, and you could spend hours engrossed in fishing. Large in size and reddish black in color, the crustaceans were popular with children, and there was nothing like the excitement of getting a bite on the end of your line. Even now, one occasionally spots family groups trying to catch crayfish in ponds and parks. It’s always heartwarming to see a father triumphantly showing off his fishing skills to his kids.

Kawamoto Daigo, Nippon.com

As of 2023, transporting or importing American bullfrogs in or to Japan has been made illegal per the Invasive Alien Species Act. About time! This same act also makes it illegal to trade or release into the wild any crayfish or red-eared slider turtles (another invasive species) caught in Japan. Better late than never, I guess.

The China Connection: A Dark Urban Legend

My foray into crayfish history took me to quite a few interesting, gruesome threads on Weibo. As rumor has it, during World War II, the Japanese imperial soldiers were responsible for bringing the first batch of crayfish to China to help clear the corpses of over 200,000-300,000 Chinese civilians that they slaughtered during the Nanjing Massacre (December 1937).

Removing such a large volume of bodies was a huge logistical problem. The energy consumption needed for the complete incineration of so many within the crematoriums was too high, and decomposing the bodies into smaller pieces led to plague being spread throughout the waterways. The answer: the Louisiana crayfish that could now be found throughout Japan. 

Supposedly, declassified files tell that the Japanese biochemical soldiers set up a crayfish breeding base in Nanjing with crayfish they brought over from Japan. I could not find any evidence to substantiate this claim, but the story goes that these soldiers then bred super crayfish that were allegedly able to adapt to severely contaminated water and produce robust offspring. The stronger offspring were subsequently released into the nearby rivers and streams to keep them blockage-free. Thus, much like in Japan, these crayfish abundantly produced to the point that they additionally became an invasive species in China. They spread throughout the Yangtze River, terrorizing rice farmers by destroying seedlings and burrowing tunnels that could drain entire rice paddies. 

Side note – Everything about the Japanese biochemical soldiers I’ve read and seen is terrifying. Basically, any horrible thing you can imagine, they probably did it for kicks. My husband and I once trekked out to one of their former testing bases turned museum in Harbin (read about it here!), where Unit 731 covertly developed and tested lethal biological and chemical warfare under the guise of epidemic prevention and water purification works. It was very detailed and heart-wrenching. If you’re interested in learning more about that part of history, I highly recommend a visit!

There are many other less disturbing theories about how Louisiana crayfish came to China. For example, in “Breeding Crayfish in Paddy Fields: A Big Economic Boost for Farmers,” Rachel Ong from Singapore’s Murdoch University asserts that, “Crawfishes were originally introduced to China by the Japanese, who kept them as pets, and set them free at the end of the Second World War.” Others claim the crayfish were brought to China much earlier by a Japanese merchant. Whichever means crayfish entered China, however, the main consensus seems to be that they came from Japan and their initial consumption centered around Nanjing.

The Crayfish Outbreak “小龙虾爆发”: A Rise in Consumer Feasting

The turn toward crayfish as a popular food initially came about through extreme hardship. Post-WW2 onward through the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s witnessed an onslaught of famine and other calamities. Widespread poverty and starvation led desperate citizens in Nanjing to eschew lingering anti-Japanese sentiment surrounding crayfish and gather them from the dirty gutters and ditches for food.

As time went on, towns along the Yangtze River formed their own signature crayfish dishes which grew in popularity throughout the mainland as rural migrant workers brought their unique crayfish cravings and culinary skills to the big cities. Demand for crayfish skyrocketed, and, as a consequence, farmers began growing crayfish between their paddies instead of the normal freshwater fish they would sell for extra income. During the 1980s and 1990s, large scale freshwater crayfish farming grew to be more profitable than rice in some areas!

Coming Around Full Circle

“It is ironic that a rice farmer’s worst enemy serving as cheap agricultural fodder becomes the most sought-after food among urban millennials and a pillar industry of the total Chinese food service market.”

ZHONGHUA HUANG, Emory University Scholar Blog

It was hard to find current/Post-Covid statistics on Chinese crayfish exports, but here is some data from the web:

• In 2015, the city of Qianjian in Hubei Province claimed that every two out of three crayfish eaten in Europe can be traced to them. It’s fascinating that Sweden hosts a Summer Crayfish Festival every August, called Kräftskiva, with help from Chinese crayfish exports.
• In 2016, Nearly 40% of crayfish exports out of China went to the United States, and, in ironic twist of fate, one of the largest US consumers of China’s crayfish is the state of Louisiana! Woa!
• In 2017, China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) stated that they were the world’s largest producer and exporter of crayfish, accounting for about 70% of the world’s total and worth about 42 billion USD.  
• In 2021 China exported 9,863.46 tons of crayfish, an increase of 27% from 2020.
• A professional crayfish taster in China makes about 300,000-600,000 yuan (about $44,632-89,264 U.S. dollars) annually. Tasters usually eat an average of 2-5 kg (4.4-11 lbs) of crayfish a day, recording the shape, color, and taste of each batch that comes off the production line.

Love them or leave them, crayfish are here to stay, and in the case of Louisiana crayfish – they go and come back! In attempting to address cleanliness fears, some crayfish companies are now attaching QR codes to their shipments so consumers can scan and track where their shellfish were grown and shipped from. I, personally, love this idea! As someone who wants to make more of an effort to be a conscious consumer, I wish that option was available on more products.

As for my opinion on eating crayfish…it feels gimmicky. I lean more on the side of it has too many pains for such little gains. Sure, cracking a shell or two and sucking on the heads can be fun, and some of the sauces are phenomenal, but I would prefer something simpler like jumbo crabs or even shrimp over crayfish any day.

Until next time,

Steph ❤

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