Eh, some Asian countries are easier than others.

I've had no issues avoiding meat/dairy in when living in Japan[1]/Taiwan/Singapore, and these are all cases where you can find a vegetarian or vegan version of a local dish so you're not missing out on the culture. I know many over there who make it work without issue too.

Korea and the Philippines though... for sure an example of higher difficulty.

[1] Okinawa is slightly harder than mainline Japan due to regional cuisine differences, but even then it's not the end of the world.

When you see their very tiny cages in animal shops, or eating octopus alive (“but they don’t feel anything”).

It is a bit like if they still live in the 90s (though it’s an amazing place! Like the 90s were).

But my point was that pretty much all asian countries love meat.

I mean, food in South Korea and the Philippines is 90% chicken.

Meat consumption is everywhere, because it provides the calories people need, easily, and tastes delicious.

People don't want to (and sometimes can't!) eat the stuff we feed to cows and chicken, anywhere.

I agree that it's not necessarily easy to find dishes with no meat at all in Asian countries, though.

It's probably a better strategy to try to convince people to eat less meat per dish (as in many Asian preparations) than to go vegetarian, anyway. At least it would be easier to convince me, that's for sure... if my country had the hawker stalls that they have in Singapore, I would already be eating less meat.

In Japan many dishes are what you describe.

In Korea and the Philippines, many dishes are pure meat.

I have no strategy or intent to control peoples diet though.

(source: self-travelled, have multiple contacts in different APAC countries)

you can even go to any mcdonalds there and get the most delicious, juicy white meat chicken you've ever had. not nuggets, full fried breasts.

literally every place serves fried chicken and it's amazing, every place also has spaghetti which I found... odd.