BEFORE coming to China,few people give much thought to the fact that eating vegetarian could be a problem.Why should it be? A country with a population of 1.3 billion people can't only be home to carnivores,right? Unfortunately,the answer to that question is a little complicated. In China it is often difficult to make people understand that one is vegetarian through personal choice.This probably stems from the fact that,historically,vegetarianism in China has generally been the result of economic pressures and not choice.There was a time when the vast majority of people were too poor to afford meat,and the connection between vegetarianism and poverty seems to have been permanently imprinted on the country's collective psyche.Now times have changed,and higher standards of living mean that meat on dinner tables now is as much a status symbol as a source of protein and nutrients.