According to the below video, eating exotic wildlife dates back to the starvation conditions of the Mao years and is now mostly practiced by the rich. The conditions in which these animals are kept are unsanitary, even by comparison to a market with live animals that you might be familiar with in the US.
There was a push to end the practice after SARS-CoV-1, but they came back a few years ago.
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/videos/2020/3/6/21168006/co...