Great post by Charles Hayford at Frog in a Well on all things related to pigs in Chinese history. Fabulous read as we get ready to celebrate the year of the Pig. You have to love a year that can claim as its own Chiang Kaishek, Jerry Lee Lewis, Lee Kuan Yew, Ronald Reagan, and Woody Allen. Now that’s a cocktail party.
Charles is the newest contributor over there and if this post is any indication expect some more fascinating things from down in The Well.
Ryan in Suzhou reports that China’s top propaganda chief Li Changchun has decreed that the pig shall not be used in television advertisements celebrating the year of the…pig. The reason? To avoid offending China’s Muslim population. First, I’m not an expert but I thought Islamic law prohibited people from eating pork not from going to see the movie Babe: Pig in the City. Second, if Beijing is really serious about not offending China’s Muslim population, they might try not arresting people on trumped up charges of being “Uighur nationalists.” Just a thought.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Brendan // Jan 29, 2007 at 10:23 am
Man — the one time in history that the Han show consideration for their skullcapped brothers, and it has to happen in my 本命年! I’m toying with the idea of making this the theme of next week’s newspaper column, but who knows; maybe they’ll consider it too “sensitive.” Bastids.
So are you going to be based out of Beijing or Tianjin? We should get together some time if it’s the former — the Gulou area has been enriched with some really cool little cafe/bars. My cell is 135 5240 9508, if you’re around.
2 無名 - wu ming // Jan 29, 2007 at 12:10 pm
well, at least li didn’t say it was because muslims worship pigs. i suppose that’s a step forward.
love the title.
3 The Humanaught // Jan 30, 2007 at 6:05 am
Hey… did you anonymouse me because you can’t access my site otherwise? As I’ve not had a problem with it at all - and am just curious if others are.
4 花崗齋之愚公 // Jan 31, 2007 at 1:16 am
Wu Ming,
Um…yes, a step maybe but hardly a leap.
Brendan,
Sounds great. I’ll be back in Beijing in late Feb/early March. We’d love to get back to the Gulou area and see our old stomping grouds.
Ryan,
Not sure what was going on. Couldn’t get you normally and so tried anonymouse and it came right up. It’s working now though.
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