However, the pig has long been a main protein source of the Chinese as well as a zodiac symbol.
Pig-raising on Taiwan is no longer just a farm sideline. It has been modernized and the scale, commercialized. Taiwan's modernization in pig-raising is indebted to the Taiwan Sugar Corporation.
Because of price fluctuations on the international sugar market, Taisugar decided, 30 years ago, to diversify its production. Included in its actions were establishment of a yeast factory, a plant to make hog feed with molasses, a particle board factory using bagasse as a raw material, and most important, a gigantic hog farm.
The farm first cross-bred local and imported hogs to produce a three-way-breed—hogs that had less fat and more lean meat for export. In the past, most Chinese favored fat pork, so hogs were raised by farmers to produce so much fat that they were not welcome on the international market, especially in Japan.
Taisugar not only opened export markets for Taiwan hogs, but also introduced modern techniques to Taiwan's hog-raising industry. In March 1970, it established a hog-raising research institute, under the auspices of the United Nations, charged with making systematic studies of hog breeds, nutrition, management, and disease control. The Republic of China left the United Nations in 1972, but the study has never ceased.
Manure produced on the Taisugar hog farm is used for making methane gas and poultry feed. All hog feed preparations are controlled with computers. The pigs are earmarked and their births, growth rates, and other developments are carefully documented.
The Taisugar hog farm serves as the nucleus of Taiwan's hog-raising industry. It keeps 400 top breeding boars and sows, and each year produces 2,000 breeding hogs for distribution to farmers.
When animal husbandry scientists visit Taiwan, they never fail to include the Taisugar hog farm in their itineraries. Since its establishment, the farm has been visited by more than 10,000 animal scientists and other specialists from more than 100 countries.
The farm was first headed by Prof. Ke Fu-chiang, who engaged in the study of hog-raising even before the government of the Republic of China moved its seat to Taiwan in 1949. But when he first submitted his plan for scientific hog-raising more than 30 years ago, Professor Ke was ridiculed by legislators of village origin. They maintained that hog-raising in the villages had been perfected over thousands of years and that no modernization was needed. Nevertheless, Professor Ke overcame the difficulties and his plans were adopted.
His efforts for the hog-raising industry of the Republic of China are humorously reflected in the large numbers of piggy banks and other piggy articles he collected during his numerous visits to foreign hog-producing centers. These souvenirs are made of different materials—porcelain, bronze, even woolen yarn. No matter what the materials, Professor Ke has kept them in mint shape—some for 30 years. This collection is still displayed at the Taisugar farm, though Professor Ke retired some 10 years ago.
Pork is much more than just a dish on Chinese dinner tables. It played its own part in Chinese history, as illustrated in a number of anecdotes from past ages involving both pork and pigs.
Han Fei Tse, a book written by Han Fei during the third century before Christ, records this tale:
When Tsengtse's wife set out for the marketplace to procure groceries, her little son cried to go with her. She bade him return home, but promised to buy a piece of pork for him, the meat being a luxury of that era. Seeing her return home without the meat, her philosopher-husband went to their own pigsty to choose a pig for slaughtering. The surprised wife asked, "Why are you so concerned?" The philosopher replied: "A child is pure-minded and innocent. If we trick him, he will learn from us to trick others. Never mind. I will slaughter a pig and give the whole family a treat."
When Mencius, also a famous ancient philosopher, was a child, he lived next to a slaughter house. One day he asked his mother, "Why do our neighbors kill the pigs?" The mother replied off-handedly, "So they can treat you to pork soup." Immediately after speaking, she realized her white lie might have a most serious effect on the tender mind of her little son. "How could I teach my son to be dishonest?" she asked herself in agony. She went immediately to the butcher to buy a piece of pork and, with it, prepared a delicious dish for her son.
Kung Sha-mu, who hailed from what is present-day Shantung Province, was an official of the short-lived Later Han Dynasty (947-950), noted for his success in educating six sons, all of whom attained high positions. He had some pigs, and when one of them was ill, he asked a servant to take it to market but to advise prospective buyers that the pig was not healthy. He told his servant to set a lower price, and stressed again that he was not to fob off the pig as a healthy animal. Nevertheless, the servant did not heed the instructions and sold the pig as a normal animal at a normal price. When Kung discovered what had happened, he ordered the servant to return half the money to the buyer.
During the pre-Christian era, a number of pig herders went on to become high-ranking officials despite their humble origins. Kung Sung-hung (200-121 B.C.) was born to an impoverished family and rode herd on pigs until he was more than 40 years old. When he was able to afford the costs of study, he applied himself so hard that he not only passed the Imperial Examinations but became a well-known scholar. Chinese parents often cite this story to encourage their children.
Cheng Kung, an orphan during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 B.C.-221 A.D.), herded pigs for others when he was only eight years old. One day, driving his pigs past a village school, he heard the pupils chanting Chinese classics. He went into the school and joined them. Because he did not return home on time, his master came to the school in search of him and the pigs and, finding him, snatched Cheng Kung by the collar and began whipping him. Fortunately, the teachers and pupils came out to stop the beating. Cheng Kung stayed on at the school, collecting firewood and preparing meals for his fellows, at the same time, taking every opportunity for self-improvement. In the end, he became a well-known scholar and passed the Imperial Examinations.
In Chinese history, stories abound that connect the virtue of magnanimity with the pig.
Tsao Teng, a court eunuch during the Eastern Han Dynasty, successfully served four Emperors. His father, Tsao Chieh, was known for his magnanimity. Once a neighbor who had lost a pig asserted that one of the hogs in Tsao's sty looked much like the pig he had lost. Without argument, Tsao Chieh told his neighbor to lead the pig away. Later, the real lost pig returned to the neighbor's herd, and the embarrassed man sent back Tsao's pig with profuse apologies. Tsao was acclaimed by the other villagers for his magnanimity.
The ancient Chinese seem to have been a very philosophical people. Some chose the pig as a means to convey advice to later generations.
A man named Tze Chu raised a black sow, which bore three piglets, two of which were black while the third was streaked with white hairs. The sow, it was said, bit the strange pig to death because she found it to be different from the rest of the litter. When Tzu Hua, a philosopher, learned of this occurrence, he deplored it: "It is a pity that even a pig should be so capricious, so intolerant of differences. It killed its piglet so cruelly. What would have happened if the piglet had belonged to another sow's litter?" He used pigs to expose people's intolerance of difference and dissent.
Su Shih (1037-1101), a famed poet and writer, used pigs to ridicule "metooism." Su, a gourmet, learned that the pork produced at Hoyang was especially delicious and sent a man there to buy a pig. On his way back, the man stopped to rest, drank a quantity of wine, and then lapsed into a sound sleep. When he woke, he found the pig had disappeared, so he bought another in the village where he had rested. Su Shih roasted the pig and divided it among his guests, who unanimously praised the specially delicious flavor of the "pig from Hoyang." Then the servant related the real origin of the pig, and everyone felt embarrassed. So did Su's story ridicule those who blindly parrot others.
Jesus Christ declared: "Like a gold ring in a swine's snout is a beautiful woman without discretion." (Proverbs, 11:22). ROC President Chiang Ching-kuo once paraphrased this passage in criticizing degenerate intellectuals: "If a man who has obtained a diploma—a degree from abroad—in the end does not know how to stand tall and why he should love his country, respect his parents, defend his nation, and serve the public, he is, as the Bible says, a swine with a gold ring."