2019 is the year of the pig. Pig, being one of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs in the 12 year cycle, symbolizes wealth and prosperity. Even though it seems like everywhere in the world usually perceives pigs as animals that are lazy and eat and sleep a lot, people can't deny the importance role pigs play in the Chinese history and culture. Recently, the African swine fever hit the pig farms really hard across the country. The population of pigs in China decreased by 40%, because of both the disease and the reluctance of farmers restocking. It further shows us how important pigs are to the balance of the country (The Economist).
Similarly to the relationship between Irish cuisine and potatoes in the sixteenth century, pork could even be considered as a staple in the Chinese cuisine. When you go to a Chinese restaurant and order a fried rice, without specification of what type of meat it is, it would usually be pork. In China, when people say the word “meat” (肉), they are usually referring to pork as well.
Being one of the first domesticated animals in China, pigs have their own advantages to be on the top of the "food chain". There are many reasons to why, amongst all of the animals, families preferred to raise pigs.First of all, pigs are really easy to care for. Their diet consists of human waste: everything that comes off the dinner table goes straight into their food buckets. They would also consume human feces, which is one of the main reasons that some people don't think pork is "clean" enough. Pigs also don't require a lot of space, they are low maintenance and low cost animals. Yet, the amount of meat they produce can support far more people's diet than other types of animals (Jack, 2004). According to the elderly in China, unlike other animals, for example, cows and chickens, pigs were meant to be raised and eaten. Cows make milk and they work in the field, in fact, in the Han Dynasty, the law even prohibits people from killing cows for meat, and the death penalty was enforced on whoever did; chickens lay eggs, yet the only purpose of pigs was for their meat to be eaten (Liu, 1994).
Chinese character for "pig" (left) and "family" (right)
You can tell the importance of pigs to China even from its own written character. Traditional Chinese writing has been around since the Shang Dynasty, around three thousand years ago. Here is "pig" in traditional Chinese, when you take the left half and put it under a "roof", it becomes the character for "family". Pigs also symbolize family and virility. In the Qing Dynasty, Shixiong Wang wrote a famous Chinese cookbook that focuses on the application of Chinese herbal medicine to food. In his book, he described pork as a warm food, according to the Chinese humoral theory. Pregnant women are given pork, because it is believed that pork could generate more strength and new blood. Pork is a lot better for pregnant women than "cold" food like duck meat, but it is also not as provoking as lamb (Liu, 1994).
There are many different ways to use pork in the Chinese cuisine. China is such a big country, the weather and ecology are so different between North and South, each region develops their own ways incorporating pigs into their cuisine.Here is an interactive map to show you the different use of pig's meat, ears, blood, trotters, lard and intestines. Moreover, the different preservations of pork as well, for example, dried sausages, dried roast pork sheets, pork floss...
The Use of Pork in Chinese Cuisine
"Maoxuewang"
The background stories of the creation of most dishes started with someone's unwillingness of wasting food. People wanted to use every part of the animal, because meat was expensive. Even the parts that the rich didn't want became the delicacies of the poor. For example, the origin of one of the most well-known dishes in Szechuan cuisine, "Maoxuewang", was always told according to this folklore. In the 1940s, butcher Wang was finishing up his business at the dock, and as usual, he would sell the parts of the pigs people don't want for a lower price, or simply throw them away. However, butcher Wang's wife thought it was such a waste, so in a big cauldron, she put the meat from the face of a pig, pig's bones and intestines, and she added in ginger, peppercorn, cooking alcohol and boiling water. She made a soup base and then threw cubes of pig's blood curd in the soup as well. People's reactions to the dish were unpredictably well. It became a recipe that people followed and made slight alterations until today (Huang, 1994).
Black Ceramic Bowl with Engraving Pig Drawing (Liu, 1994)
Pigs have been given spiritual meanings around 5000 years ago. In Dafenkou, from what have been excavated from what were perceived as ancient graves, it was easy to differentiate the graves from the rich to the ones from the poor. Wealthy families would have various delicate ceramic containers buried with them, and at least in one third of the graves, there were also pigs’ heads and chins. In one grave, fourteen pigs head were found buried with the body. This provides some evidence that in our ancestors’ minds, there is some relationship between pigs and wealth (Liu, 1994).
Pigs, cows and lambs were sacrificed in most of the religious practices in Shang Dynasty, according to the ancient chinese writings on animal bones and turtle’s shells discovered and extracted in the 19th century. From the Chinese Historical Records, it was also recorded that since the Han Dynasty, whole pigs were used as sacrificial offerings. Once a year, during one of the morning meetings the emperor hosted, whole pigs were brought out to worship God. The pig is put on the table with the limbs spread out to show the size of it, the bigger the pig is, the more devoted the worshiper is. Sometimes people would also put an orange in the pig’s mouth to ensure good luck and prosperity of the coming year (Huang, 1994).
Sacrificial Offerings: Whole Pigs with Oranges (Zhu, 2015)
Pigs to the development of China is like grains to the development to the earlier society. In order for a society to remain stable and wealthy, there needs to be some factors contributing to the developing world. In this case, one of the most important and inseparable parts of our lives is food. If a country has a food source that contributes to its prosperity, whether it could be controlled by the government, is high-yielding, or just simply tastes good, then it becomes more than just something that could fill up our stomachs. In China, pigs were given a meaning, both historically and culturally: Pigs symbolize wealth, luck and prosperity; pigs are the stepping stone of the development of China; pigs are still present in Chinese cuisines and many local customs and religious practices. Pigs are so much more that what they are.
