Pets in Chinese Culture: Wild, Weird and Wonderful

It might surprise you to hear that, just like in the West, there’s a long history of keeping pets (chǒngwù, 宠物) in Chinese culture, with Western household stalwarts like cats and dogs playing starring roles! Genetic research suggests, in fact, that the Chinese were the first culture to domesticate dogs, as dogs native to China are more genetically diverse, indicating a longer history of domestication than their counterparts elsewhere. These days, urban Chinese see pets as something of a status symbol, but they’re becoming increasingly commonplace in the homes of the country’s burgeoning middle class. So what’s the deal with pets in China?

Chinese Hunting Dogs
Interestingly enough, dogs are actually key figures in Chinese mythology, serving as a god of vegetation alongside primary deity Shang Di (上帝). Domesticated animals also featured prominently in traditional Chinese life, with dogs guarding houses and cats keeping mice and insects at bay. Dogs were also commonly used for hunting, a fact reflected in certain Chinese characters (gotta love when language, culture and history intersect!): shòu (狩), meaning to hunt (specifically in the winter, for some reason), contains a radical from the character for dog (gǒu), 狗, as does another word for hunting, liè (猎) (it’s that curved vertical line with the two short horizontal lines through it on the left side of each character). These characters, created millennia ago, demonstrate the interesting and important role that dogs and other pets played in ancient Chinese life.

Straw Dogs
The term “straw dog,” (meaning a thing or idea designed specifically to fail or be destroyed, also the name of a Sam Peckinpah/Dustin Hoffman film), as you might be aware, also comes from Chinese antiquity: dogs were once ritually sacrificed, but eventually people began using dogs made of straw instead, and the phrase “chú gǒu” (刍狗, literally “hay/straw dog”) become a common figurative term in Chinese and, much later, Western literature.

Cats in China
More recently, Deng Xiaoping, leader of the People’s Republic of China in the 1970’s and 80’s, used household cats in one of his most famous sayings. Deng described his pragmatic approach to political and economic theory with the "it doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice," demonstrating how housecats were already commonplace in China at the time.

Pet Fashion
These days, as pets become more and more popular, Chinese pet owners have some unique and interesting ways of raising (yǎng, 养) their little critters. Dressing dogs and even cats in clothing, for instance, is much more popular in China than in the West, with some owners going to great lengths to get their pooches all dolled up for strolls around the local park. Some proud pet owners dye their pets’ hair certain colors, a practice that has been taken to extreme lengths of late: a few years back there was a huge trend in China of dyeing pets hair to make them look like other animals; dogs were made to look like tigers or giant pandas, while cats were dyed up as elaborate Halloween costumes or famous cartoon kitties. I was fairly new in Shanghai at the time, and amidst all the crazy things to get used to in China, I remember noting that this was one of the weirdest and most difficult to explain to friends back home. Luckily, A photo is worth a thousand words:

An internet craze earlier this year saw hundreds of users of China’s Weibo microblog dress their dogs up in elaborate heels and stockings.

Singing Birds

My personal favorite Chinese pet, however, has to be the singing bird! Parks in Chinese cities are often inundated by people taking their pet birds for “walks” (while remaining in their cages, often covered by a cloth en route to the park). These birds specialize in being able to sing a wide variety of songs, though pet birds that don’t sing are also common. The singing birds are often pitted against each other in early-morning bird singing competitions, with the winner being the one able to sing the most songs. The park I jog through every morning often has dozens of birds singing at each other in what has to be the weirdest version of American Idol I’ve ever seen. It’s actually pretty fun to watch though, so if you’re ever in China stop by a park in the morning and see some birds, it’s something you won’t find anywhere else in the world!

A love of pets knows no cultural bounds or national borders. Please share your strange pet stories, pictures and experiences in the comments below, China related or otherwise. It goes without saying, the more cat photos the better!