Everyone knows that the Chinese eat dogs – it’s an urban legend of sorts that happens to be true. But while most people in the US are appalled at the thought of Rover being eaten for lunch, the Chinese actually hold a dog eating festival that has been going on for 600+ years in the township of Qianxi. The festival celebrates a military victory during the Ming dynasty in the Qianxi township, where all of the dogs were killed so that they would not bark and alert the enemy.
During the festival hundreds of dogs are slaughtered alive and eaten. This year, a major push was made largely in social media, and the festival was banned for the first time. A tweet saying something to the effect of “Slaughtering live dogs is not a carnival, it’s a massacre” was retweeted 100,000 plus times. Apparently the Chinese middle class is slowly coming to the realization that owning a dog as a pet can be quite enjoyable.
So what the hell is the point of all this? I went to China for a couple of weeks in 2009, and have been asked countless times since about my impressions of the country. To sum them up, I’m not big fan of the place. I understand it’s very difficult to judge an enormous nation on the few places I visited, but from what I did see, there was enough twisted and grotesque stuff going on to leave a sour taste in my mouth (which was already laced with the sour taste of smog in my lungs). This festival to me is a good and highly publicized example of where these sentiments came from. It’s at least good to see the government listening and moving away from this sort of thing.
Mike Vick is livid
Two points for that comment.
thank you sir
J-bone, you better hate the chinese as much as you do Vick.
I do, you better cheer as hard for China as you do for that criminal.
At least he doesn’t fake his injuries
Ask Deon Grant if he was hurt, he will tell you.
Vick flops around to get late hit and roughing calls often, especially on the sidelines.
Reading this article while eating Chinese food for lunch today made me sick. I am pretty sure this beijing beef is made from dog meat.
Raw dog meat?
No they cook it but they slaughter live dogs then cook them on the spot.
if they eat dog meat, you’ve got to wonder what else they might eat …. just pretend it’s chicken .. no worries
Trust me, having been there, they eat all sorts of mystery meat.
I’d say it’s pretty likely.
Do they allow beer drinking on the Great Wall of China?
They do but the Mongorians don’t!
Geoff!
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and such. But to target a certain ethnicity is just wrong! Dogs are animals, just as a cow, or a pig is. So to say that eating rover is wrong, what about having Little Bo Peep’s sheep for dinner?! Needless to say I am a little disappointed in this post. Please stick to writing about the Red Sox!
Hey now. I’m not targeting any ethnicity, I’m just saying this an example of the sort of thing that turned me off to China when I was there. Who says you have to be a fan of everywhere you go?