18 February
2007 brings forth a fire pig year in Chinese
lunar calendar, which somehow is said to be a
Golden
Pig year, so most Chinese, as one can
imagine, are eagerly looking forward to it.
If people are
so keen on the pig year, imagine what pigs
feel about their own time coming. And when,
just 57 days before entering their ruling
era, they found they were about to face
execution without trial, picture how furious
they must be.
Last Thursday,
December 21, in Nanjing, four fleshy grown-up
pigs were allegedly ordered to get up in the
early morning and, leaving their family,
friends and possibly lovers behind, to get
aboard the back of a three-wheel truck that
was only about one metre long by one metre
wide.
Ever since the
pigs were born, life wasn’t too bad for
them. In fact, they were spoiled. When they
were young, they didn’t have to do
homework; after they’d grown up, they don’t
need to look for jobs. They lived almost like
aristocracies - never cooked their own meals,
never cleaned their own rooms and never
washed their own plates. It is highly likely
that when these privileged four received
marching order, they reckoned they were
selected for a pre-holiday sight-seeing ride
or to participate in an eating or sleeping
competition which they were especially good
at.
But when they
found themselves locked in a crowded space to
smell each other’s bums, the proud pigs
considered it beneath their dignity. As a
60-year old butchery worker further squeezed
himself in to escort them, and as the vehicle
progressed towards the butchery, something in
the air told them that something wasn’t
right.
Although pigs
are normally illiterate and do not take the
trouble to write books about their past or
future, they may well have some sort of oral
history passed down by the snort of nose or
have gossips exchanged between individuals.
Otherwise, why do they have such large ears?
And their knowledge of the history might well
help them to realise that they could be done
away with this time.
The details of
their emergency board (truck) meeting
following the realisation of their grave
situation are murky, but the action
resolution it produced is clear. They decided
to launch a pre-emptive strike against the
suspicious escort. Pushed the poor man on the
floor, they stamped and bit him all over.
When the truck finally delivered the gang to
the butchery, the people over there
discovered that one of their butchers has
already been butchered by the pigs.
The horrific
killing at once becomes quite a news story
across China and, according to the local
media, a police investigation into the
incident has begun. It looks soon a cerntain
public prosecutor is going to file
murder-charges against the gang of four. If
so, the court may have difficulties to
subpoena the accused since they’ve already
been executed prior to the police
investigation. Had the court insisted to do
so, it may encounter a rather awakward
situation in which everyone, including the
prosecutor, the judge and each of the police
officers, is entitled to take the witness
stand in the trial, unless he or she can
prove that he or she has not eaten pork
related food, say meat balls in meicai or
steamed pork dumplings, after the incident;
or he or she has hard evidence to confirm the
pork products he or she consumed were
definitely not part of the remains of the
defendants.
That would be
a mission, not impossible, but difficult to
accomplish, guess.
What is highly
likely is that for the impact they have
generated, the gang of four may turn into
legendary figures in piggie folklores with
many fictional details being flavoured in.
One version could conclude like this:
Before
they face the guillotine on that tragic
day, they requested the human journalists
to spread their words:
"While
waiting to hear our fate, we contemplated
long and hard, and now we have this
message to you, our dear pig brothers and
sisters across the nation and abroad:
Stop sniffing each other’s smelly bums;
begin working on narrowing the gaps
between different versions of various
gossips; and above all, do not hate
butcher-led ham, bacon, sausage and other
pork dish lovers. Happy Pig Year for
everyone!"
