Chinese Corner: Will China ever make peace with dogs?

Will China ever make peace with dogs?

遛狗要栓绳，异烟肼倒逼中国养狗文明进步
By 紫竹张先生
August 9, 2018

These days in China, no animal divides public opinions as strongly as the dog. Every once in a while, social media users coalesce into two extreme camps in reaction to some dog news: the dog-loving faction who believe that people who treat dogs brutally are cold-blooded criminals, and the anti-dog clan, who are annoyed by the behavior of stray dogs and the negligence of some dog owners who do not keep their pets on a leash.

Yet another dog-related article sent the Chinese internet into overdrive this week. Titled
“Walking your dog on a leash — Isoniazid slows the progress of dog ownership etiquette in China,” the article discusses the recent phenomenon of dog haters using Isoniazid, an anti-tuberculosis drug, to poison canines. Author Mr. Zizhu Zhang 紫竹张先生 takes a neutral stance on the killing spree, arguing:

This is unjust to dog owners and has posed immense threats to pet dogs’ safety. But laws are of no help in addressing the problem. Meanwhile, when pet dogs roam freely in public without a leash, posing immense threats to people’s safety, laws are also useless.  

Given all the insulting remarks exchanged between the two camps after the article, Huang Fangni 黄昉苨, a Chinese journalist who used to live in the U.S., questions why the peaceful coexistence of dogs and humans seems unattainable in China. “The world is big enough. The conflict between dog lovers and haters doesn’t have to be a fight to the finish,” Huang argues.

Buying back marital freedom as Yi girls

为了逃离包办婚姻，她们前往深圳打工”赎身”
By 焦冬子 | 看客inSight
August 13, 2018

Since 2016, photojournalist Jiaodongzi 焦冬子 has been documenting the ongoing transformation of four young women who fled their Yi ethnic community in Liangshan, Sichuan, in search of financial independence and martial freedom.

When 焦冬子 first met Yi Se 衣色, she was 17 and had just been forced into an arranged marriage with a distant cousin, who gave her family betrothal gifts worth 150,000 yuan. Half a month after the wedding, she escaped to Shenzhen, where now she works on an assembly line at a phone factory, hoping to buy her way out of a regressive culture that keeps punishing women who choose their partners against their parents’ wishes.

Is Ethiopia the next China?

非洲加速度
By 陈卓 | 冰点周刊
August 15, 2018

A growing number of Chinese entrepreneurs have followed billions of dollars in state-led investment into Ethiopia. For them, what once one of the world’s poorest states is now full of economic potential. In this feature story, Chen Zhuo 陈卓 from Bingdian Weekly 冰点周刊 documents how Chinese investors in Ethiopia have helped start an economic boom.

Why are the plates so big in Northeastern China?

上菜不用盆，不是东北人
By 殷钰 | 浪潮工作室
August 13, 2018

Northeastern Chinese cuisine 东北菜 is famous for big portions. Considering that people in Northern China are relatively taller and stronger than Southern Chinese, many people think the phenomenon is correlated with body type. In this explainer, the author argues that the popular theory is wrong, and that geography and culture explain the large portions.

Yao Ming on life after retirement

不打篮球的姚明，和我们打了一次「太极」
By 谢梦遥 | 人物
August 14, 2018

Yao Ming 姚明, arguably the greatest Chinese basketball player of all time, is notoriously press-shy.  He has not given any in-depth media interviews since his retirement from professional basketball in 2011, not even after he was elected president of the Chinese Basketball Association in 2017. He has devoted a huge chunk of his time to charity events and “taking photos with government officials, journalists, hotel attendants, and security people at airport.”

In this rare interview Yao did with Renwu magazine 人物, he talks about his time as a volunteer teacher in rural China, his understanding of philanthropy, and the future of Chinese basketball.