和老外聊聊中国文化：The Reputation of Dogs
A: Many Westerners don’t understand why Chinese people eat dogs. After someof them have studied Chinese, they realized that the word “dog” is used in many
derogatory expressions. Some of those expressions are “a running dog”, “stinky
dog droppings,” or “like a dog who bites on the strength of its master’s power.”
This last one describes a person who takes advantage of someone else’s strength
to bully others.Why do dogs have such a bad reputation in China?
B: My guess is that for hundreds of years in rural China, dogs have been
used to guard houses. The more they bark at the sight of strangers, the more
generous their owners are in rewarding them. That in turn makes the dogs even
more aggressive. In the old days, a scholar visiting a village would knock on
the door of a farmer’s house, hoping to be greeted with hospitality. Often, to
his dismay, he would be greeted by a barking dog that would sometimes bite him.
The scholar would be scared and run back home and, out of anger and frustration,
coin phrased to curse dogs.
A: That’s a very imaginative story! However, it seems that people have
begun to like dogs in recent years.
B: You’re right. As people are becoming more and more affluent, the role of
the dog has changed from a sentinel to a favorite pet. Nowadays, a lot of people
are breeding dogs as pets and for sale. Many others still dislike dogs because
dogs have invaded the already very crowded human space. Chinese cities are
densely populated and a lot of people live in pigeonholes in high-rise apartment
buildings. Usually, over 100 households share a couple of elevators or the same
flight of stairs. Imagine the elevator door opening and a dog running out and
barking at you. Would you still consider dogs lovely if you had to face that
every day? To look after the dogs properly, the owners have to walk their dogs
everyday and, they end up leaving dog droppings all over the place. In this
case, “stinky dog dropping” become a reality and not just a curse. You can step
on them any time of aren’t careful. That’s why more and more people feel
offended by dogs. Unfortunately, some dog owners don’t seem to care about all
these problems.
A: I heard that some people are so frustrated that they put poison on
public lawns to kill the poor dogs. Recently more than 50,000 dogs were rounded
up and killed in a county in Yunnan Province. In Beijing, more than 70,000
people were bitten by dogs during 2006. Reports of rabies throughout the country
have increased sharply.
B: It’s unfortunate that dogs become responsible for the bad behavior of
their owners. In fact, none of the derogative expressions related to dogs
actually apply to the dogs. They really refer to people. In this sense, dogs
have a chance to finally get back at the humans.
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