The life of a Shar Pei in China in the 1960s

ZhuZhu (猪猪, piggy) was a Shar Pei who lived in a small village near Dali in Foshan, China in the 1960s. He actually had another name that no one remembers today, but his family only lovingly called him ZhuZhu.

His family consisted of seven children, their parents and grandparents. The family was very poor, they were neither farmers nor workers. Because of the political situation at the time, it was impossible to do business independently. The father of the family, like his own father, was a hunter who only fed himself and his family on the meager income from hunting small game and birds. He had a license from the Communist Party, which allowed him to own and use a shotgun.

Dog keeping was not a problem for ordinary people in this region, it was not forbidden, as is commonly believed today. The dogs were essential for hunters, helping them to secure the family's income.

ZhuZhu was very closely connected to his family. After he came into the family as a puppy, he was not only trained by the father to hunt, he was also the playmate of the children. He had a very close relationship, especially with the oldest son in the family. 

Friends of hunters often met with the family and talked about hunting and training dogs. The son listened intently to the stories of the older men at a young age.

He also accompanied his father and ZhuZhu from time to time to hunt. ZhuZhu was a good and enthusiastic hunting dog who was very successful in tracking small game. Mainly he tracked down birds, scared them up so that the father could then shoot them with the shotgun. The shot birds were sold on the market and then the mother often bought ducklings with the money they earned, raised them and sold part of them again, thus helping to feed the large family.

The family was fed with the hunted small game and the prey from the water hunt. ZhuZhu was part of the family and got the same food as his human family. Even though life was very difficult and characterized by poverty at the time, ZhuZhu, like the families friends hunting dogs, was treated very well, because it was them who contributed the main part to the livelihood of the families. The hunters also helped each other a lot, went hunting together, or borrowed their dogs from each other in order to achieve greater hunting success.

One day a hunter friend came to the family with ZhuZhu in his arms. ZhuZhu was injured while hunting and one front leg appeared to be broken. The father was not at home, so the mother and the eldest son rode ZhuZhu on a bicycle to an old classmate of the mother who worked as an orthopedist a few kilometers away. He Bingrui treated ZhuZhu, and until his leg healed properly, the eldest son rode ZhuZhu to He Bingrui every week for six months.

ZhuZhu was lovingly cared for by his family, and a year after the accident he was able to go hunting again. 

No one can remember how old ZhuZhu got, but he shaped the childhood memories of this one family very intensely. Neither is there any picture of him, nor is there any picture of his family at the time. There were no cameras for private use during this time, and if so, this family could never have afforded one.

The pictures in this article, except the cover picture, are from the 80s and were all taken near the house where ZhuZhu lived with his family.