Agence France-Presse
Date: February 03, 2019
Jenny Tsai feeding biscuits to her pet pigs in her apartment in Taichung, central Taiwan. Image: Sam YEH / AFP
Every year is the Year of the Pig in Jenny Tsai’s ninth-floor apartment in Taiwan’s Taichung City which she shares with one fellow human and four pampered porcine housemates.
Website designer Tsai says her pigs are so clever they’ve worked out how to open the fridge, which is now protected from wandering snouts with a rope.
“Pigs are very affectionate,” she says. “When I am sick they stay by my side and keep me company. But you can’t pretend to be sick or they’ll find out and wreak havoc.”
It is difficult to underestimate the importance of pigs in Chinese culture, especially when it comes to food.
One of Taiwan’s most prized treasures is the “meat-shaped stone”, a small piece of carved jasper with an uncanny resemblance to a chunk of stewed pork belly that draws huge daily crowds at the island’s national museum. [FULL STORY]
