Pekinese dogs are losing their lustre - and cash value - in their home city, writes Clifford Coonan
THE PEKINESE were top dogs in the city they are named after for 12 centuries, but now they are giving way to more exotic breeds such as chow chows, poodles and Labradors.
In the imperial court the Pekinese were revered for their likeness to Chinese lions as depicted in classical sculptures standing guard outside the palaces of the Forbidden City. Emperors carried the toy dogs in their sleeves, and the breed is one of the oldest, more than 2,000 years.
Squat and with bulging eyes, the Pekinese breed is now being usurped among Beijing's 17 million people by fashionable new breeds.
Mei Er's pet shop has Scotch terriers, miniature schnauzers and other toy dogs, but Mei Er said she hasn't sold Pekinese dogs for a long time because there isn't the demand any more.
Chen Xiang (58), a retired school secretary, owns a four-year-old Pomeranian. "Since I retired, I have more time to play with my dog. He is very energetic. I like it very much. It certainly seems if Pekinese dogs are disappearing, the Pekinese is not as valuable as before. And it is not very beautiful, with snub nose and short legs. I have raised my dog for almost four years. He listens to me and very easy to be trained," said Ms Chen.
Her friend, Cai Hong (57), is also a retired teacher and has a five-year-old Shih Tzu. She and Ms Chen walk their dogs every day together.
"We walk our dogs twice a day, in the early morning and in the afternoon, so they can do their business outside and not at home," said Ms Cai.
"People nowadays raise Pekinese dogs less than before because I think there are many other kinds of dogs people can choose. Pekinese dogs are a little lazy and silent. They do not like to move often. It is easy to train them.
"But I prefer my Shih Tzu. I am retired so I have more time to accompany my dog. He is just like my little son. You have to treat him carefully, no indulgence," she said.
Chairman Mao Zedong frowned on pet ownership as bourgeois decadence, but in the mid-1990s it began to be tolerated, and licences were issued for smaller dogs inside the city limits.
Pekinese used to cost up to €3,000, but now they can be bought for €1.10 as their exclusivity wanes. Last year Beijingers registered about 703,897 pet dogs, up 17.3 per cent from the previous year.
Those who own Pekinese are fiercely loyal and loving owners, while their critics say the dogs are bad-tempered and unfriendly. Some wags say their faces make them look like they've been chasing parked cars - but don't say that to Qin Shu (45), an academic, who is proudly walking Wu, her Pekinese, through the narrow hutong laneways of Beijing.
Wu is wearing a blue jacket against the cold. "My dog is just over a year old. It's windy and cold today, so I bought Wu some clothes to keep him warm. He is very docile and always listens to what I say," she said.
"It is easy to raise this kind of dog in the community, I think. I walk Wu once a day in the afternoon after I finish work. I am not sure whether the Pekinese dogs are disappearing or not, but I know that in this community only four families are raising Pekinese dogs, while others are raising different kinds of foreign dogs."
There are several legends about how the Pekinese came about, the most common being that a lion and a marmoset fell in love, but the lion was too big so it went to Buddha and told him of the problem. The Buddha allowed the lion to shrink down to marmoset size, and the resulting union produced the Pekinese. In another version of this legend, a lion and a butterfly fall in love, and the lion is reduced to butterfly size.
When British and French soldiers looted the Summer Palace following the Boxer Rebellion of 1860, they discovered five Pekinese belonging to an elderly relative of the emperor, and took them away, presenting one to Queen Victoria, who called the dog "Looty".