Imperial Pekingese breed in decline
BEIJING: For centuries, owning the flat-faced Pekingese dog was a luxury to be enjoyed only by China’s royal family.
After years of turmoil and the 1911 revolution that established China as a republic, however, the dog named after the Chinese capital became available to the masses, and by the 1990s, they were so common that the streets of Beijing, formerly Romanised as Peking, were teeming with strays.
But as the Lunar Year of the Dog begins this month, the most distinctive Chinese canine is almost nowhere to be found.
Local pet owners today prefer foreign breeds, such as poodles and chihuahuas.
“Now, there really are too few local Pekingese,” said Zhang Lei, a breeder in Beijing.
“If you want a local Pekingese, then the only option is to crossbreed them with a foreign Pekingese.
“A lot of people don’t have them. I think the local Pekingese are now facing a crisis.”
In 2003, Zhang adopted a few local Pekingese strays, and since then has bred them, mostly as a hobby.
Some were for sale, ranging between 1,000 yuan (RM610) and 2,500 yuan each, but he said there were few buyers.
Pekingese were first introduced to Europe when Western armies pillaged the Summer Palace in Beijing and stole several of the Qing court’s dogs during the Second Opium War in the late 1850s.
The breed was seen in the West as an exotic luxury and a favourite at dog shows.
Although the local breed was fading from view, some Chinese pet owners were buying longerhaired imported Pekingese because of their perceived purity.
“They have aristocratic mannerisms,” said Beijing native Qian Hao, who takes his four longhaired imported Pekingese on daily walks in a stroller.
While there are no official statistics on domestic Pekingese ownership, Zhang Xuesong, who has bred imported Pekingese for 26 years, said the breed’s “bad genes” and a general lack of interest had kept pet owners away from the animal.