"Watch him rise up, watch him collapse."
This simple and reasonable quote in "Dream of the Red Chamber" is really more and more intimate with the passage of time. The reason for this is simply because as I get older, I see more and more ridiculous "farces".
The farce is mostly due to the hype of people with ulterior motives: one after another, which is originally unremarkable, passes through the hands of speculators, and suddenly doubles in value and is sought after by everyone. When the market finally returned to balance, it could no longer make any waves, and it quickly became unattended.
In the world of hype, there is an animal that, when it is at its hottest, was once forty million. Now no one wants it for free. It is also the hype surrounding it that has become the biggest bubble in the past decade, and countless people have lost their money.
It is the Tibetan mastiff.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > mysterious "highland dog"</h1>
China's vast territory and diverse terrain have created very different landforms, climates and species from place to place. Various animals, in order to adapt to the local natural environment, have evolved suitable traits, highlighting the tenacious vitality and the magic of nature.
Among them, dogs, which are "good friends of mankind", also have multiple breeds. The beloved "Jingba" of old Beijing, the pet poodle of the Shanghai noblewoman, and the big wolf dog who faithfully guard the door in the field all accompany their owners with their cute or handsome appearance and docile and loyal temperament.
Dog lovers pursue novel, cute and docile dog breeds, and will also consciously breed and breed working dogs according to their needs, so the types of dogs are further increased on this basis, and the better dogs obtained by various hybrids gradually go out of their "place of origin" and breed in a foreign country.
Until the liberation of Tibet, the plateau had been excluded from this exchange. The harsh natural environment, closed traffic, and different cultures in Tibetan areas... Various factors have made it semi-closed for a long time.
Not only are people in Tibetan areas difficult to contact with the outside world, but even animals in Tibetan areas are relatively closed. Species on this plateau have formed a relatively independent ecological circle here.
With the founding of New China and the liberation of Tibet, Tibetan areas broke the original isolation. A few years later, a number of roads and railways such as Qinghai-Tibet, Xinzang, and Yunnan-Tibet were completed one after another, which further promoted exchanges between Tibet and the inland areas in the fields of personnel, funds, knowledge, and technology.
It was also at this time that many Tibetans were able to "open their eyes to the world" for the first time. At the same time, with the domestic economic prosperity, the living standards of the Tibetan people have also been further improved, and the frequent movement of people has also brought about the exchange of species.
When the "mysterious Tibetan areas" became no longer mysterious, local specialties such as yaks and Tibetan antelopes gradually entered people's field of vision, and a dog with "Tibetan characteristics" also broke into the lives of inland people.
The domestication of dogs by humans began 45,000 years ago. As humans gradually established tribes and adapted to sedentary life, the large amount of prey obtained by hunting attracted some hungry gray wolves to the human settlement.
Today, dogs, as the first species successfully domesticated by humans, have been far from wolves in terms of traits and habits, but they still retain 99.9% of the gray wolf genes. And the Tibetan mastiff, as a dog living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is no exception.
The cold, intense ultraviolet rays, and arid natural environment allow the Tibetan mastiff to retain more of the traits belonging to their ancestors, the gray wolf: large size, thick and thick hair, but their personality is not as untamed as that of their ancestors, but as docile and loyal as other dogs.
Tibetan mastiffs occupy an important position in the lives of Tibetans. Tibetans use them to care for homes, act as sheepdogs, make leather coats to keep warm, and even spend long nights with them. In the minds of Tibetans, the Tibetan mastiff, who is both brave and tenacious and loyal, is the embodiment of the gods.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > sought after "breed dog"</h1>
The Tibetan mastiff is a natural dog breed that is naturally selected and bred by the special environment of the plateau. In terms of disease resistance, adaptability, physical fitness, etc., nature is better than those breeds of dogs that breed in close inbred in order to maintain specific traits, which is very strong, which makes many people who have never seen a Tibetan mastiff refreshing.
In the eyes of some dog lovers with ulterior motives, this "toughness" has become the object of hype. In the years when the Tibetan mastiff was just known to the world, the pet circle spread the saying that "the Tibetan mastiff can single out the tiger" and "the Tibetan mastiff is the most ferocious dog", which invisibly exaggerated its "combat effectiveness".
This kind of statement is so rampant that although there are already many spoiled lords to debunk the rumors, there are still people who blindly believe that their Tibetan mastiffs are the first in the world.
In addition, they also grasped on other qualities of Tibetan mastiffs for great packaging: from Tibetan areas, with small populations, hyped as "endangered rare wild animals"; loyal, reliable, docile and courteous, hyped up as "only one owner in a lifetime".
Even the herders' feelings for Tibetan mastiffs can be regarded as "the best dogs that cannot be changed for thousands of dollars" and carry out overwhelming publicity.
Among them, the most well-known hype comes from Wang Zhankui, the "father of the Chinese Tibetan mastiff", and Ma Junren, the "King of Chinese Dogs".
Wang Zhankui's relationship with the Tibetan mastiff originated from a visit to Tibet in 1986. At that time, he was still poor and white, and he "searched for dogs for thousands of miles", and finally found herders in Tibetan areas who specialized in breeding Tibetan mastiffs. But he did not expect that the Tibetans and Tibetan mastiffs were dependent on each other, and they had such deep feelings that they refused to sell.
As a last resort, he went into the county town to buy many "precious items" such as radios and light bulbs that the locals urgently needed, bartered for 23 puppies.
After receiving the puppies, he took good care of them and took good care of them, and finally raised these small Tibetan mastiffs and sold them to Taiwanese merchants on the other side of the strait who were full of curiosity and yearning for Tibet. At that time, the two sides of the taiwan strait were far from having "three links," and these "smuggled" dogs earned Wang Zhankui the "first bucket of gold."
Wang Zhankui, who knows the taste of the marrow, knows that he has discovered new business opportunities. Since then, he has specialized in Tibetan mastiffs, and in order to increase the popularity of Tibetan mastiffs, he found the media in 1998, hoping to use their power to open up sales.
With a piece of paper full of praise for him and the Tibetan mastiff, wang Zhankui became a righteous soldier who was not afraid of hardships and dangers and searched for mastiffs for thousands of miles, and his behavior of searching for Tibetan mastiffs for the sake of profit was also beautified as "rescue and protection of rare dog breeds".
This report was reprinted by major mainstream newspapers in China, and for a time, Tibetan mastiffs were red all over the country. As the true and false names such as "unique highland dog breed", "the object of taiwan's rich merchants" and "endangered wild animals" spread farther and farther, Wang Zhankui's Tibetan mastiff value has risen.
By 1999, the average market price of Tibetan mastiffs was approaching 10,000 yuan for a puppy, and up to 200,000 yuan for good quality.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > godlike "national dog"</h1>
The Tibetan mastiff was eventually "enshrined" thanks to Ma Junren, the "King of Chinese Dogs". As a breeding breeder of dogs, Ma Junren can be described as a national shock, before the Tibetan mastiff, he once bred the famous "Ma Jiajun" purebred dog in the pet circle.
This also established his position in The Chinese pet circle. After being elected president of the Chinese Tibetan Mastiff Club in 2003, his eyes were on the Tibetan mastiff.
As an experienced businessman with a keen sense of smell, Ma Junren quickly developed a set of "Chinese national dogs" cultivation programs based on the characteristics of Tibetan mastiffs and his understanding of the Chinese pet market: First, at all costs, to create a "Unique chinese" image.
In a television program, he casually tells a "moving story": 17 years ago, he saw an unusually large German Shepherd in France. When he inquired curiously, the owner of the dog told him that the big dog was a hybrid of the Tibetan mastiff and Demu.
The dog owner also casually said that almost all the large dogs in Europe have the ancestry of Tibetan mastiffs, but in China, the homeland of Tibetan mastiffs, they are treated as ordinary meat dogs and served to people's tables.
This poignant story instantly ignited the patriotic passion in the hearts of the audience. Ma Junren draws a subtle equivalence between "China's unique dog" and "Tibetan mastiff", and also shapes the "history of blood and tears" in which Tibetan mastiffs are "national dogs" but are eaten by The Chinese people to the brink of extinction.
The masses who do not know the truth only think that the Tibetan mastiff is really a world-famous noble dog breed, and they also think that the Tibetan mastiff in China is indeed about to die, and the culprit of the demise is that there is no one to care for, no one to protect, and it is reduced to food.
As a result, a small dog, because it was tied to national self-esteem, multiplied its value, almost to the point where it could sit on an equal footing with the "national treasure" giant panda, and suddenly became a fragrant feast in the eyes of the rich.
Ma Junren saw that the time was ripe, and put forward the goal of "using tibetan mastiffs to win gold and silver in the world breed dog competition", which was infinitely close to the oath of the Olympic athletes once again accurately hit the patriotic heart of the people, and the Tibetan mastiff became a symbol of safeguarding national dignity.
Since then, some people have taken the opportunity to conduct pet auctions and carry out "hunger marketing" for Tibetan mastiffs. And Ma Junren even claimed that his dog "Little Prince", bidding no more than 40 million, never auctioned! The Tibetan mastiff fever has reached the craziest stage.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="10" > aura is no longer there, reduced to meat dogs</h1>
But no matter how magical the Tibetan mastiff is, it is only a dog.
In Capital, Marx pointed out the essence of the law of the market: the price of commodities is usually in a small range above and below its value, and when the price of commodities temporarily changes greatly due to changes in supply and demand, in the long run it will be pulled back to value by the market.
Tibetan mastiffs are no exception. No matter how people of all colors create momentum and speculation, their value attributes have never changed, and their prices have quickly fallen back to their original levels. As a dog breed, the Tibetan mastiff certainly has the advantages of meek loyalty, good health, and body fitness, but it cannot be used to obtain a high price.
As a large dog, there are many inconveniences in living in the city: they cannot have a large enough territory, enough good food, enough companions, and they cannot be completely kept at home behind closed doors, and tibetan mastiffs adopted by city residents are not happy.
Their owners also complained: Tibetan mastiffs eat a lot, bark, love to be funny, wreak havoc, lose their hair, excrete indiscriminately, and walk their dogs nowhere. In this "world of small dogs", Tibetan mastiffs seem so out of place, and many large cities have also introduced regulations prohibiting the use of large dogs.
As soon as the regulations came out, there was no doubt that a scoop of cold water was poured on the atmosphere of raising Tibetan mastiffs. With the further deepening of people's understanding of Tibet, the "mystery" of the Tibetan mastiff has also been unveiled: it is not as magical as previously hyped, but just an ordinary dog unique to Tibet.
The boom receded, and the Tibetan mastiff instantly went from being sought after by thousands of people to being ignored. Many people who bought Tibetan mastiffs in those years were to show off their wealth or seize the opportunity to invest, but now they regret not being able to do so, and they are destitute.
Subsequently, many Tibetan mastiffs were sold to the dog meat restaurant and appeared on the table. Their furs were also acquired and made into blankets... The former "national dog" has now ended up with a tragic fate.
Looking at the "Tibetan Mastiff Fever", what has not changed is the dog, and what has changed is the human heart. It is the speculators' ulterior motives, the covetous vanity of the pursuers, and the fanatics who follow the clouds, and put them on the high ground and then fall off the altar. This kind of hype has also created a pair of cold eyes for viewers.