Bullfighting part of Chinese culture

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Spain and Portugal are famous for bullfighting, but the sport is also popular in parts of China, where bulls fight it out in a different way. There are no matadors. Instead, bulls just batter each, often galloping at full speed, until the loser runs away.     

According to the Wall Street Journal, this fall's top contender in Yunnan Province, in southwest China, is named Optimus Prime (a character in the Transformer series of movies). And the newspaper refers to the animal as the bullfighting equivalent of Mike Tyson. Optimus Prime is fed pork most days. On fighting day, he gets to eat eggs between rounds.  

A decade ago, farmers simply unhooked their water buffaloes from their carts to decide whose was the most powerful. Now, bullfighting has become a bigger deal. Fights draw thousands of spectators and prize money can be as much as C$7,800.

The practitioners of this sport are mostly Yi people, an ethnic minority of about eight million spread across the country. BF