- Shen Dzu
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Shen Dzu or God Pig (Traditional Chinese: 神豬, Simplifed Chinese: 神猪; Mandarin Pinyin: shénzhū, Wade-Giles: shen-chu) are pigs fattened for use in Hakka religious and cultural ceremonies, particularly the Yimin Festival popular in northern Taiwan. Pigs are fattened in a process similar to (and as controversial as) gavage to make them as large as possible in preparation for contests and awards at the festival. Many pigs end up weighing over 800 kilograms and some pigs even weigh more than 900 kilograms; though some growers cheat by force feeding the pigs lead or sand before the weighing. The pig is then ritually killed as a sacrifice to a city god or a local deity.
In urban areas with no access to farm such a gargantuan beast as a 900 kg pig, or places where objections based on cruelty to the pigs has been raised, the contests instead have become art projects for children to create decorated pig statues.
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