Surreal photos of a pig who lives in a Chinese tower block

In early 2017, photographer Feng Li and his wife were at the airport in Chengdu, Sichuan Province’s capital in southwest China. The pair were heading home to their small, high-rise apartment in the centre of the city when Feng’s wife spotted a tiny, strange-looking object lying on the floor. Walking closer, they realised it was a one-month-old boy piglet, who had been abandoned by a passenger. Feeling an overwhelming sense of responsibility, they picked up the baby pig and decided to take him home. “He was even smaller than our cats,” Feng recalls. “If we had left him alone, he wouldn’t have survived the winter.” 

Naming him Piggy Feng, the piglet soon became an integral part of the family, living alongside the photographer, his wife, children, and their three cats. At the time, Feng was working as a professional photographer in a government department documenting rapidly changing cities in China, while off-duty at home he captured the tender moments spent with Piggy as he rapidly grew into a fully-sized, adult swine.

Those intimate, familial scenes are now brought together in his new photo book PIG (published by Note Note Éditions) which documents Piggy Feng’s coming of age. The pictures are surreal yet nostalgic – reminiscent of a classic family photo album yet with the uncanny twist of Piggy Feng’s recurring appearance and various pig-themed motifs throughout. While speaking to Dazed, Feng can hear the distant hum of Piggy snoring.

Over the past seven years, Feng’s preconceptions of the species were flipped on their head. Instead of the smelly swine the photographer imagined, Piggy instead has a layered, often shy personality. “Before I had [Piggy], I thought pigs were stupid, lazy and dirty, like most people [do],” Feng explains. “But after adopting him, I changed my prejudice against pigs – he loves to be clean and likes to take a bath. But he is particularly timid, a little movement or [if] strangers come near, he will be very alert.”

Yet, as with the raising of any other pet, the past seven years haven’t all been smooth sailing. Aside from the ample cuddles, real-life piggybacks, and plenty of pig naps, Feng’s downstairs neighbours often complained about the noise Piggy made running around their apartment – adult pigs usually weigh between 140kg and 300kg – while an action shot in the shower catches him in the process of letting out a number two.

Piggy has also had his brushes with disaster. One picture sees a young Piggy wearing an Elizabethan conical collar while standing next to an operating table in a harshly lit medical room, at a time when Feng and his family were fearing for their pet’s life. “When he was a child, he was accidentally poisoned by eating the wrong food,” Feng says. “At that time, my wife and I were in France, and my mother-in-law took care of him at home. She took the pig to the hospital for rescue and pulled him back from the brink of death after twists and turns. This has become a problem now – when my wife and I go out together, no one else can help feed him because he only sees my mother-in-law.”

Thankfully Piggy came through the other side and still lives with Feng’s family today. A few years ago, they eventually moved out of their apartment tower to a larger home in Chengdu’s suburbia, fitted with a garden. “[It] is much better than living in a high-rise,” Feng says. “He usually plays on the terrace during the day, the cats also have their own favourite place to stay. I am happy to spend every day with them.”

“I regard Piggy as my son, an indispensable member of the family,” he continues. So has raising a pig changed whether he sees the animal as food? “We still eat pork, except him.”

PIG by Feng Li is published by Note Note Éditions.

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