#006 Flying pig/飛豬
I believe I can fly/我相信我會飛
‘Pig’ in the Chinese
Pig, a domestic animal and foods to many, is used to describe the characteristics, such as ‘stupidity', ‘vulgarity’ or ‘gluttony’. We call friends who hang out with us only for pleasure and who do not stand by us in times of adversity, ‘Pig and dog friends (fair-weather friends)’. Have you ever worked on a team project and there is this particular team member who tends to mess up the effort of the whole team? Then, you can call this person, ‘pig teammate.’ Pigs come across as not quite intelligent, which can be an useful image to play with. For example, we may say someone who ‘pretends to be a pig in order to prey on the tiger’, which means that a person deliberately play dumb or fragile to catch big fish. This slang doesn’t necessary indicate negativity. It could be a wise person who decides to play dumb.
「豬」在中文裡的象徵意義
對許多人來說，豬是一種家畜，也是日常生活中的食物。 豬這個動物經常用來形容如愚蠢，骯髒或是貪吃等特質。中文裡面叫只能一起享福，不能一起共患難的朋友「豬朋狗友（英文裡叫做『好天氣朋友』）」。你有沒有碰過那種在團體計劃中，總是有一個不停砸鍋的人？ 這樣的人可以叫做「豬隊友」。一般來說，豬給人的印象是不太聰明，但這樣的形象，也能當作一個有用的策略。比方說，我們可以說某個人「扮豬吃老虎」。那個意思便是指某個人刻意裝傻、扮蠢，而這麼做的原因是要能夠完成更遠大計劃。這句諺語並不一定包含貶義，可能用來說一個很有智慧的人不輕易展露其光芒而選擇装傻充愣。
Piggy bank
Pig is not always asssciated with someting negative. I remembered my ‘piggy banks’ fondly. I used to have many of them. My mom bought them for me and my brothers to encourage us to cultivate a good habit of saving money. We put some coins we got from our allowance into the piggy bank, wishing that it would be full soon, so we could ‘kill it’ and bought something like a Nitendo cassette or something nice from the stationary store in the neighbourhood. These piggy banks were made of colored transparent hard plastic, and always came in three colors, red, green and yellow. My mom would be with us, when we cut our piggy banks open, it almost felt like some ancient sacred ceremony whenever we ‘killed’ a piggy. And then we arranged the coins into small piles and calculated how much money had been saved this time excitedly.
小豬撲滿
豬的形象未必總是帶有負面的意味。記起我以前的小豬撲滿時，心中喜悅之情油然而生。以前我有好幾隻「小豬公」，我媽媽為了鼓勵我和弟弟養成存錢的習慣買給我們。我們把零錢銅板就往裡面投去，滿心期待著可快點殺豬公，然後去買任天堂的遊戲卡匣或是家裡附近文具店裡的小文具。這些復古的小豬撲滿是用透明的硬塑膠材質做成的，而且常常有紅綠黃三種顏色可選。要殺豬公時媽媽總在一旁，如同古老神聖的儀式一般把小豬撲滿的肚子給剖開了，然後把銅板疊起來，滿心激動地算算到底這次存了多少錢。
image from 麥兜的故事(https://www.dreadcentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/mcdull-2.jpg)
Flying Pig Theory
The Flying Pig Theory originated from one of the quotes of the founder of Xiaomi, Lei Jun. He used “Even a pig can fly if it stands at the center of a whirlwind." to described the entrepreneurship. A group of pigs flying in the air must be a spectacular scene. In English, the phrase, “when pigs fly” , indicates that something will never happen. The flying pigs, in the Flying Pig Theory, achieve the impossible because they stand at the right spot at the timing is right. In Chinese, when describing something is impossible, the innocent pigs are again involved, but this time on a tree, “Men are reliable when female pigs climb trees”. This expression is often used by women to indicate how unreliable men are.
飛豬理論/風口理論
「飛豬理論」源自於小米的創辦人雷軍有名的引言之一，這是他用「站在風口上，豬都會飛」來比喻創業。想像一群豬在天上飛來飛去的樣子就覺得很壯觀。英文裡，「當豬飛起來時」這一慣用語用來表示絕對不可能的事情。在飛豬理論裡的飛豬們完成不可能的任務取得勝利就是因為牠們站對了地方，看準了時機。在中文裡形容不可能會發生的事情，無辜的豬仔們又被扯進來了，但牠們不起飛，而是爬樹。女性經常用來說男人靠不住時可能說：「男人靠得住，母豬也會上樹」。
下面是《麥兜故事》的紙包雞粵語和中文配音的影片。
If you are interested in this topic, here are some articles to read.要是你對這個話題有興趣，這裡有些文章可閱讀。
https://wiki.mbalib.com/zh-tw/飞猪理论
https://www.codetd.com/en/article/12199115
關於豬的諺語：https://qwkpw.com/jingyan/ww9481.html
More about the translation of ‘扮豬吃老虎’：https://www.zhihu.com/question/64958843/answer/465244461