Civilizing a Beast: Bixie, the emblem of Nanjing city
Min-Chia Young
University of New South Wales, Australia
Nanjing, the Capital of Jiangsu Province, China, is a city full of history and culture. Ten different dynasties had made their capitals here; the blood-lusting Nanjing Massacre stained the city seventy years ago; and the founding father of the Republic of China, Dr. Sun Yat-sen also has his eternal rest here. When we are about to entering the city of Nanjing from Zhonghua Gate, a transformer-like animal with a huge lolling tongue resting on its chest, a pair of robotic wings pending on the air, and two razor sharp claws ploughing on the ground, will soon grab our attention. The name of this grotesque animal is Bixie, the emblem of Nanjing.
During the Imperial period, Bixie was endowed with mysterious power to repel demons, condemn crimes, or even carry the dead to heaven, and was extremely rendered in imperial temples, public infrastructure, and mortuary art. In the Chinese myths and legends, this untamed animal even challenged the imperial dragon’s authority, confronted the tiger’s credibility, and defied the mandate of heaven. However, as Nicholas Thomas has reminded us how things can be assimilated to existing categories (Thomas 1999), I am going to examine how this unruly beast was edified, trained and substantiated into a cultural symbol, and eventually became the Goodwill Ambassador of Nanjing to be erected in Dongshan Park at Nagoya, Japan in 2003, a procedure of what I call “civilizing a beast.”