“A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard to Find”

When reading this short story about Huping fighting a real-life tiger for a movie, one of the first things that I thought about was the Chinese Zodiac Animals. I decided to look into the zodiac animal of the tiger and the personality traits and characteristics that are linked with that animal.

To my surprise, Huping actually fit some of the traits listed for the tiger. Tigers are said to be really brave, active, and confident. In the short story, Huping, at first, fights the tiger with no hesitation. Although he may have been a little nervous at first, there was no fear shown in the way he approached and attacked the tiger, even when his cudgel broke. Tigers are also said to be really charming and well-liked. Considering he was described as “tall, muscular, straight-shouldered, and dreamy eyes that would sparkle when he smiled,” Huping definitely had some sort of charm to him.

The director, Director Yu, was so caught up in trying to make this movie fit everything that the governor wanted that it just seemed like he was doing everything for the money that he could potentially receive if it went to the capital. He went so far as to ignoring Huping’s condition of schizophrenia and letting Little Dou get so brutally beat by Huping even though other workers had told him that they had to stop.

My interpretation of the story is that people will let things get way out of hand to get what they wanted in the first place. I also interpret it as everything may not be as it seems. To the fans and those that watched the movie, it may seem like Huping was a tiger-fighter, but he is instead a tiger-killer. The fans do not know that they killed the tiger and used the skin to film the fight scene, rather they think he actually fought the tiger without letting it get as far as murder.