The origins of the Shar Pei are
very old. Ceramic figurines were found dating from the
Han dynasty (206 BC) representing dogs of this
breed. At that time, they weren't luxury dogs, they
were poor bums. Later they served as guards at the
temples and worshiped. In the other hand, worked as a
blood hound, very appreciated as they were tenacious
hunters of wild boar, and so wrongly
connected with the Boxer.
Several centuries later, the Shar Pei was trained to
dogs' fights. He
has all the qualities for this:
size, jaws armed for very curved fangs, a thick and
wrinkled skin, very short ears (and therefore
difficult to bite) and
the
tail is set very high (thereby
avoiding the bite in that area).
When communism came to China, the Shar Pei has lost
its prestige and, like all its counterparts, it was
considered by the central authority in Beijing, a
luxury, superfluous and decadent, which should be
eliminated.
In the sixties some dogs were exported to Hong Kong,
where two inhabitants published a letter in the North American Dog
magazine, making an appeal that had
the effect of a bomb. From the U.S. came have more than two hundred
applications for dogs. The authors of the letter
searched in the Chinese villages for Shar Pei
dogs.
