Waiter! What is a pig doing in my soup? And more at the Yellow RIver Chronicles.

Artwork courtesy of Weibao

Hello and welcome back!  The Yellow River Chronicles returns this week to address the subject of porcine potamology, or, in the vernacular, the study of pigs in water.  As you may or may not know, the Shanghai water supply, the might Huang Pu river, was recently invaded by, well, dead pigs.  

As the story has slowly "evolved", the body count "evolved" from a few hundred dead pigs that were no problem at all to water quality, to a few thousand pigs that were also no problem to the water quality.  As the count now stands, we are at at +7,500 dead porkers bobbing in the Huang Pu infected with porcine circus-whooosssoo-virus.

These pigs are also not a problem to water quality.  

While Shanghai citizens have expressed outrage on Weibo and other outlets for Shanghai outrage, the  media here have generally been trying to put the traditional "positive" spin on the matter:

China: Vigilance grows as dead pigs in river reach 7,545

Via Shanghai Daily, the story continues: Vigilance grows as dead pigs in river reach 7,545.

The number of dead pigs retrieved from the Huangpu River in Shanghai increased to 7,545 after another 944 carcasses were retrieved by 3pm yesterday, officials said. 

Spokesman Xu Wei said the city government is stepping up monitoring of water quality. 

The government also is strictly supervising the biological treatment of the dead pigs and monitoring pork quality at local markets. 

Xu said Jinshan District staff has started removing dead pigs from the waters at the border between Shanghai and Zhejiang Province. 

No pollution has been detected in raw water in the upstream part of the Huangpu River in Shanghai. 

Six water intakes and nine water plants in Songjiang, Jinshan, Minhang and Fengxian districts are being closely watched. 

More inspections will be done at supermarkets, wet markets and butcher shops.

It is comforting to know that the vigilance is growing as the piggies pile up on the shores of the ol' Huang Pu.  Despite all the vigilance, though, the main reason the porker floaters are not a problem is that they cannot make the water quality any worse.  This from the Atlantic:

"The carcasses were probably dumped in the Huangpu river in Zhejiang province," reports NBC News. While The Telegraph says local media suggested that the pigs were dumped by a nearby farmer, the official cause of the rotting swine river is still a mystery.

What's even more vomit-inducing is that the rotting pig soup known formerly known as the Huangpu River was actually a smelly stew of feet and bodily fluid even before the rotting pigs were found. "On Monday afternoon, the dead pigs shared their aquatic graveyard with a filthy mesh of glass and plastic bottles, flip-flops, shoes, what appeared to be bags of domestic and medical waste and even a plastic sex doll." Phillips reports. 

Ewwwww.  Spareribs, anyone?   Our loyal readers will be pleased to know that the offices of the Yellow River Chronicles are equipped with a top-of-the-line reverse osmosis water filtration system and we try to consume only beer, wine and vodka for purposes of hydration.  It is important that our loyal readers not confuse the Pigs in Water with the pigs from the Muppet Show segment "Pigs in Space".

However,-alert YRC staff has discerned the the true cause of the Pigs in Water epidemic here in the 'Hai.  As you may know, Angry Birds is hugely popular here and the newest edition features, you guessed it, Pigs in Water!  You see!  Farmer citizens, anxious to improve their "Birds" stats, have taken to putting pigs in the water to simply help practice for the new Angry Birds universe. 

It is so...obvious.   

(NOTE:  The YRC staff is heading to Cambodia, Thailand and points north in the PR of C and will return in a few weeks.  By then we hope, most of the pigs will be out of the water. See you then!)