Guanshan, the great pig contest
“Once the lantern festival is over, the great pigs.” At Guanshan in Chenghua, Chenghai, Shantou, pigs are killed on the night of the sixteenth of the first month and carried into the lineage hall while it is still dark; on the morning of the seventeenth they are set out in the paved yard before the hall, and on the eighteenth they are taken down; on the nineteenth there is a procession round the village as well. The pigs wear red flowers, hold great mandarins in their mouths and carry red stamps on their backs, mounted on wooden frames over a metre high. The duty rotates by surname, two surnames a year, one round in twelve years. Municipal heritage item.
Four photographs of the 2026 contest, taken on the seventeenth and eighteenth of the first month, from posts by the Douyin user @lalaso～; used only to introduce this session, and withdrawn if the author asks.
1. Four days running
On the night of the sixteenth the pigs are killed and carried one after another to the lineage hall; on the morning of the seventeenth they are set out, and only the larger ones can go inside the hall, which is what laying before the hall means; on the eighteenth they are taken down; on the nineteenth the whole township processes round its bounds, with Chaozhou great gongs and drums and painted-face skits.
So the seventeenth and eighteenth are the contest proper, with a day of preparation before and a day of clearing up after. Arrive after noon and what is left is mostly empty frames — the thing visitors most often get wrong.
| Year | Lunar date | Gregorian |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | 17th and 18th of the 1st month | 22 February, Monday; 23 February, Tuesday |
| 2028 | 17th and 18th of the 1st month | 11 February, Friday; 12 February, Saturday |
| 2029 | 17th and 18th of the 1st month | 1 March, Thursday; 2 March, Friday |
| 2030 | 17th and 18th of the 1st month | 19 February, Tuesday; 20 February, Wednesday |
| 2031 | 17th and 18th of the 1st month | 8 February, Saturday; 9 February, Sunday |
The Gregorian column is a calendar conversion and does not mean it will be held that way; no announcement for 2027 or later has been seen.
2. Rotation: two surnames a year, one round in twelve years
Guanshan is a large village of many surnames, and the contest is run by them in turn, two a year, a full round taking twelve years. In 2026 the turn belonged to the Zhou and the Xu: the Zhou share carried the goddess of heaven and the goddess of birth in the central standard, the Xu share the Lord Guan in the second.
The rotation is settled on the night of the sixth of the first month, when the village elders’ association calls the committee members of each surname together. The meeting agrees the compact for the festival procession, the order of the file, the route, the times and the drawing of lots; the heads of each share and the clan elders sign, and the whole township keeps to it.
The “twelve-year rotation table” in circulation online is not used here: it does not match who actually held the turn in 2026. The rotation is as the year’s compact and the notices at the lineage hall say.
3. What makes a pig win
Not speed: weight, and how it is dressed. The pig wears a great red flower on its head, holds a large mandarin in its mouth (a turnip in some cases), has a red packet at its neck and its back covered with red auspicious stamps, and stands on a purpose-built frame with its head facing out.
The pigs are raised for the better part of a year beforehand, each household feeding its own. Locally the contest is described as one of diligence and of family fortune — a fat pig says that this household has not been idle that year.
While the judging goes on there is Chaozhou opera, puppet theatre and Chaozhou music before the hall, carrying on until the pigs are taken down. Afterwards the pork is given away to relatives and friends, a portion to each household.
Getting there: the nearest station is Shantou, for Guanshan in Chenghua, Chenghai; arrive on the morning of the seventeenth, since the pigs are mostly down by the afternoon. In festival time village roads often run one way or are closed at short notice, and a navigation estimate excludes parking and the walk in; the way back should be arranged around the actual time the crowd disperses and the year’s trains.
4. Where to stand
Two layers: how past reporting describes it, and where this site suggests standing.
As past reporting describes it. The pigs stand in the paved yard outside the lineage hall of the surname holding the turn, and spectators watch from beyond the yard; the report gives no fixed viewing area and no cordon.
An editorial note. Come on the morning of the seventeenth, not the afternoon; do not step over or lean on the threshold of the hall or the offering tables; to photograph the whole row of pigs, stand in the middle of the yard mouth rather than squeezing to one side. These are suggestions made here from standing at such sessions, not the rules of the organisers or the police.
5. Sources
| Source | Body | Date | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Spring Festival of the bingwu year: the liveliest customs in Shantou” | Shantou Ganlan net (Shantou Media Group) | 13 February 2026 | the seventeenth and eighteenth; pigs killed on the night of the sixteenth; laying before the hall; frames over a metre high; red flowers, mandarins and red stamps; opera, puppets and music before the hall; the procession on the nineteenth; the municipal listing |
| “Guanshan great pig contest, bingwu year 2026: the township compact of the six shares for the five festival nights” | a village document, reposted on Sina Kandid | 2026 | the meeting on the night of the sixth; the Zhou and Xu shares in 2026; the deities each share carries; the compact and the route |
The second is a reposted village document and is used only for which surnames held the turn that year and how the religious duties were divided, not as the rule for every year.
6. What comes next
In lunar order: before it, Xikou, through the sugarcane lanes on the sixteenth; after it, Nansha, walking the lanterns on the night of the nineteenth. Also in Shantou are Yanzao, dragging the god on the twenty-first and twenty-second and Zhanglin, the fire god goes out on the fourteenth of the second month.
Elsewhere on the site: ying lao ye: its form and the village days, the heritage lists, Shantou routes.
Back to the Chaoshan procession calendar for all twenty-three sessions.
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Last revised: 4 November 2026