Capitalist Pigs

What is it about?

This paper analyzes the philanthropic governmentality of the colonial government of Hong Kong during the Farm Improvement Program (FIP) (1950-70), focusing on how it utilized pigs, interest-free loans, and the spatial constitution of pig farming as technologies to transform refugee farmers into “productive workers”. This research has three primary objectives: to 1) elucidate how the production of knowledge and governing technologies, including the spatial design of livestock production, facilitated the disciplining of pig farmers in a colonial context; 2) expand Foucauldian governmentality analysis into the realm of the regulatory mechanisms of food production systems by documenting how philanthropic pig donations, lending programs, and the distribution of material benefits promoted capitalist pig production in rural Hong Kong; and 3) demonstrate how technologies were deployed—specifically focusing on the social construction of pigs and the spatial constitution of pig farming practices—to mold the subjectivities of colonial pig farmers.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

We identify the provision of free pigs and pigsties, the demonstration of new spatial pig raising practices, and the establishment of interest free lending systems as the major technologies of governance employed under the FIP. Through these technologies refugee farmers from mainland China learned and internalized concepts of efficiency, productivity, farm management, and self-help. The technologies of the Farm Improvement Programme were not just philanthropic activities; they were political tactics to confront the penetration of communism into the colony by changing the practices, productivity, and subjectivities of refugee farmers.