When asked what it means, The Mother explains that it is "to play dumb and to hide your strengths in order to deceive your opponent."
I was (wrongly) accused of being such a conniving pig because I had claimed that I didn't know how to play mahjong (and made everyone give me chances) but still manage to win the first few rounds of our game. My defence is that it was purely beginner's luck. My folks' retort (short of saying "Beginner's luck your backside") is that they have watched me grow up from a little piglet and knows that I am capable of such deception. Of course, inevitably, they brought up what I do for work. (Yeah, yeah, I am the liar, the shark and what have you not.)
And just yesterday, The Boy accused me *gasp* of the same thing! I cannot remember exactly what happened but it roughly involves me pretending to be a helpless damsel in distress in order to get something done in my favour. He pointed out that my strategy is not too bad except I need to work at it because 'the piggier you are, the bigger the tiger you can eat.'
I find this Chinese proverb logically wrong. Does it mean if you act cute like a pig, the tiger won't eat you? The cuter you are, the more it won't eat you? But if you do pretend to be a big fat juicy pig, won't the tiger gobble you up at first sight? Or are you actually a tiger yourself but pretends to be as harmless like a pig so that your fellow tiger's guard will be down?
Someone enlighten me please!
Sai Mai, a tiger at Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Bangkok, is reported to have happily adopted 6 piglets. Will these cunning pigs turn against him in accordance to our Chinese proverb? Are they sleeping on him or gnawing him to death???
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