The Snake Farming Story of Timid Young Man Zhang Zhuangbang

He used to be so timid and afraid of the dark that he did not dare go to the toilet alone at night. There were snakes on the isolated island, yet he insisted on going there all by himself. He spent three days and two nights on the isolated island to build up his courage, all for the sake of farming a ferocious animal. See how Zhang Zhuangbang from Danzhou, Hainan overcame one difficulty after another and achieved his dream of wealth by farming oriental rat snakes.

This box holds the secret to protagonist Zhang Zhuangbang's success. Some people took one peek inside and immediately dodged to the side, and most did not dare go anywhere near it at all. Once the box was opened, some even turned and ran. So what exactly is this wealth-making treasure inside the box? It turns out the box contains the oriental rat snakes that Zhang Zhuangbang farms. Zhang Zhuangbang draped the snakes around his body and began introducing them to everyone.

Zhang Zhuangbang: This snake in my hand is called the oriental rat snake. Its Latin scientific name is Ptyas mucosa. The one I am holding in my left hand right now should be around 8 or 9 jin. To raise one this big takes more than two or three years. It is called the oriental rat snake; "oriental" describes it, and "rat snake" means that in the wild it quite likes to eat rats.

Zhang Zhuangbang is a well-known local expert at farming oriental rat snakes, and many villagers pester him to learn snake farming from him. Today Zhang Zhuangbang is going to hold a special event using oriental rat snakes. Through close contact with the snakes, he will screen out who is capable of farming snakes.

Zhang Zhuangbang: Before farming snakes, many people are afraid of snakes, so we hold an event like this to help them overcome their fear of snakes. If you want to farm snakes in the future, you will have to come into contact with snakes sooner or later.

Farming snakes means first getting past one hurdle: overcoming the fear of snakes. The oriental rat snake is non-venomous. On the day of the contest, a cold wave happened to be passing through, and the temperature was only 10°C. When the weather is cold, oriental rat snakes will not open their mouths. Zhang Zhuangbang held this event only after ensuring it was safe. Yet taking that first step was no easy matter.

A girl drapes a snake on herself.

Villager: Because I really am terrified of snakes. My legs are shaking right now.

Reporter: So do you plan to farm snakes?

Villager: I will not farm snakes. They will, probably.

This girl definitely cannot farm snakes. Zhang Zhuangbang noticed an older woman nearby who had been watching for a long time, and wanted her to give it a try too. At first she pretended to be calm, but after two snakes were draped on her she could not take it anymore.

The older woman drapes snakes on herself.

Reporter: Do you plan to farm snakes?

Villager: I used to want to, but not anymore. I am afraid.

Reporter: Still afraid.

It seems this older woman cannot farm snakes either. But there were still some people at the scene who wanted to get rich farming snakes like Zhang Zhuangbang. So they mustered up their courage and tried coming into contact with the snakes. Zhang Zhuangbang's employees draped the snakes onto this villager one by one, and the more they draped on him, the more his courage grew little by little.

Villager from Qitan Village, Miao Ethnic Township, Nanfeng Town: Before I came, I had never seen a snake. I did not even dare go inside.

Reporter: And now? How are you now? Still afraid?

Villager: Now it is alright. I can even walk now. I could just walk home with them draped on me.

Not only did this villager eliminate his fear of snakes, he could even take a couple of steps with snakes draped all over him. Zhang Zhuangbang felt this villager could farm snakes. After more than a dozen such trials, Zhang Zhuangbang selected more than 20 farming households to follow him in farming snakes and getting rich. His oriental rat snake inventory also reached more than 90,000. He turned oriental rat snake farming into a local industry.

Zhang Zhuangbang: Again, again.

Employee: These are all your treasures.

Reporter: Right, these are all your treasures. You are not afraid at all now, are you?

Zhang Zhuangbang: Of course not. In the past, I was especially afraid.

Do not be fooled by the fact that Zhang Zhuangbang now has a dozen or so snakes draped on his body, and even dares let snakes crawl inside his clothes. Before he farmed snakes, he was extremely timid, so timid that he did not dare go to the toilet alone at night. How did such a timid person dare to farm snakes? It has to do with his adventure on an isolated island.

In 2010, Zhang Zhuangbang married his wife Xie Huanna. They planned to have a child, and when the young couple did the math, going to the hospital plus the necessities for having a baby added up to no small expense.

Wife Xie Huanna: I am rather practical, so I laid out a lot of practical problems for him. If you want a child, you have to prepare money for me. At the time I said it would take about 10,000 yuan.

Zhang Zhuangbang: The pressure was quite heavy, because 10,000 yuan was truly hard for me to come up with at the time.

Zhang Zhuangbang had previously done interior decoration and a timber processing factory, and both ended in losses. At the time, he simply could not produce that 10,000 yuan. Having a child required money, so Zhang Zhuangbang had to find a way to make money.

Just when Zhang Zhuangbang was struggling to find a project, he went to hang out at a friend's farm and discovered that his friend had gotten rich farming oriental rat snakes. This made Zhang Zhuangbang very envious.

Zhang Zhuangbang: A snake of about 5 jin can sell for 1,000 yuan. I really was astonished. I had no idea this thing could be so profitable.

This is the oriental rat snake, also called Ptyas mucosa, mainly distributed in southern China. Although the name "oriental rat snake" contains a word for water, it is not a water snake; it grows in hilly and plain areas. The oriental rat snake grows fast, generally reaching 3 jin in a year and meeting the standard for marketable snakes.

Although the oriental rat snake is non-venomous, it is highly aggressive. Before it attacks, it first gets angry.

Employee: This is it getting angry. Its angry expression is like this.

Zhang Zhuangbang: This means it is angry and about to attack.

An angry oriental rat snake will launch an attack without warning. It can raise a third of its body and strike swiftly. The oriental rat snake is ferocious, so farming it is certainly dangerous. But to make money, Zhang Zhuangbang got the idea to farm snakes. Locally in Hainan there are also more than 30 farming households, large and small, that have gotten rich from oriental rat snakes. But when he spoke up about his idea to start a business farming oriental rat snakes, everyone around him found it very surprising.

Friend Zheng Zixu: There are plenty of things you can farm: sheep, chickens, anything. But snakes, for someone as timid as him, that was surprising to us too.

Wife Xie Huanna: He is even more afraid than I am. I have killed snakes before, water snakes, and he does not even dare grab one.

It turns out Zhang Zhuangbang was extremely timid. Back when he worked at a mine, the toilet and the dormitory were separated by a patch of woods, and at night he never dared go alone.

Zhang Zhuangbang: Both sides of the trees were painted white, with a layer of anti-insect coating. It felt as if a shadow was passing by, and it seemed especially terrifying, as if someone were standing there.

Zhang Zhuangbang was timid, and to farm snakes, the first hurdle he faced was overcoming his fear of snakes. To farm snakes he first had to build up his courage. To train his courage, Zhang Zhuangbang decided to stay alone for a few days on an isolated island in a reservoir.

Zhang Zhuangbang's younger brother: I said this guy had gone crazy. Because how could anyone run off to an isolated island alone? It took more than an hour to get to that isolated island from the mainland.

The isolated island Zhang Zhuangbang was going to was normally visited by no one at all. The island is surrounded by water on all sides, so there would certainly be water snakes. Yet Zhang Zhuangbang went precisely because there were snakes on the island. This is the isolated island where Zhang Zhuangbang once stayed for three days and two nights.

Reporter: Is this the little island we came to back then?

Zhang Zhuangbang: Yes, this is the little island I came to back then to train my courage.

At the time he brought only a tent, candles and some daily necessities. When he got bored, he would set a ground cage to catch small fish. The daytime was easy to pass, but once night came it was not so easy. The isolated island is surrounded by water on all sides, and the hills in the distance are all woods. When the wind blew, the leaves rustled, and combined with Zhang Zhuangbang's imagination, the terror level doubled again and again.