Once known as China’s Circus Town, Haogou Township of Suzhou City, Anhui Province, has a relatively long history of family-run circuses. At its peak, there were over 400 circuses, 20,000 employees, and a combined annual income as high as 400 million yuan ($63 million). Nearly one-third of the local rural residents made a living by running circuses. However, they are all struggling because of Beijing’s new animal rules that hit particularly hard on the keeping of tigers and tiger performances. Many circus families in Suzhou City inherited the business and the animal taming skills from their ancestors. Even the animals are descendants of tigers raised by their ancestors. This circus town was thriving in the early 2000s. But in 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued and enforced “Zoo Management Regulations,” which clearly stipulate that “Zoos should not use wild animals for performances” and “wild animals should not …