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Custom, taste and science: Raising chickens in the Pearl River Delta Region, South China

In this paper, I examine chicken husbandry as practised in an immigrant village located in the north-western sector of Hong Kong's New Territories–the southern extension of the Pearl River Delta. People in South China use whole chickens as offerings in rituals and as banquet food. Demand for fresh, flavourful, whole chickens dominates the ways in which chickens are raised and sold in this region. Chicken farming is a highly competitive industry. The supply of birds from individual farms directly and immediately affects the market price, making neighbouring farms potential competitors with one another. On the other hand, diseases that kill the birds can easily spread from one farm to another, making the farmers inter-dependent in an environmental sense. It is the practice of poultry farmers not to visit their neighbours at home on the farm. Co-operation in respect to husbandry is minimal. This social structure effectively eliminates the spread of infectious diseases, but has contributed to the cellularization of households, fostering a loosely organized local community. The outbreak of avian flu, however, has created threats to and opportunities for chicken production, thus promoting co-operation and division of labour among chicken farmers.