Chicken is a part of our diet here. That said there are just a few differences. For one, the chicken in a dish is cut into bite-sized pieces which include bone, skin and a bit of meat. The bones are spit on the floor or table after you’ve sucked all the life out of each piece.

Besides those differences, we customers here are much more aware of the life the chicken is giving for our nutritional needs. (Being reminded of the life behind a chunk of meat has driven more than one foreigner to vegetarianism. Apparently at home they had forgotten that cellophane-wrapped purchases used to breathe.) Here chickens are underfoot and heard from behind closed doors. Even my neighbor in my plusher neighborhood is raising chickens in her villa just as these poorer townsmen in FuLi do.

Last fall a store that I have assumed is a seed store was raising chicks. Most mornings as I walked to the boat to DuTou I’d see their box covered and lit against the chill, but by noon when I passed on my way to FuLi they were uncovered. Eventually the box was empty. Some people raise their own dinners.

Before the October Mid-Autumn Festival the old abandoned theater in DuTou was overflowing with grown chickens ready for market. The theater, which staged traveling opera performances before people acquired TVs, was a warehouse for a week or two and then was empty again.

On market days I often see vendors carrying chickens, or ducks, in these baskets hanging from poles slung over their shoulders.

The week of Spring Festival the sidewalk outside the covered outdoor market in Yangshuo was lined with these chicken vendors. Chicken in dishes is common but is even more prevalent during a holiday. The Chinese are more likely to eat pork on a daily basis.

Here members of the FuLi school staff are carrying chickens for a school picnic. Although there is a KFC in Yangshuo(the only foreign restaurant in town or in nearby towns), I doubt many of the local people eat there. They are used to wringing necks and plucking feathers just before they cook. How fresh is that!?

And, no, I still haven’t tried killing a chicken or removing its feathers. I hardly ever cook…..anything..…anymore!