CHINA – A restaurant in Shanghai is serving a type of “emperor” chicken that is advertised as being raised by drinking milk and juice and listening to music, at a very high price.
The chicken dish has caused controversy after a social media influencer shared that a half-chicken portion costs as much as 480 ¥ (approximately 66 USD), and the restaurant’s explanation was that they were ‘nurtured with music and milk.
In the video, the restaurant staff confirmed that the chicken is raised specially and belongs to a rare breed called the “sunflower chicken,” which is only found on a farm in Guangdong province, southern China.
According to the online introduction of this farm, the sunflower chickens drink juice from the wilted stems and flowers of sunflowers – the farm is also a commercial sunflower garden.
Sunflower chickens are actually yellow-feather chickens – also known as “emperor chickens”, which are popular among Michelin-starred chefs – but are raised using a special method. The name “Yellow Feather Chicken” comes from the fact that their beaks, skin, and legs are all yellow. The chickens are famous for their tender, juicy, and sweet meat when cooked whole.
A dish using a whole chicken of this type can cost up to 1,000 ¥ (140 USD). Sunflower chickens alone are even more expensive – over 200 ¥ (28 USD) per kg.
An employee at the Sunflower Chicken Farm revealed that the chickens do listen to classical music but do not drink milk. The videographer said he could accept paying 480 ¥ for half a chicken but could not accept the restaurant making up stories to deceive customers.
The story sparked a wave of sarcastic comments on Chinese social media. “A normal product with a strange story will sell easily,” one user wrote.
“Buy a dish from a poor rural area and bring it to Shanghai to sell at a sky-high price – this trick is really effective,” another person commented.
Many people believe that the price of 480 ¥ reflects the phenomenon of “Shanghai currency” – a phrase that is becoming popular online to refer to excessively high prices and the high living expenses in this city
A notable example is when people in Shanghai queued to buy a Japanese milk loaf weighing 800g, priced at 98 ¥ (about 14 USD), with a limited quantity of only 400 loaves per day. Meanwhile, the same type of bread in Japan costs only half that.
In supermarkets, regular milk loaf bread costs only about 20 ¥ (about 3 USD). Many people disagree with the excessive popularity of such products. According to government data, the average disposable income per capita of Shanghai residents in 2024 reached nearly 89,000 ¥ (about 12,000 USD) – almost double the national average.
Source: SCMP