To take pictures for next Thrush Cultural Festival, you need to wait for eleven months. But in Huochang, a village in the northwest of north-western Hunan which is a world of birds, the communication between people who feed birds has been freed from spatial and time limitations.

Fu Jinghe (76-year old)
Like most elderly people, Fu Jinghe fowls birds to raise and for sale. He used to feed six thrushes simultaneously. Now, there are just two thrushes, one for his wife and one for himself. He tells that there is an old saying in Huochang: when people get old, it is lucky for him to have three companions: spouse, crutch and bird cage. In the picture, Fu is demonstrating how to catch a bird.

Fu Mingguo is 72 years old.
Fu is communicating with his thrush by blowing a bronze whistle (the thrush was unable to attend the competition)
Since Fu started aviculture in his 20, he knows the rules very clearly. Fu used to clime a loquat tree to get a bird and the bird did not let him down. "It could understand you. When you were talking, it would start warbling," he said.
(4) Aviculture Rules
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1. Birds fowling
The fowling can be mainly categorised into three ways: rope fowling, cage fowling and net fowling.
2. Birds differentiating
The basis for the differentiation of fighting birds in Huochang is good warbling and a favour for fighting.
4. Bird fighting
In Huochang, there are usually three ways for bird fighting: separate fighting (the two birds are in separate cages), one-cage fighting (the two birds in one cage) and free fighting (the birds get out of the cages and fight freely, it is usually used for bamboo partridge fighting and golden pheasant fighting)
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3. Bird feedings
With regard to thrushes, the common feeding stuffs are water striders, locusts and etc; sometimes the Huochang people use the fried chopped eggs as the feeding stuff.
The cage dealings after a bird fighting,
the cages cost 100 yuan for each.
- Photographer/Author Ma Jinhui
- Translated by Liu Jia
- Designed by Miaolin and Wangjuan
- Chinese Script Edited by Zhan Ping
- English Script Edited by Liu Pingbo
E-mail:Ask@hunan.gov.cn
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