Customer Reviews (1)

Another urbanite trying to control the lives of others
This writer takes the usual urban view of cockfights. It's all about blood and guts,
but cocks have been fighting in the wild for hundreds of thousands of years. Man has only taken this wonderful product of nature and offered it a life of protection,
shelter and a consistent food supply.

These birds live a very full life, unlike the ones in the "chicken factories", where they are jammed together and shot up with so many chemicals to grow to full size in 5 weeks that they can barely stand on their two feet. Should one of them get a small
scab on their heads, the other will peck them to death and cannibalism is an ongoing problem.

Which would you rather be, a healthy game cock who has a chance to fight and win and retire to a life of leisure as a breeding stud? At least, in cockfighting you have a chance for freedom and leisure, what chance does the factory chicken have that you are eating on the grill tonight.

The actual act of fighting is about 1% of what is involved in raising, breeding and
fighting game cocks. 99% is in taking care of them, feeding them, selecting for
breeding purposes etc. Making sure they are out of drafts in the winter, so building
their coops and cages etc takes up a big part of their care to keep them safe from
predators. Feeding them special high protein feed with other natural additives to keep them healthy for breeding purposes.

People who know nothing about Gamecocks, beyond a fight should decide not to
attend if it's not to their liking, but leave othes alone to carry on an American tradition that goes back George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Keep your urban, effete attitudes in the city, not out in the country of which
you know nothing. Chickens aren't grown in styrofoam packages in your grocer's
meat aisle. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on July 1, 1993. The length of the article is 4297 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Robert Joe Cutter, in his engaging new book, has explored Chinese literary references to the sport of cockfighting from the Chou dynasty to modern times. He discovers in these writings, which include examples from nearly every genre, reference to all aspects of the sport--its special terminology, its roles in social intercourse, its status at various periods, etc.--as well as an occasion to discuss developments in traditional Chinese literature and to display his own considerable skills as a translator. It is a true tour-de-force. But, given the agonistic nature of Cutter's subject, the book should not be allowed to go untested. A ninth- century fu poem on the cockfight, missed by Cutter, is presented here as a pretext to explore aspects of his work.

Citation Details
Title: A brush with the spur: Robert Joe Cutter on the Chinese cockfight.
Author: Stephen R. Bokenkamp
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1993
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: v113Issue: n3Page: p444(6)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more