In Taiwan, chickens never became a spectator sport. They're simply food. With a population of 23 million, Taiwan raises 45 million chickens (as of late 2022)—a chicken-to-human ratio that surpasses most countries. Taiwanese consume over 600 million white-feathered broiler chickens annually, making poultry increasingly popular compared to pork. Yet since 2019, imported white-feathered chicken has officially overtaken domestic supply, meaning there's a fifty-fifty chance the chicken you're buying came from overseas.

In folk culture, chickens were among the most commonly raised fowl in early rural life. The Chinese language alone has dozens of four-character idioms involving chickens—"chickens fly, dogs jump" (chaos), "chickens and dogs ascend to heaven" (nepotism), "kill the chicken to get the eggs" (short-sighted greed)—far more than any other livestock, reflecting the bird's significance in everyday life.

Compared to other meats, chicken has less fat and more lean meat, making it a high-quality protein source. Poultry is a major livestock industry in Taiwan. The sector divides into egg-laying hens and broiler chickens, further split into white-shell and brown-shell egg layers, and broilers versus colored meat chickens. Egg and meat operations are located in different regions, though both concentrate mainly in the south.

White-feathered broilers are all foreign breeds

White-feathered broilers are all foreign breeds, primarily developed and imported from overseas breeding companies. Their plumage is entirely white. Native chickens, on the other hand, are bred domestically by local hatcheries and collectively called "colored chickens" to distinguish them from white broilers, since none have white feathers. The term tu ji (literally "earth chicken") arose to differentiate local breeds from these foreign "ocean chickens."

Beyond imported white broilers, Taiwan's commercial native chicken farming is dominated by red-feathered and black-feathered varieties. The market also features the Kuei Ting chicken (桂丁雞)—Taiwan's first purebred native chicken developed by private breeders—along with the silkie chicken, originally imported from China and subsequently bred locally, known for its black skin, bones, and flesh. There's also the Zhudi chicken (竹地雞), unique to Hakka communities in the Taoyuan-Hsinchu region, prized for its thick skin and marbling. Together, they showcase Taiwan's rich diversity of chicken breeds.