While strolling through the park on a warm Saturday morning, we hear birds chattering and notice the bamboo cages hanging in the trees.  At first, I thought this must be a kind of zoo placed by the city for our enjoyment. Our guide points out the group of elder men nearby, drinking tea from canteens, smoking and playing a game. The birds are their pets! They take them to the park in the cages and hang them in the trees to show them off to each other.  I think I can hear them, “My bird can speak from the gods… my bird has blue shiny feathers and has lived 100 years already… my bird fathered one thousand thousand sons…”