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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Two: Travel Incongruities > Riding high, near Chongqing, China, 2004
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28-JUN-2004

Riding high, near Chongqing, China, 2004

On the way from Chengdu to Chongqing, I noticed this gang of live roosters and geese somehow affixed to the roof of an intercity bus. Characteristic of rural China, this incongruous scene made a strange and unsettling photograph.

Canon PowerShot G5
1/1250s f/4.0 at 28.8mm hide exif
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Date/Time28-Jun-2004 13:09:31
MakeCanon
ModelPowerShot G5
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length28.8 mm
Exposure Time1/1250 sec
Aperturef/4
ISO Equivalent
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modemulti spot (3)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

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Phil Douglis16-Jun-2007 05:36
A new way of looking at a bus top full of chickens, Sun Han. Thanks for this satirical comment.
Guest 16-Jun-2007 04:24
a traveling chorus is coming to town!
Phil Douglis29-May-2007 20:42
Good question, Yves. I don't think that any passenger would have to recognize his own chicken once they reach their destination. These chickens are probably all owned by the same person or group of persons. Pehaps the batch of fowl up front belongs to another person or group? And you are right about our own reaction -- we do feel sorry for the chickens and the journey they are on, yet I am sure that the chicken I will eat for dinner tonight was not raised as a house pet. It is the way of agriculture. In China, this means of transport might seem a bit less advanced than elsewhere in the world, but if it gets the job done, and the chicken to market, the system works.
Yves Rubin29-May-2007 16:06
Amazing image! What I find interesting is how the bus riders will recognize their own fowl once they reach the market. Our first reaction is to feel pity for the birds, but let's not forget how our own are raised in such nevrotic-tight spaces.
Phil Douglis28-Jul-2006 23:32
Absolutely. It is a common scene in Asia, but would not be allowed in the US. I can't speak for elsewhere. Given my own context, this is a cultural incongruity.
Guest 28-Jul-2006 11:27
Is this a cultural incongruity as well?
Phil Douglis17-Apr-2006 06:51
Thanks, Jeremy, for underscoring the significance of this image. I just went back to China and have posted some more incongruities for you in this gallery.
Jeremy30-Mar-2006 14:47
Ha, this picture is a nice catch (no pun intended). This photo tells something and everything about China, for those who know the country. It is a country full of incongruities, a country which built the Great Wall thousands of years ago but has yet to fully catch up with the developed world today, a country whose enterprising people have seen better days and darker times in its long chequered history. The traveller is sometimes in danger of seeing a great deal yet understanding little, as an old Chinese proverb says, "Seeing is easy, learning is hard". Photos like this one help us to see behind the facades of the country and its people, to understand and recognise their essense. Thank you for sharing the photo. Rgds.
Phil Douglis22-Dec-2004 19:37
Thanks, Mikel. Yes, that is one of the purposes of incongruity. To loosen the eyeballs and minds of my viewers and get them thinking in strange ways. Just as you did here!
Guest 22-Dec-2004 19:25
The first thing that comes to my mind is 'poor animals' though perhaps this is better then go boxed in a trailer as they go here. About a second lecture of the photo it makes me think of a bundle of hair and the window as the huge eyes of the bus, or perhaps glasses since the rear mirror could be the nose support of the glasses... strange things that goes throe ones mind. ;P
Guest 01-Dec-2004 19:57
first it seems an ornament, but of course no! great travel snap.
Phil Douglis07-Nov-2004 23:50
A good way to sum up their situation, Nut.
nut 07-Nov-2004 17:24
This is the incongruous photograph in term of context and abstract.
"Restrict-Free"
Phil Douglis05-Nov-2004 19:28
Nice thoughts on relative freedom, Nut. You show us there there is more than one kind of incongruity going on here. Not only are there birds tied to the roof of this bus, which is incongruous in itself, but there is a definite contrast in the freedom granted to those who ride this bus. The passengers are locked into the bus as it moves, but are free to come and go whenever it stops. But these birds will never be free to fly again. They will be eaten, and perhaps even be physically absorbed by those who ride inside of that bus.
nut 05-Nov-2004 07:31
No boundaries but tie. An abstract incongruity that gave me this feeling about how important
of "Freedom" in its own meaning. Gang of roosters and geese had no boundaries here, but
their were tie to the roof of this bus. But passengers inside this bus had been blocked by the
structure of bus, but they will be free soon. But for all roosters and geese, I don't think so.
Phil Douglis16-Jul-2004 18:00
Yes! You nailed it, here, Tim. I was originally consumed with the surreal and incongruous nature of captive chickens, ducks and geese riding on the top of a bus. Now that you have mentioned the additional incongruous contrast of coloration -- the clash of nature's vivid colors with the man-made pragmatically bland coloration -- it brings an entirely new level of meaning to the picture for me. Thanks so much for bringing this up.
Tim May16-Jul-2004 17:14
Amazing! Again, such color in the living things and blandness in the constructed things adds to the eeriness of this image.
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