Snakes hang from a wooden cabinet marked with the Chinese characters "poisonous snake", at a snake soup shop ahead of the Spring Festival in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters
Snakes hang from a wooden cabinet marked with the Chinese characters "poisonous snake", at a snake soup shop ahead of the Spring Festival in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters
China society
Podcasts

Inside China: Farming snakes for medicine, meals and money

  • The commerce, culture, cuisine and cure-alls that fuel China's snake economy.

Jarrod Watt
James Legge and Jarrod Watt

Updated: 7:44pm, 19 Dec, 2018

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Snakes hang from a wooden cabinet marked with the Chinese characters "poisonous snake", at a snake soup shop ahead of the Spring Festival in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters
Snakes hang from a wooden cabinet marked with the Chinese characters "poisonous snake", at a snake soup shop ahead of the Spring Festival in Hong Kong. Photo: Reuters

This is the story of the commerce, culture, cuisine and cure-alls that fuel China's snake economy, from the snake-farming boom in an impoverished village in Zisiqiao to one of Hong Kong's oldest snake soup restaurants.

Presenter: Ernest Kao

Recordings: Tom Wang & Jarrod Watt

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Translations: Yuki Tsang & Scout Xu

Voiceovers: Bong Miquiabas, Yuki Tsang & John Elphinstone

Script: James Legge

Production: Jarrod Watt

James Legge

James Legge

James Legge is a former sub-editor on the Post's Hong Kong desk. Before that, he was a reporter and editor in the UK and a freelance reporter in Hong Kong.

Jarrod Watt

Jarrod Watt

Jarrod Watt joined the Post in 2015 after more than a decade working as a multi-platform reporter and editor with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, creating video, radio and text stories. He currently produces podcasts and video, as well as developing new digital storytelling methods, including augmented reality and 360 interactive photography.