Spring Festival Eve is the time for a family feast and this year chicken is the star attraction. XU JINGXI reports from Guangzhou.

Pick up a piece of chicken with chopsticks, dip it into a condiment made by combining minced ginger, diced shallot and soy sauce, then tear up the light-colored, nearly white skin and bite the tender meat.

It makes Zou Xiaolu's mouth water whenever the 25-year-old southern Chinese girl thinks of "white cut chicken", a dish in Cantonese cuisine