A restaurant in Shanghai is facing backlash for selling a half-chicken dish for 480 yuan (about ₹5,500). The restaurant claims the high price is justified because the chicken was raised on classical music and fed milk. On March 14, a businessman and influencer with 270,000 followers posted a video from his visit to the Shanghai Club restaurant, expressing shock over the cost. 

He jokingly asked if the chicken was raised while listening to music and drinking milk. The restaurant confirmed his comment, explaining that the chicken is a rare breed known as "sunflower chicken" that comes exclusively from a farm in Guangdong province.

The farm’s online description says that the sunflower chicken is fed a diet including juice made from sunflower stems and faded flower heads. It is part of the three-yellow chicken breed, also known as the emperor chicken, which Michelin-starred chefs favour for its tender texture and rich flavour. However, the sunflower chicken is seen as even more premium, reportedly costing over 200 yuan (about ₹2,300) per kilogram, with a whole bird priced at more than 1,000 yuan (around ₹11,500) in restaurants.

When local media asked for more details, a staff member from the farm explained that although the chickens do listen to classical music, they are not fed milk. The influencer, who was willing to pay 480 yuan for the dish, expressed his frustration over the false claims. “I could accept the price, but not the made-up stories,” he told the staff.

The incident quickly went viral, with many people mocking the story online. One user wrote, “It's amazing the bizarre stories people come up with to sell products.” Another commented that this pricing tactic targets Shanghai’s wealthier customers: “You could take a simple dish from a less-developed area in China and sell it in Shanghai for a much higher price.”

Others even joked about pricing their chickens based on the music they listened to. One user from Shanxi province quipped, “Can my chicken be priced at 1,888 yuan (₹22,000) per dish? They were raised listening to Shanxi music.”

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