It’s the Year of the Rooster, and what better way to impress the elders than with some fun facts about cockerels — particularly the intense contests held in Malaysia where roosters are paraded in beauty pageants.
It’s not like any random rooster can join — it has to be of the Serama breed — a bantam breed that originated in Malaysia within the last 50 years. Distinguishable by their assertive, puffed-up disposition, the birds are bred intentionally for show purposes due to their exotic colors and feather patterns, and especially upright tails.
As Singaporean photographer Ernest Goh learned, it’s a pretty serious industry in Kelantan, where there’s apparently a weekly Ayam Serama beauty pageant. It was there that Goh met Hassan, a renowned champion breeder of Serama chickens. Watch his journey unfold below in a documentary appropriately titled Cocks:
