An Inside Look at Asian Wet Markets

In recent months following the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), the world has been introduced to 传统市场, better known as “street markets” or “wet markets”. They are places common across Asia for all things perishable, such as fruits, vegetables, and – most notably – animals, dead or alive.

Images by Kelly Guerin. Wet market in Anhui, China, 2016. 

I’ve visited and documented many such markets over the years and, though no two are the same, I’m always struck by their shared, defining sense of raw chaos. There’s a constant roar of shouting, haggling customers and the puttering engines of scooters as they snake their way through narrow rows of vendor stalls. Meat cleavers rhythmically pound through impossibly large chunks of flesh, flicking bits and juice with each repeated chop. Sometimes adding to this ambience is the sound of a live animal who has been chosen from a crate and now attempts one last desperate escape before they are butchered and deconstructed in front of a waiting buyer.