Swirling in a smorgasbord of sayings

"Guangdong people eat everything," my friend says, as we sit down to a giant dinner.

The other guests nod sagely in agreement. "We eat everything in the sky that flies except planes, and the only thing on four legs we don't eat is the table."

We are in Zhuhai, a small city in Guangdong province, and like everywhere I've been in China, a very big part of the local identity seems defined by sayings and accepted wisdoms, often yelled out loudly and proudly to me across banquet tables.