Cricket Fighting Revival in China

Cricket Fighting

In China, crickets are pitted against each other on street corners as their owners watch and place bets on the matches.
 

Chirps and Cheers: China’s Crickets Clash
By ANDREW JACOBS


BEIJING-- Countless field crickets, have faced off in the capital’s narrow alleys this fall in a uniquely Chinese blood sport whose provenance extends back more than 1,000 years. Nurtured by Tang Dynasty emperors and later popularized by commoners outside the palace gates, cricket fighting was banned as a bourgeois predilection during the decade-long Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976.

But like many once-suppressed traditions, among them Confucianism, mah-jongg and pigeon raising, cricket fighting is undergoing a revival here, spurred on by a younger generation — well, mostly young men — eager to embrace genuinely Chinese pastimes.

Cricket-fighting associations have sprung up across the country, as have more than 20 Web sites devoted to the minutiae of raising critters whose daily needs can rival those of an Arabian steed. Last year, about $63 million, were spent on cricket sales and upkeep, according to Cricket Research Institute in Shandong Province. Shanghai now has more than a dozen cricket markets, and several cities, including Beijing, stage public bouts where the Lilliputian action is blown up and projected on to giant screens.

(Insect-rights advocates take note: Combat seldom causes injuries, save for the occasional severed antennae, and losers are generally tossed onto the sidewalk and allowed to roam free until a November frost, or a pedestrian’s foot, puts an end to their chirping.)

Most aficionados, however, insist that the sport is a wholesome diversion that fosters camaraderie and friendly competition among devotees.


Men like Mr. Chen also take pride in China’s long affair with the insects, which legend suggests were first domesticated by imperial concubines who kept trilling crickets at their bedside to stave off loneliness.

Crickets, both the fighting and singing ilk, are a staple of Chinese poetry, painting and storytelling. A few tales stand out, like the Ming Dynasty emperor who required subjects to include crickets as part of their annual tax burden.

There is an elaborate system for feeding, judging matches and categorizing fight styles — “Creep like a tiger, fight like a snake,” describes one particularly effective move. The trained eye can supposedly differentiate 260 different grades and skin tones.

Promising candidates might be given names like Yellow Flying Tiger or Big Purple Teeth.

To stoke its territorial instincts, trainers use a strand of boiled hay or a mouse whisker to cajole the cricket. “If you’re serious about breeding winners, you never smoke or drink near your crickets,” said Mr. Liu, the Beijing master. “A bit of chili pepper will make them especially ferocious.”

Then there is the matter of conjugal visits. Before fight night, a succession of females will be dropped into the jar, which experts say amps up the male’s fighting spirit.