Tales Across The Sea

11 Responses to “What’s the deal with cricket fighting?”

1. Mei Posted: Jun 7th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

   1 Cricket fighting had been a well practised pastime by the rich and idle people in China, especially in the Qing dynasty. The emperors did not necessarily “run” cricket rings, but a few of them were really into cricket fighting, which of course caused lots of trouble for the people, as most imperial hobbies tended to do. Here is an amusing short article on the “art” of cricket fighting, written by a western author: http://chinese-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/cricket_fighting. Useless and ridiculous hobbies are more a signature of rich and idle people than signature of Chinese culture. The westerners can boast cock-fighting, which is somewhat similar to but rather more brutal than cricket-fighting, as a fine example of their idle hobbies. If you search on google with “sports and pastime of rich people”, this came up in “Tudor sports and pastimes”, along with a few other gruesome choices to help kill the endless long days for an English aristocrat with nothing better to do. At least on this aspect, the east and the west had found “common ground”

2. Lara Posted: Jun 8th, 2007 at 4:01 pm

   2 Author Comment OK, I know the Chinese didn’t have a monopoly on stupid useless expensive and extortionate pastimes! I know the Elizabethans enjoyed bear-baiting and bull-baiting (hence lovely breeds like bulldogs), and many fine English people enjoyed nothing better than a good (human) hanging – likewise Americans until fairly recently. What amazes me is the trivial scale of the fighting critter in these Chinese stories, and that people’s lives were turned upside down for the sake of bugs. The idea of a governmental search for the fightingest crickets reaching into the hinterlands is pretty wild to me. But I do enjoy the names of the champion crickets: Blue-Spotted Squarehead, e.g.

3. Mei Posted: Jun 8th, 2007 at 9:53 pm

   3 In fact, there is probably enough material for us to write a series on various insane hobbies of the emperors and aristocrast in ancient times. My spouse just mentioned that cock-fighting was quite the fad in Tang dynasty China. Eagle training was a signature activity of a spoiled brat in Qing dynasty. As to the trivial scale of cricket fighting, the story described in Pu Songling’s “Cricket” is striking for precisely that reason, that something so insignificant to the emperor could cause so much grief in someone else’s life. That idea is wild to the Chinese as well, and that’s why the story is so famous. I remember learning this story as part of our Chinese class curriculum in high school.

4. Lara Posted: Jun 9th, 2007 at 9:13 am

   4 Author Comment The closest analogy I can think of to this in American culture is Mark Twain’s story, “The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” in which drunken gold miners see which frog can jump the furthest. But these guys were not in a position to compel their underlings to fetch frogs…. And the western equivalent of eagle training would be hawking, which had a whole system of training hawks to attack and fetch birds for you – as in China, the purview of the rich nobility who had a monopoly on hunting. And of course Mark Twain, commentator on decadent European habits, made clear that the American version of hawking was limited to coughing up a lot of sputum (“hawking and spitting,” still a popular pastime in the U.S., but not limited to the upper classes!).

5. ram Posted: Jun 10th, 2007 at 9:48 pm

   5 Speaking of lifestyles of the rich and decadent, the book Freedom at Midnight by Lapierre and Collins has a chapter devoted to the pastimes of pre-independence Indian Maharajas: tiger hunting, elephant fighting (like cricket fights, but with elephants), collecting Rolls Royce cars, and, for their birthdays, receiving their weight in gold. At independence in 1947 India absorbed the Princely States and the Maharajas become ceremonial, so the elephants and Rolls Royces gradually disappeared.

6. Mei Posted: Jun 11th, 2007 at 9:51 pm

   6 Thanks ram for the comment about Indian Maharajas pastime. Elephant collecting and fighting must be so much more expensive than the cricket version, however! These people must be very very rich. If we do a series, would you consider contributing a post on this topic?

7. Lara Posted: Jun 12th, 2007 at 8:47 pm

   7 Author Comment The Indian fashion for collecting Rolls Royces still exists. Didn’t Shree Rajneesh have a fleet of about 19 when the authorities broke up his cult in Washington? Wasn’t one of them gold-plated? Or is that some other nut I’m thinking of?

8. ram Posted: Jun 12th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

   8 Though no Maharajah, Rajneesh had 90 Rolls according to one source. His first Rolls was armor plated, but there was no gold plated mentioned. Must be some other nut. Yes, it would be fun to have a series on the rich and decadent. I would be glad to do research on this

9. iDance Posted: Jan 19th, 2008 at 11:43 am

   9 Cricket fighting is still popular nowadays in some parts of China, as a game or a way of gambling for children (basically boys) and adults alike. It is fun, I was so into it when I was a boy. Never figured out what species are best fighters.

10. Mei Posted: Jan 20th, 2008 at 10:03 am

    10 Welcome, iDance! I’m curious — what did you gamble with (marbles? real money) when playing crickets as a kid? I grew up in Beijing, and it was very difficult to find crickets in the city anymore to play with. I heard of people doing cricket fighting then, and wondered how they acquired their crickets. The boys in my neighborhood mostly played marbles, and in the summer, dragonflies.

11. ram Posted: Feb 7th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

    11 Today’s paper San Jose Mercury News ran a small article about fighting crickets, saying the tradition’s alive and well, and that crickets can win beauty contests as well as fights. It also said they can sell for as much as $10,000, so somebody out there must be betting some serious cash on them. People with more money than sense, perhaps.