), Cricket-Keeping Utensils, early 20th century (I. to r.). Tin cricket box witti double base for cold 

 weather The 2 glass panels on the side serve as windows tor a pair of compartments separated by a 

 vertical plate. The hinged lid has openwork top: cat. 126384. Bamboo bar cage with vertical sliding 

 grill on one side and glass top. Such cages can be used for almost any type of insect. This cage was 

 sold as a grasshopper cage. Acquired in Hangzhou: cat. 126408. Brass cricket jar, cylindrical with 

 sloping clay floor. The lid top has openwork repousse decorated with magpies and plum blossoms, 

 signifying happiness in spring. Made in Beijing. Diam. 5 cm: cat. 133189. Ivory bar trap. The sliding 

 door can be shut with a finger after a wild cricket is lured inside. The door is topped by carving of a 

 mouse eating fruit. Acquired in Beijing: cat. 235014. 



I 



Cricket Keeping 



he custom in China and Japan of keeping crickets for 

 the music they produce is easy for us to understand; for 

 we, too, enjoy the sound those insects make on summer 

 evenings; but some readers may be surprised to learn 

 that the Chinese also keep crickets for fighting. 

 Although farm boys in many places know that male 

 crickets will fight when placed together in small con- 

 tainers, only in China is cricket fighting a common 

 sport. Even today, in various parts of that country, 

 cricket fights are held and money bet on the outcome. 

 Local officials may frown on this activity and relatives 

 may object, but crickets that are good singers or fighters 

 continue to be sold for high prices. Cricket fanciers 

 take time off from work to attend fights or swap ses- 

 sions, and come together to compare techniques of 

 catching, raising, feeding, and caring for their pets. 



Authors: Ho Chuimei is a research associate in Anthropology, Lisa 

 Adler is a volunteer, and Bennet Bronson is curator of Asian 

 archaeology and ethnology and chairman of the Department of 

 Anthropology. Photographer Wong Wang-fai is also a volunteer. 



The husbandry of singing crickets goes back to at 

 least the seventh century in China, but cricket fighting 

 is more recent. The earliest known handbook on rais- 

 ing and training fighting crickets was written in the 

 thirteenth century by Jia Sidao, a general of the South- 

 em Song Dynasty (A.D. 1127-1278) who is otherwise 

 famous for having neglected his military duties to the 

 extent that the Mongols were able to conquer China. 

 Even in Jia's day, cricket fanciers were using special 

 equipment to capture and maintain their pets. They 

 also had an elaborate technical nomenclature. Modern 

 cricket manuals list dozens of names for variations in 

 color and form within single cricket species: "star- 

 headed," "jade hoe," "glossy lantern," "iron bullet," and 

 the like. The manuals also contain detailed instruc- 

 tions about diets and medications for fighting crickets 

 at various stages of their brief lives. 



The leading Western authority on Chinese 

 cricket-keeping was Berthold Laufer, a Field Museum 

 curator from 1908 to 1934. His "Insect Musicians and 

 Cricket champions" (1927), though little known to 

 the general public, remains the standard non-Chinese 

 work on the subject. It has been often quoted by 



