Chinese Cricket Fighting

Chinese Cricket Fighting Kiran Gathani delves into the underground competitive sport of Chinese Cricket Fighting

HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

ricket fighting is an ancient sport, originating in China over 1000 years ago during the Tang dynasty. It first came into prominence in Chinese aristocratic circles, with the wealthy paying massive amounts of money to buy the most ferocious breeds of cricket from across the world. Cash prizes for some of the more well known tournaments could have been as much as 10,000 RMB (about £1100), which was a fortune that long ago. This sport later became known as a popular form of entertainment even among lower classes, and it was filmed on television and bets were regularly placed on cricket fighting matches. One prime minister of the Southern Song dynasty wrote a guidebook on cricket fighting, and after the cultural revolution - which took place in 1976 - the new communist government outlawed cricket fighting altogether as a bourgeois extravaganza. These events prove that cricket fighting must have had a historical and symbolic significance in regards to Chinese aristocracy and the ideas of class hierarchy.

Nowadays, cricket fighting is more prevalent in the underground, as it has been officially made illegal to place bets on the fights.

HOW DO THE FIGHTS TAKE PLACE?

Crickets are placed in a box with a partition in the middle, opposite an opponent of the same weight class. Often, the night before a fight, female crickets are put in their pots, some cricket handlers believe that mating with females reduces the stress of the crickets. Sticks are used to poke the hind legs of the crickets - agitating them, and making them more fight ready. Then the partition is removed and the crickets will focus their agitation on their opponent. The first cricket to stop chirping or start avoiding the fight loses.

Male crickets use their mandibles and maxillae (mouthparts) in fights. A study has recently been done comparing the fighting success of male crickets with large mandibles and mouthparts in proportion to their body length and mass. The results showed that males with larger mandibles and mouthparts compared to their body length and mass were far more successful in fights.

Because of this, there has been selective breeding occuring in China for decades in regards to fighting crickets - leading to some fighting crickets having massive mandibles and maxillae in comparison to normal ones.

ETHICS

A cause for controversy around the sport of cricket fighting is its somewhat questionable moral foundations. The sport could be called cruel to insects due to the way in which they are pitted against each other in seemingly gladiatorial fights. However this is on a far smaller scale - involving insects not people, and the crickets are not killed in these fights, they lose once they start retreating. Some crickets are treated extremely well if they succeed, there is even a coffin on display in Macau, made for a much loved cricket. On balance, I would view the sport of cricket fighting as morally acceptable, and it is nowhere near as cruel as something like dog racing in the UK (the British government persists in maintaining its legality).