Cricket fighting in Shanghai--season too long?

[knloregon]

WSJ (today)

 

"Like the baseball calendar in the US, China's cricket-fighting season is getting longer and longer. purests fret that the pastime in being threatened by a money culture.

 

Helping lead the effort to upend thousands of years of Chinese tradition is Xu Moxiao, a man determined to lengthen the customary autumn fighting season.

 

....cricket fighting has long followed the rhythms of nature. Around late summer, the inch long blackish-brown insects are plucked out of farm fields and sold as cheap entertainment. Spectators gather to watch heated matches in which crickets battle it out, gladiator style, until one turns tail and runs...

 

..."Crickets from the Shandong province are the most prized"

 

"The size of today's wagers can be gleaned from price tags for the toughest crickets, known as "generals" which can sell for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars."

 

----Ok, now know what I want to do if I move to China---cricket breeder and trainer! Anyone been to a cricket fight?

[weiaijiayou]

Here's a video of some sparring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4XJHiUaP5w...feature=related

[dnoblett]

Hey, there is a cricket fighting activity in Virtual Forbidden City.

 

SEE: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33344

[whome?]

But Shandong Province, south of Beijing, is still considered the ultimate birthplace for a fighting cricket. Folklore tells us that during an enemy invasion some 800 years ago, a Song dynasty emperor scattered his cricket collection at the foot of the sacred Mount Tai. The descendants of these crickets are said to be the world¡¯s best fighters. It¡¯s estimated that nearly half a million people travel to the county of Ningyang for crickets each year. Local farmers earn their main income just from plucking crickets from their fields and selling them to buyers from Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.

 

http://www.jackboulware.com/writing/king-of-the-insects/

 

I have heard of it but never seen one. But I have eaten fried cicada. They sound alike to me .... not sure about their fighting ability though.

[knloregon]

"The fights are vicious but rarely deadly. One cricket usually gives up and runs away---or vaults out of the arena. the loser often gets flung into the street by his displeased owner.."

 

...and just because I raised him and trained him-----don't come crying back to me! still...... I feel bad..... so I can give you a great price on a young, 'champion' prospect ~!

[N&J]

where is PETA when you need them!

 

looks more like playing to me......

 

If I saw two insects together, a good swat with my slipper would end it!

 

 

(all in tongue in cheek- no emails please!)

[Mick]

Don't ever let Michael Vick get wind of this....

[knloregon]

Geeezz... how bad is it? the loser vaults out of the arena, and his disgruntled owner throws him in the street....

 

Worse than American rodeo?

 

That plus................ its an insect..

[Mick]

Here's a video of some sparring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4XJHiUaP5w...feature=related

I like to see this in slow motion.....that way you could really apprecite the technique and strategy involved...float like a butterfly, chirp like a cricket....