Cricket Games in Xi'an

Cricket fighting was a popular form of entertainment in the old days. The earliest publication on how to train fighting crickets came out during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). This kind of “sport” became so popular that China quickly produced the very first Cricket Minister, Jia Shidao who reigned from 1213 to 1275. Thousands of crickets were brought to the capital every year from all around the country to compete. The level of seriousness about insect fighting is illustrated in the hundreds of documented stories about those that committed suicide at losing their cricket champions or seeing them mortally wounded.

The happy owners of bona fide fighting crickets could easily make a fortune out of them. Cricket “coaches” would select the toughest cricket they could find and place it on a special diet of seeds and small insects. The day before a contest, the cricket would be starved to make it more aggressive. Two ravenous crickets would then be placed in a cage with the intent of inciting a fight to the death. Such fights attracted swarms of gamblers playing for huge stakes. These contests are still regarded as a sport in China, as the specially appointed Association for Cricket Fighting in Beijing would indicate. The association sponsors national tournaments that feature high-tech video cameras that zoom in and project the fight action on to television screens, where it is avidly viewed, cheered and booed.

As is the case with most interesting aspects of China, crickets are not just crickets, but an innate aspect of its traditions and culture.

People in Xi’an still enjoy this tradition since the Tang Dynasty(618-907) and the market to sell and buy crickets is still alive and located in the western corner of the ancient city wall. You can see the cricket fans gathering together to show off their crickets kept in various cages. The cages could be made of pottery or porcelain, bamboo or red wood. Some are elegantly designed and carved. The crickets are rated in different classed with different prices, some ready-to-fight crickets with strong appearance could cost as much as thousands of RMB Yuan in the market.

There are also some cricket experts or books on how to catch, select or grow a good fighting cricket. All reminded us that people in Great Tang Dynasty exerted themselves to find some amusement and entertainment in the spare time, trying to live in harmony with the nature or what they have been given from the nature.