Cricket fighting
Media
Part of Panorama
- Title
- Cricket fighting
- Creator
- Borralko, Leonel
- Identifier
- Always for fun
- Language
- English
- Source
- Volume XII (Issue No. 11) November 1960
- Year
- 1960
- Subject
- Crickets (Insect)
- Animal fighting
- Rights
-
- Fulltext
- Always for fun By Leonel Borralko /0RICKET FIGHTING, a version of cock fighting, started in China during the early part of the Sung Dy nasty (960-1270 AD.), and for about a thousand years after wards was considered one of the favorite sports of the Chi nese people. Legend has it that once upon a time, an emperor of the Sung Dynasty called to his palace two of his generals and order ed them to stop the “war” be tween them and to settle their differences by matching cric kets against each other instead of their men. Since then, the legend con tinues, cricket fighting became a national sport in China and had always been popular among the Chinese people un til 1949, when Mao Tse-tung took over the Chinese main land completely and banned the sport from Chinese soil. It was also outlawed in Hongkong, partly because the British government is against gambling, and partly because the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Hong kong has strong objections against it. Cricket fighting, however; took root in Macao where it takes place at the “Voice of Autumn Club,” situated at the fifth floor of the Central Hotel, Macao’s biggest casino. It is held every day for about two months, from August 22 (the first day of the seventh moon in the Chinese calendar) until the middle of October (about the last day of the eighth moon). rT'o the Chinese businessmen, 1 cricket fighting is a chance to build a stable of winners, win distinction in much the same way as a horse own er. For tricycle coolies, hotel workers clerks and other work ers, cricket combats are a time for fun and a chance to bet and make winnings. November 1960 87 Before each combat, the watching people make their bettings, which sometimes run to sums of four figures. After the bettings are made, two crickets are placed to gether in a small wooden arena of about fifteen to twenty inch es in diameter, and the owner of each cricket irritates his own insect by touching its antennae with a long brush made of whiskers of a certain type of mouse, mostly found in rice fields, and then directs the in sect against the adversary, while two referees watch the combat. Once the crickets meet, there is no peace, and the com bat concludes only when one of them runs away or is rendered incapacitated by the bites of the adversary. The winner, characteristical ly, will rub parts of its fore wings together to produce a chirping sound, then takes a rest for the next twenty-four hours. There is a ruling to the effect that a cricket can not fight more than once during the day. The loser is usually given away, as it is considered unfit for further fightings. ¥ * ¥ How do you pronounce February? "£f YOU wish to pronounce it FEB-rooeri, £o ahead. But you will be just as correct if you say FEByoo-eri, which is the more common and natural pro nunciation. It is difficult for us to pronounce two r's when they occur close together in the same word; therefore, it is customary to drop the frist r not only in February, but in other words such as su(r)prise. ¥ Panorama
- pages
- 87-88