Equipment for crickets
The other large component of the subcollection of equipment for pets is equipment for crickets. The majority of cricket-related equipment in the Laufer collection are containers for housing crickets, but the collection also includes a number of cricket accessories such as fighting arenas, beds, cricket ticklers, and more.
The cricket containers in the Laufer collections vary in form and material, but all have the same purpose of housing singing or fighting crickets. The majority of cricket containers in the Laufer collection were collected from Beijing, with some collected from Shanghai and Suzhou. Laufer writes that the cricket containers from Beijing were “from the Palace and the possession of ancient families of Peking,” but this claim is difficult to verify.[1] One type of cricket container, of which the Field Museum owns several examples of, is made out of a small gourd. These gourds often had elaborate raised designs on their surfaces, which were produced by fitting the still-growing gourds into molds, after which the gourds would grow into the design.[2] Designs were also carved into the surface of the gourd, or engraved with a heated knife or needle.[3] The lids of these gourd containers were often elaborate, with detailed designs carved from ivory, wood, horn, clay, jade, or other materials. Examples of this kind of gourd container, along with its accompanying ivory lid, can be seen in Figure 1. A closer look at the elaborate designs typically found on these ivory lids can be seen in Figure 2.
[1] Berthold Laufer, “Insect-Musicians and Cricket Champions of China,” 27.
[2] Chuimei, Adler, and Bronson, “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum,” 10.
[3] Ibid., 9.
other cricket containers
Another type of cricket container in the Laufer collections are containers made of terracotta, an unglazed clay fired at low temperatures.[1] Firing at low temperatures allows the clay of the containers to be porous, allowing a moist atmosphere to be maintained inside the jars for the crickets.[2] These terracotta jars were used to house crickets in late summer to early fall in the Beijing-Tianjin areas of China, and at other times of the year gourd containers were used to house crickets. In contrast, in the Shanghai-Suzhou areas of China, crickets live in these terracotta containers for the entirety of their lives. The smaller of the terracotta containers have holes pierced in their lids to provide ventilation, and the larger terracotta containers have loosely-fitting lids.[3] Examples of these types of terracotta cricket containers can be seen in the top row of jars in Figure 3.
Although not a long-term storage container, the Laufer collection also includes a walnut shell girdle pendant intended to hold singing crickets, in contrast to the majority of the collection focusing on fighting crickets. Owners could carry around their singing crickets in this pendant, attached to their belt. This pendant is carved out of a walnut shell, and has the Eighteen Arhats carved into the surface. The Eighteen Arhats are a standard set of the Buddha’s disciples who have achieved nirvana, or enlightenment, and were a common and popular image in Chinese Buddhist art.
[1] Chuimei, Adler, and Bronson, “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum,” 11.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
Miscellaneous cricket accessories
One of the various cricket-related accessories in the Laufer collections is a set of cricket fighting arenas. One example, collected in Suzhou, is “exceptionally well-made,” with a sliding pottery partition in the center to keep the two fighting crickets separated before battle, as well as a wooden sliding door in the side to move crickets in and out of the arena.[1] This type of cricket arena is evidently somewhat unusual for its moving parts—simpler arenas that more closely resemble cricket containers are more common. Arenas of this small size are typically used for private cricket fighting matches between friends. Larger, bowl-like arenas are used for more public fights, which often took place in clubhouses.[2]
[1] Chuimei, Adler, and Bronson, “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum,” 12.
[2] Ibid.
Another accessory in the Laufer collections are the cricket beds. These beds were used both as a resting place for the cricket within the containers, as well as for moving the cricket between containers. Cricket beds are apparently one of the oldest documented cricket accessories in China—three found at Suzhou are dated to the thirteenth century.[1]
[1] Chuimei, Adler, and Bronson, “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum,” 14.
There are still more cricket-related accessories from China in the Laufer collections. One type of accessory are water dishes for crickets. The Laufer collection contains several tiny blue-and-white porcelain dishes that served as water dishes for crickets. These dishes, dated to the early twentieth century, were collected from both Shanghai and Beijing.
Another type of cricket-related accessory in the Laufer collection are small, gourd-shaped ivory plaques, about six centimeters long, upon which the names of fighting crickets that had won matches were inscribed.[1]
[1] Chuimei, Adler, and Bronson, “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum,” 8.
An additional type of accessory in the Laufer collection are “ticklers,” made with straw, animal hair, or whiskers attached to tubes, often made of bamboo. These ticklers, dated to the early twentieth century, were used to prod crickets into fighting.[1] Examples of these cricket ticklers can be seen in the right half of this photograph.
[1] Chuimei, Adler, and Bronson, “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum,” 8-9.
Crickets as pets in China: in history & today
In China today, keeping crickets as pets for fighting or singing remains relatively common. In particular, keeping crickets for fighting continues to be a popular pastime, with serious participants spending hundreds of dollars on crickets and their maintenance. In China, keeping crickets is said to have become a practice over a thousand years ago. Crickets were charms for good luck, and companions for imperial concubines.[1] Although keeping crickets died out in the 1950s and 1960s due to Mao Zedong’s ban on the practice as a “bourgeois predilection,” the practice has been revived in recent years.[2] The ongoing popularity of the sport can be seen in the twenty-five annual regional cricket fighting championships that lead to the Beijing national championship, along with the number of cricket-fighting associations and cricket markets that have appeared across China. [3] [4]
Cricket fighting today remains similar to cricket fighting in Laufer’s time. Some of the tools have changed—for one, digital scales are now used to sort crickets into their weight classes—but the majority of the sport and equipment remains the same.[5] The clay homes and tiny ceramic water dishes of crickets continue to be much like those that Laufer collected in the early twentieth century, and cricket ticklers are still used to prod crickets into fighting. Today’s cricket trainers still follow many of the rules and guidance from a 13th century guide on raising fighting crickets written by a Southern Song prime minister, and match judges follow guidelines, many of which date back to the 13th century, to decide points in cricket fights.[6] [7]
[1] Jacobs, "The Song in the Heart of Many Chinese Comes from Insects."
[2] Jacobs, “Chirps and Cheers.”
[3] Kim, “Little gladiators: China’s cricket fighting."
[4] Jacobs, “Chirps and Cheers.”
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Campbell, “It’s Cricket Fighting Season in China."
FIELD MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS ON THE LAUFER CRICKET EQUIPMENT COLLECTION
There have been several publications issued by the Field Museum, written by Field Museum curators and contributors, that discuss the Field Museum’s collection of cricket-related objects from China. One of Laufer’s many published works includes a fairly extensive article in Field Museum Anthropology leaflets that discusses crickets in China. Published in 1927, Laufer’s article goes into detail about various cricket-related topics, such as: the crickets favored in China for singing crickets and cricket-fights, a history of crickets in China, how crickets are caught and the tools used to do so, and the various accoutrements used in raising crickets, whether for singing or fighting. Several objects related to crickets in China, collected by Laufer and owned and displayed by the Field Museum, are included in the article as photographs, along with a brief discussion of each object or object type. The article also includes a few stories translated from Chinese related to crickets. Those interested in reading Laufer’s article can access it here.
Another article published by the Field Museum on its cricket-related collections from China is the article “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum” in the September/October 1989 issue of the Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin. This article expands on Laufer’s previous text on crickets, and includes several photographs and detailed captions of cricket-related objects from China in the Field Museum’s collection. Interested readers can access this article here.
by Aiko Johnston
References
Campbell, Joseph. “It’s Cricket Fighting Season in China.” Business Insider, October 10, 2013. https://www.businessinsider.com/its-cricket-fighting-season-in-china-2013-10
Chuimei, Ho, Lisa Adler, and Bennet Bronson. 1989. “Ceramic Cricket Jars in the Field Museum.” Field Museum of Natural History Bulletin. September/October 1989: 6-15. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/25532#page/247/mode/1up
Jacobs, Andrew. “Chirps and Cheers: China’s Crickets Clash.” New York Times, November 5, 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/world/asia/chirps-and-cheers-chinas-crickets-clash-and-bets-are-made.html
Jacobs, Andrew. “The Song in the Heart of Many Chinese Comes from Insects.” New York Times, August 22, 2016. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/what-in-the-world/china-crickets-cicadas-bugs.html
Kim, Kyung-Hoon. “Little gladiators: China’s cricket fighting.” Reuters, October 10, 2013. https://www.reuters.com/article/idIN44122530620131010
Laufer, Berthold. “Insect-Musicians and Cricket Champions of China.” Anthropology Leaflet 22, Field Museum of Natural History, Dept. of Anthropology (1927). https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.2674