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Article: CRICKETS IN COMBAT: A CHINESE PASSION
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- October 24, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1987 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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NANJING, China - Deep in the marketplace, behind the heaps
of coal and parakeet cages and buckets of writhing bread worms, the
cricket men swap cricket tales.
In baggy blue pants by the cricket pots, they talk cricket
personalities, cricket workouts, cricket diets, great crickets they
have known -- and above all -- cricket fighting. "If you really
want a tough cricket, feed it meat. Bones too," growls one
whiskered cricket trainer in sage tones. "And bathe it. Bathe it in
tea."
Cricket fighting, with all its peculiar lore and legends, is
alive and well in modern China. Right now, when evenings are crisp
and crickets are full of vigor, is the height of the fighting
season.
The ...