I ran across RedKemp’s blog noting about the LA Times article about the Chinese (wealthy 20 year olds) starting to keep crickets as pets and I couldn’t pass up the oddness of the article:

 There are different breeds that are used for signing and fighting competitions. Both are expensive, not counting the variety of accessories that can be purchased for your cricket. And there is probably a reason why it is primarily men that participate in this sport:

And most important: The cricket has to bed at least two or three females before he fights.

“The cricket who is most successful making love will be the best fighter,” Zhao said.

All the fighting crickets are male. So are the singing crickets, whose song, after all, is a mating call. In cricket-collecting circles, female crickets are nothing more than sex slaves to the males.

“There is a little machismo in this,” Zhao conceded. “After a while, you come to identify with your cricket.”

I know that the US certainly has some odd sports and pastimes, but I cannot help but remember seeing (not to mention hearing) the street vendors walking around with a huge load of crickets and cricket cages for sale. I kind of wish I took a picture of that, but oh well.

Somehow though, I don’t think ‘cricket fighting’ would catch on in the US (though I wonder about the legality issue for insects and animal fighting).