A particularly noble fighter may be preserved under glass for
eternity, or his likeness may be rendered in a painting. In 1999,
in Shandong Province, one champion, dubbed King of the Insects, was
valued at 100,000 yuan ($12,920) - a shocking amount, considering
that the annual income in
Beijing, one of the wealthiest urban
centers, averages just 7,000 to 30,000 yuan ($904 to $3,876).
Commercial and residential expansion in
China has led to the slow
decline in the number of agricultural fields (where crickets
originally were collected), so breeders now supply many of the
country's crickets used for retail purposes. Yet there are still
specific areas where champion crickets grow in the wild.
Many great cricket fighters come from Zhejiang Province, from a
town called Yuhang, where the pepper fields are said to lend a
fiery disposition and incredible strength. Crickets from Luhua's
watermelon and soybean fields are also said to possess power and a
hot temper.
But Shandong Province, south of Beijing, is still considered the
ultimate birthplace for a fighting cricket. Folklore tells us that
during an enemy invasion some 800 years ago, a Song dynasty emperor
scattered his cricket collection at the foot of the sacred Mount
Tai. The descendants of these crickets are said to be the world's
best fighters. It's estimated that nearly half a million people
travel to the county of Ningyang for crickets each year. Local
farmers earn their main income just from plucking crickets from
their fields and selling them to buyers from
Singapore,
Japan, and
Hong Kong.
Demand for the insects is so high that many have been able to make
a comfortable living as a cricket breeder in the big markets of
major cities. One popular business model is to buy or capture young
crickets, feed them special concoctions twice a day to increase
their strength, and then resell them for profit.