about pet grasshoppers

One of my young students told me today that grasshoppers which are caught and kept as pets are considered to be lucky. He had heard it somewhere, but was not sure whether it was in Japan or China....I (of course) told him that I would find out from my favourite web-site. Can someone help me???

Not grasshoppers but crickets. I believe it's the Chinese that kept crickets as pets. I don't know if it was limited to a certain province or class. I'm not sure if Japanese also kept crickets as pets.

if you have watched the japanese/chinese film of Mulan you will see that the wise woman gives mulan a cricket for good luck. dont know if this is any help???

I'm sure my student will be satisfied with those answers - thanks for your replies!

I thought it was more of a chinese tradition (ie. to my knowledge Mulan was Chinese story).

It is Chinese. Not Japanese. and it's Crickets. not Grasshoppers, I know because I not only keep Grasshoppers as pets, but am part chinese as well.

last time i was in Japan two business had crickets in a tank, firstly the JR Office at Kansai Airport, and then the main Post Office in Morioka.

Well I'm not from Japan or China but I do know that in some countries crickets are lucky and in others grasshoppers are lucky. I belive it is only tradition.

when i was a child i made friends with a grasshopper. it is an experiment that i have wanted to repeat for quite some time now, the results being so remarkable. i caught it when it was a bright green translucent glob of jelly. i bonded with it, perhaps imprinted is a better word, not yet convinced as many adults are that such things are not possible. i could go on at length -- it was very magickal -- the grasshopper, which i named Kermit, soon became wonderfully housetrained.
he would recognize me from across the room when i came home from school; he would come when called, jump on my hand, get off on the houseplant to which i would carry him, eat, jump back to my hand, and hold on tight for the ride home. we were very close as i recall, and i didn't learn untill later how rare it was for a grasshopper to live as long as he did (two years, towards the end one-legged and seemingly blind). even though he died 30 years ago in an apartment in the south bronx i thought my experience might be of use to you; feel free to write with questions, here and/or to my email (i may take a bit to reply).

Read also a short story "The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket" by Yasunari Kawabata.