After reading Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, what most impresses me is that Cifford Geertz discoursed: “Societies, like lives, contain their own interpretations. One has to learn how to gain access to them.” It means that if we need to understand and know about the culture a society conveys, it is essential to get close to it and feel it as much as possible. Geertz insisted on staying in a Balinese village in order to study cockfight, a key component of Balinese local culture, although he found it ‘extremely difficult for outsiders to penetrate’( Geertz, 1972: 4). Preparation before, the scene and rules during the cockfight are clearly depicted in his passage. We can also know that Balinese men are intimate with their cocks and how they spend time together. It can be easily told that Geertz invested a large amount of time and energy to deeply comprehend their Balinese culture.
Actually, not only in Bali, tradition of cockfighting entertainment exists almost all over the world, such as China, Vietnam, the Philippines and so on. Take China as an example. China is one of the traditional countries that domesticate and train game cocks, which has a history of more than 2800 years according to historical research ( Gang Liu & Hui Lu, Research Progress of Cockfighting in China, 2007: 44). To study gamecocks in Henan Province, scholars like Dachun Wu, Yanli Wu and Xuezeng Zhang observed their eating, drinking, defecating, oviposition, mating and gregarious behaviors and conducted statistical analysis ( Gang Liu, 2007: 45).
Therefore I’ve gained enlightenment that if we want to study and research one topic, we must be ready to spend enough time and effort, to hold an honest, modest and rigorous attitude and to take appropriate research methods. There is necessity for us to be patient, think about the topic from different aspects and go deeply into it.
Shuangjiao Guan
Reference
Clifford Geertz (1972) Myth, Symbol and Culture, Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, p1-37
Gang Liu & Hui Lu, Research Progress of Cockfighting in China, 2007
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