The Cricket is an original story inspired by Pusongling’s famous work, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. In the Ming dynasty’s Xuande period, an emperor is obsessed with cricket fighting and taxes his people heavily. A boy becomes a cricket to save his family, but dies under pressure from the family, and the wider society. However, his death is not the end… The Chinese Metamorphosis, recreated as a classical dance drama. Pusongling was born into a poor merchant family and his stories about Chinese society are informed by his background.