(Written by a friend in Shanghai)

          What a hot day it is today in Shanghai.  The sky is blue, the sun is shining and there are no clouds.  The cicadas are producing their characteristic high-pitched, droning sound, and I don't like listening to it.    It bothers me a lot.  However, when I was a child, I was very interested in cicadas. 

          Every summer, my friends and I went to the woods in search of them.    It is not easy to catch them, as they can fly.  When they feel threatened because someone has come close, they stop buzzing.  They then decide if they’re in trouble, and if there’s danger afoot, they fly away.

          Even if I climbed a tree in pursuit, I still couldn’t catch one.  I was always happy and excited when I set out and disappointed when I went back home.  

          One of the times I was unsuccessful, I cried and asked dad for help.  He told me that catching cicadas needed a light hand and taught me to use a special device consisting of a long pole, a ring, and some gluten.  He helped me tie the ring on the one side of the pole, and we put gluten on the ring.  He said that the gluten would stick to the cicada’s wings. 

          Then Dad and I went to the woods, and I caught two cicadas easily with the new tool.  I was very exciting.     

          I put them in a little cage, and Mum gave me some watermelon so they’d have food.  That day I learned new things about cicadas:  Its mouth is just behind its forelegs and is shaped like a staw.  It’s used for piercing and sucking.  The males make a buzzing call by vibrating two drum-like membranes covering hollow chambers called tymbols on its abdomen. 

          From then on, biology became one of my favorite subjects.