Text:
“So there’s this proverb:
Chinese: 说曹操, 曹操到
Phonetic: Shuō Cáo Cāo, Cáo Cāo dào
Transliteration: Say, Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives
Translation: Speak of Cao Cao, and he will appear
it’s a phrase, like, everyone uses but I’m not sure where it comes from. Apparently, he saved someone from dying once they spoke his name. That’s it I think.”
Context:
Informant (JG) is a student aged 19 from Beijing, China. Although she was born in Los Angeles, she has spent most of her life living in China. She currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over breakfast in the dining hall. She heard the proverb from numerous sources and uses it herself. She usually uses it to refer to someone she doesn’t want to meet/see, in the same vein as “speak of the devil.”
Interpretation:
As mentioned by (JG), this proverb functions in the same way as the English saying “speak of the devil.” This is an example of polygenesis in folklore as the two cultures created similar folk speech without a connecting thread.
Author Archives: John Cabaniss
The Mantis, The Cicada, and The Oriole
Text:
“Another proverb I’ve heard is:
Chinese: 螳螂捕蝉黄雀在后
Phonetic: Tángláng bǔ chán huáng què zài hòu
Transliteration: Mantis catches cicada oriole behind
Translation: The mantis stalks the cicada unaware of the oriole behind him
it’s one of my favorites. It basically means you need to be cautious and alarm.”
Context:
Informant (JG) is a student aged 19 from Beijing, China. Although she was born in Los Angeles, she has spent most of her life living in China. She currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over breakfast in the dining hall. She first heard this proverb in primary school. According to her, this proverb isn’t really spoken, more so kept in the back of the head. She interprets it as “always be aware of your surroundings.”
Interpretation:
This particular proverb calls for mindfulness. It encourages the individual to not simply think of themself. This idea can be found throughout Chinese culture, and in this instance, it is actually pointing out the danger of closemindedness.
100 Days of Life
Text:
“When the baby is a hundred days old or something, yeah, the parents put like different objects in front of the baby each meaning like a different career or something lets say there’s like a book meaning you’re going to be a scholar or money meaning the baby is going to get rich and you see which one the baby picks as a way of predicting its future.”
Context:
Informant (JG) is a student aged 19 from Beijing, China. Although she was born in Los Angeles, she has spent most of her life living in China. She currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over breakfast in the dining hall. She’s seen this on tv shows and knows people who practice this tradition. She thinks parents want something psychic to guarantee success for their children.
Interpretation
As (JG) mentioned, this belief is largely meant to guarantee success for the baby. None of the options are negative; there isn’t an item that symbolizes bankruptcy or homelessness. This reflects a larger belief that whatever the baby picks is what they will have in life, so best not to lay anything negative in front of them.
Nian New Year
Text:
“I guess some Chinese stories and traditions have different meanings in different parts of China. For example, we like exchange red packets for new years and the reason why its red is cause in Chinese mythology there’s this monster that shows up every new year I forgot the reason but yeah in the story there’s a monster that shows up every new year and apparently, it’s scared of the color red which is why everything is in red. The monster’s name is:
Chinese: 年獸
Phonetic: nián shòu
Transliteration: zodiac
Translation: year
and if you translate it into English it means year. I don’t know the story, but thats also part of the reason we have fireworks is to scare the monster.”
Context:
Informant (JG) is a student aged 19 from Beijing, China. Although she was born in Los Angeles, she has spent most of her life living in China. She currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over breakfast in the dining hall. She learned this in primary school. She doesn’t have any interpretations for its meaning, she just thinks it’s there to preserve New Year traditions.
Interpretation:
This folk belief demonstrates how elements of festivals and folk practices may be “rationalized” by other elements of folklore. In this instance, the possibility of a monster is what drives part of the folk practice. It also encourages the people to keep the tradition going.
2B
“So like as you know there are like a million ways to call someone a dumbass on the internet. One way I like to is the phrase, ‘you are second in numbers and in letters’ which is Two-B.
Chinese: 屄
Phonetic: bī
Transliteration: c*nt
Translation: ass, general expletive
has a negative meaning already, but it also sounds, like, phonetically stupid I guess. Then people started adding the word stupid in front of that. But, then, I think it’s because of internet censorship, which doesn’t allow people to insult each other explicitly. So people started saying two-bī to insult each other. And, I think, it might be just a historical reference that two has a negative meaning or it has an insult towards someone’s intelligence level but I think that’s how it comes as the word two-bī and now it frequently used by a lot of people.”
Context:
Informant (ZZ) is a student aged 19 from Shanghai, China. He attended high school in the U.S. and currently goes to USC. This piece was collected during an interview over dinner in the dining hall. He learned the saying from friends and the internet. He believes, “it express the great intellectual ability of the Chinese people that we use our language so well that we can insult people with anything that we want.”
Interpretation:
Beyond the interpretation offered by ZZ, this story also demonstrates the growing influence of English in China. The insult phrase requires knowledge of the Roman alphabet in order to work. Additionally, it demonstrates a desire to resist internet censorship by the Chinese Government. The government can’t censor everything, and this insult, like the grass mud horse mentioned elsewhere, demonstrates a desire by Chinese netizens to circumvent censorship.