Author Archives: Shirley He

The Story of the Two Butterfly Lovers

Background of informant:

My informant SS is an international student from Beijing, China.

The conversation was in Chinese.

 

Main piece:

SS: “Long time ago in China, I don’t remember what time exactly it was, there was a girl Yingtai. She was different from other girls when she was little. When others girls were studying embroidering, Yingtai were reading books. One day, when she grew up a little bit, she told her dad she wanted to go to school. Dad was so mad and didn’t agree. Also, the family always wanted to marry the daughter Yingtai to a wealthy family in the town. But Yingtai was so steadfast so her parents compromised.

Yingtai disguised herself as a young boy, and was on the trip to school far from home with a maid, who was also dressed up as a young man. During the trip, she met the boy Shanbo. They became really good friend and had great time together. After a while, after they had been in school for about a semester, Yingtai fell in love to Shanbo. But she could not tell him, because she could not expose her gender as a female as women is not allowed go to school.

When school ended, both Shanbo and Yingtai went back home. They lived not far to each other so they always met up. However, the wealthy family asked Yingtai’s family about the marriage and said: ‘Yingtai must be married to their son immediately.’ Yingtai was in love with Shanbo and refused to get married to another man. In order to express her denial of getting married, Yingtai dressed up in her girl’s cloth and met Shanbo. Shanbo was shocked but later fell in love with the real Yingtai. The two wanted to get married by themselves without telling anyone, however, Yingtai’s father found out and prevented Yingtai from seeing Shanbo again. Yingtai became so depressed and were seriously ill. At the day of her wedding to the wealthy family, Yingtai was so weak but she was eager to see Shanbo again. Finally, right before the wedding, Yingtai met Shanbo and she was about to die. However, ‘Bang!’ the two lovers turned into two butterflies suddenly! ”

SH: Wait, what? How?

SS: “Yingtai’s resentment was so strong before she died, so that moved the god on the sky and turned them into two butterflies that can live happily ever after. [laugh]. Oh, I need to correct myself. So it is after Yingtai died, Shanbo went to her grave and cried. His crying moved the god and suddenly, a butterfly flew out from Yingtai’s grave. Then Shanbo became a butterfly too. [laugh].”

 

Context of the performance:

After heard one classmate in ANTH 333 talking about her short paper writing the variations of the Chinese romantic legend “the Story of the Two Butterfly Lovers”, I talked to my Chinese friend SS about it. Then she told me this version that she knows of.

 

My thoughts about the piece:

I didn’t remember much about this romantic legend when I first started this conversation with SS. However, when she was telling me the story, there were so many moments I wanted to correct her, or just to point out that I heard this detail or this plot point differently.

Indeed, there are so many variations on this legend throughout history, and “the Story of the Two Butterfly Lovers” is one of the four Chinese traditional love stories. It is one of the most important intangible cultural heritage of China.

Also, I wanted to point out the ending of the story, when the two lovers turned into butterfly. Butterfly is always used as a motif that symbolized resurrection, which explains why the characters only turn into butterfly after death, or why the butterfly flew out from a grave.

Spring Festival Gala

Background of informant:

My informant SS is an international student from Beijing, China. She lived with her grandparents when she was little.

The conversation was in Chinese.

Main piece:

SS: “My relatives will come gather in my grandparents house every new year eve. They will arrive in different time, due to the whether they live far away or not. My grandpa is always the one who do the cooking. Oh he loves to be the chief, and he doesn’t let anyone enter the kitchen when he’s preparing for the spring festival meal! [laugh] And then when the food is being prepared, my family will start to eat and drink, oh, and we’ll all sit down to watch the Spring Festival Gala! When the meal is all prepared, the gala has already began for like… 1 hour.”

SH: What is that?

SS: “That’s the activity that people always do, like every year, with no exception, on New Year Eve day. It’s a huge showcase rehearsed by CCTV, consigned by Chinese government [SS changed her tone]. [laugh, keep using the flat tone] It’s usually consisted with dancing and singing performance, short plays, magic shows, and so on. And normally, while the show is entertaining the audience, there are central ideology penetrated in the show to educate people [SS made the hand gesture of quote when saying “educate”]. But since the Gala has been operated every new year eve for dozens of years, watching Spring Festival Gala on CCTV has become the habit for middle-age to elder Chinese. I’m thinking most younger people also have the habit to open the TV to watch it…while comments on Weibo (a popular social media in China) at the same time… It’s like we are all so used to watch it. And I do think Spring Festival Gala brings people together, it attracts the family to sit in front of the TV, comments on the show, eat some sunflower seeds, and … just… be together!

 

Context of the performance:

This is a section in our conversation about Chinese Spring Festival.

 

My thoughts about the piece:

Regarding to the fact that China has huge population dispersed in different parts of the country, people live in different regions really have drastically different customs and habits. For example, when talking about what do people eat on New Year Eve, my informant SS provided me a list of food that I never had in my home (I’m from southern part of China while she’s from the North). However, after hearing so many differences of what people do on this country-wide festival, watching Spring Festival Gala is the only habit that can be found in almost every family in every part of China at that dat. And since Spring Festival Gala, as SS pointed out, is a show consigned by Chinese government, this common custom is an example of how institutional products gradually become and being transformed into folklore.

The Jasmine Song

Background of informant: 

My informant SS is an international student from Beijing, China.

The conversation was in Chinese.

Main piece:

SS: “It seems that most of the songs that I learned in middle school choir are Red Songs (Chinese Patriot songs), this one is an exception! [laugh] [pause] Oh, you know what, a part of the play Turandot was actually adapted from The Jasmine Song. ”

SH: Really? How so?

SS: “I remember hearing a story like, the play writer got a Chinese music box as a gift from a friend, and the song played in the box is Jasmine Song.”

SH: How did you know about this song?

SS: “hmm… [pause] it should be when I was really young, probably between kindergarten and elementary school. Maybe I was taught by kindergarten teachers.”

 

Context of the performance:

SS was singing in bath as she always does. I coincidentally heard she singing this familiar Chinese melody one day.

 

My thoughts about the piece:

Though this song, The Jasmine Song, is a familiar folksong all over China, I didn’t realize that there’s a variation of this song which depends on different region of China. Not only is the lyrics changed, the tune is different also. The southern version of the song is with more modification of tune within the song, and the lyric is written in southern dialect, while the northern version is more straightforward and is sang in Mandarin.

Chupacabra

Background of informant:

My informant (AG)’s parents moved from Mexico to Los Angeles before her birth. She speaks Spanish to her parents in home and is surrounded by Mexican culture.

Main piece:

AG: “’Chupa’ translates to ‘suck’, and then ‘cabra’ translates to ‘goat’. Chupacabra is a kind of monster. So in Mexican culture, there’re many farmers or just lots of people who raise animals, and there will be this story like a monster came and sucks the blood of their goats. It’s kind of like our version of ‘Big Foot’, kind of.. [laugh]But again I think the purpose of it is like… maybe for kids, to not go out at night. ‘Don’t go out, cause Chupacabra will suck you to dry!’

SH: How did you know about this goat sucker? [laugh]

AG: “This one, I don’t even know, it’s just … maybe… cause I don’t remember my parents ever telling me. I remember my parents tell me about Cucuy and I remember my cousin talked to me about La Llorona, but Chupacabra I don’t really remember growing up with it, it’s just like another Mexican urban legend, that you kind of learned? But I don’t remember how I learned about it. Oh! I probably got this story in elementary school. So I went to this Latino school where 90 percent of kids are Latino and the rest are other races. In school you learned these stories from other kids. But anyway, no one takes Chupacabra that seriously. Cause Chupacabra, even its name is kind of ridiculous and funny when you’re a kid, you don’t take it that seriously. And part of Mexican culture is that we’re kind of superstitious, so we believe in ghost, but Chupacabra is just a ridiculous monster, it’s even not scary! I remember… [laugh] I think I used to watch, do you know, the animation for Jackie Chen? ”

SH: Yes!

AG: “There is one episode when they went to Mexico and Chupacabra is animated in it.”

SH: What does it look like?

AG: “Just like a wild dog, with the red eyes. When you google it, there’re many versions, but when I think of Chupacabra, it’s like a wild Hyena dog with red eyes. It’s just a big, scary dog, kind of ugly. [laugh]”

 

Context of the performance:

This is a section of the entire conversation of Mexican’s superstition.

 

My thoughts about the piece:

AG really emphasized to me the point that Mexican people are superstitious. When I asked her whether she believed in ghost or not, her standpoint is neutral. But regarding to the fact that many ghost stories and monsters are so popular and well-known in Mexican culture, she believes there’s truth behind them.

Also, I include AG’s comment on why Chupacabra is not as scary as La Llorona in the main piece, which I think is really interesting since it reflects on Mexican people’s preference on different types of legends. Comparing to monsters, which are non-human, they are more interested in legends about ghosts and other creatures in human form or related to human.

The Tale of Nian

Background of informant:

My informant SS is an international student from Beijing, China.

The conversation was in Chinese.

Main piece:

SS: “Once upon a time, there was a village, and villagers were living happily together [Laugh]. One day, a monster whose name is “Nian” (means “year” in Chinese) came to the village and smashed people’s habitat. Something like that. People were so afraid of him. Nian came to the village and committed the massive destruction every year. Finally, the villager couldn’t bear Nian anymore, so they planned to fight back. I think, they went to ask help from an expert.”

SH: Aha!

SS: “This expert told the villagers to hang up red items on their house, like red Chinese couplets (Duilian), and also to light red firecrackers that has huge noise to frighten Nian. Because Nian was afraid of color red and loud sound. And the villagers did that and they successfully frightened Nian away. So every year in New Year Eve, which is the time when Nian comes to destroy, people would hang up red things and light firecrackers.”

SH: How did you know about this story? 

SS: “Elementary school textbook.” [laugh]

 

Context of the performance:

This is a section in our conversation about Chinese Spring Festival.

 

My thoughts about the piece:

When SS talked about the villagers went to find an expert, I reacted with an “Aha” since it reminds me of the help from a donor in Propp’s 31 functions.

The tale of Nian fits into Vladimir Propp’s 31 sequenced functions in tales. Just due to this performance that SS gave, it includes: 3 (Violation of Interdiction) –> 8 (Villainy) –> 9 (Mediation) –> 10 (Beginning Counter-Action) –>12 (First Fuction of the Donor) –> 14 (Receipt of a Magical Agent) –> 16 (Struggle) –> 18 (Victory).

Beside the structuralist approach to Nian’s story, I found the way that my informant learned about this tale somehow tricky. The tale was learned through “elementary school textbook”. Given the definition of folklore as the “official study of unofficial knowledge”, as since textbook, or school, or teacher are more as “official” concepts, this situation is problematic. And this is not the only case. During all of my conversations with Chinese informants, when I asked about how did they know about that folklore piece, the answer always has to do with school or other official institution.