Monthly Archives: May 2011

Indian Folk Belief

Nationality: Indian
Age: 53
Occupation: Businessman
Residence: Nashville, Tennessee
Performance Date: February 11th, 2011
Primary Language: Hindi (urdu)
Language: English

“In India, we believe mostly in homoeopathic medicine. After consulting my homeopathic doctor for many years I have picked up on several habits that we in India believe will elongate our life span. One of these includes not drinking water during a meal, only after one hour has passed since you ate your meal that you should drink water. When I asked for the reason for this, my holistic doctor explained by example. Cows, which are believed sacred in India, do not mix water with food. They eat grass as much as they want, and when an hour passes, they find their way to a water source and drink, and so they live a healthy, sacred life, and we should do the same. I follow that tradition to this day. “

I had learned this lovely folk tradition from Mr. Grewal when I had first met him. We were sitting at lunch and I was wondering what drink I should order, and consulting my friend, and his daughter, Ash. Mr. Grewal then explained to me that it is best not to drink anything at all when eating. When I asked why, he described the before mentioned tradition that he had learned from his homeopathic doctor. I found it very fascinating, especially since I had never heard of anything like it before. In fact, I decided to do some research on the matter to see if anywhere else there has been mentions of it and indeed I stumbled upon an article that described the impact of drinking during eating. The article was posted on a site named “The Reluctant Eater” and was written after an interview with Christa Orecchio who had a holistic medicine practice in San Diego. Christa explained, “’ drinking liquid during our meals dilutes our precious digestive enzymes that help us digest and absorb the nutrients in our food. Most Americans (especially if you are eating processed foods) are severely deficient in digestive enzymes which contributes to weight gain, constipation, bloating and overall low energy’”. This brings a more scientific, though still holistic, aspect to the tradition, but it still supports the fact that it exists.

Although I have never considered myself a great believer in holistic medicine, I find facts and traditions like this captivating, and I do believe that some aspects of holistic medicine definitely do work. Yet, I am still confused by the “cow example”, as I am aware of the fact that there is a significant difference from the human digestive system to that of the cow, which makes the comparison less convincing. I tend to believe that as Indian people worship this animal, the holistic doctor saw it as a good way of conveying his message, as I believe cows tend to act this way. And if he gets healthier patients, then this way of convincing them is a blessed one.

Annotation: Wanger, Ryan. “Don’t Drink Water (or Anything Else) During Meals.” The Reluctant Eater — Remember Food? 19 May 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. <http://www.thereluctanteater.com/2009/05/dont-drink-water-or-anything-else-during-meals/>.

Blonde Joke

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: March 15, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

A Red headed woman walks into her teenage daughter’s room and finds cigarrette butts. And she says “Wow I didn’t know my daughter smoked”

A Brunette woman walks into her teenage daughter’s room and finds an empty beer bottle. And she says, “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter drank”

A Blonde woman walks into her teenage daughter’s room and finds a used condom. And she says, “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter had a penis”

My informant first heard this joke in high school from one of her friends. She went to high school in California’s Central Valley, which is a fairly conservative area in the state. But her high school was a very small one filled with students that needed more of an academic challenge in school than the local public high schools provided. The joke is funny because of it’s twist at the end. The first two mothers drew logical conclusions from what they found in their daughters’ rooms. We expect the third mother to do the same and say “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter has been having sex”, but instead she draws an absurd conclusion that she should already know to be false. Which is “Wow, I didn’t know my daughter had a penis”.

I agree with my informant’s explanation as to why the joke is funny. But aside from the obvious surprising twist at the end it also draws on the blonde women are dumb stereotype. It is the blonde woman who sees a condom and assumes that her daughter must have a penis. Both the red hed and the brunette make logical assumptions.

Blonde Joke

Nationality: African American
Age: 49
Occupation: Account Manager
Residence: Fresno, CA
Performance Date: March 28, 2011
Primary Language: English

“There was a convention held to prove that blonde people were not as dumb as everyone believes them to be. So a man stands up in front of an audience filled with only blonde people. He asks one woman, who is also a blonde, to come and stand with him. And he asks the young woman: ‘What is 3+2?’  She thinks for a bit and then replies, ‘umm… 8?’ And the man says ‘Sorry that’s incorrect’ and the crowd yells ‘Give her another chance!’  The man agrees and asks the woman ‘Okay then, what is 1+2?’ Again the young blonde woman thinks and replies, ‘umm…5?’ And the man says ‘Sorry that’s incorrect.’ And the crowd yells ‘Give her another chance!’ The man agrees again, ‘Okay, I’ll give her one more chance, but that’s all. Alright Miss, what is 2+2?’ Immediately the blonde woman says, ‘ Oh, Oh I know that one. It’s 4!’ and the man says ‘That’s correct! Congratulations!’ and the crowd yells ‘Give her another chance!'”

The informant first heard this joke from her daughter, who was in 7th grade at the time. It was during the era when Dumb Blonde jokes were really popular. She remembers finding the joke really funny when she first heard it. The joke is funny because the stereotype suggests that blonde people and especially blonde women are stupid. In this joke the young woman is unable to answer the first two math questions, supposedly because she is a dumb blonde. But when she finally manages to answer the third and final question correctly, the crowd who is also made up of blondes isn’t aware of the fact that she answered correctly and demands that she be given another chance because they are also “dumb blondes”.

I also believe this to be the reason that people find this joke funny. Blonde women have been historically considered very attractive and beautiful. Someone who was a natural blonde was not very common and their beauty was a rare beauty. However this led to the stereotype that blondes can get by on their good looks and don’t need to be intelligent to get through life. So basically they are all beauty and no brain. People probably like to tell these jokes and encourage the stereotype because it gives them an ego boost. They might feel that if some people are lucky enough to be born beautiful, it’s only fair that they have to trade their intelligence in exchange for their beauty. An average person may not be all that beautiful or all that smart and while they realize that they are not as beautiful as these blondes they can take comfort in knowing that they are at least much smarter than them.

“Gook” and “Tianmu” Origination Legend/Starcraft and Koreans.

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Room 4203B, 920 W. 37th PL. Los Angelos, California 90007
Performance Date: 4/22/2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

My informant is a third generation Chinese American male student. He grew up in Irvine, California. During dinner in a shopping center, he mentioned the following origination legend of the word “gook” (He was eating Korean food, which prompted his anecdote):

“Informant: Ok, so, why are Koreans called gooks?

Collector: Why?

Informant: Well, during the Korean War, the South Korean troops would applaud the American soldiers when they came walking through the fields to liberate them and they’ll cry out, “Megook! Megook!”, which means “America” in Korean. However, the American soldiers, in all their wisdom, felt that the Korean soldiers were identifying themselves as gook, “me gook”; hence they started calling them gooks. So the Koreans are called me “gook!”, me “gook!”. “Oh, you call yourself gook! I get it, you guys are all gooks!”

Collector: Ok, so where did you hear this?

Informant: I heard it from my Korean friends.

Collector: Do you know where he heard it from?

Informant: He’s Korean [laughter]. He was probably born knowing this story, kind of like how he was born knowing how to play Starcraft, and born knowing that they created the sundial.

Collector: [laughter] Well, what do you think is the importance of that little tidbit of history?

Informant: The term “gook” is often used to apply to Southeast Asian populations, as well as Koreans. This kind of says that Koreans are indeed number 1.”

This legend is set during the Korean War from 1950 – 1953 and explains the origination of the racial slur “gook”. My informant’s tone of voice implies that the Americans are, as he says, liberators (“the good guys”) but nonetheless foolish. The foolishness of the American soldiers lies in their assumption that everyone speaks English and in their misunderstanding of the Korean that the Koreans are speaking. The legend suggests that the American soldiers hold a sort of bigoted assumption that everyone naturally speaks English.

Interestingly, I, myself, have heard a variation of this legend in 2005 from a cram school math teacher in Tianmu, Taipei, Taiwan. Here’s a bit of background on me: I’m a third generation Chinese Taiwanese male student who was born in Taipei, Taiwan. I speak English and Chinese. I lived in Taipei for two years before moving to New Jersey, where I lived for seven years. After that, I returned to Taipei where I finished high school.

My cram school math teacher performed this legend as a joke item in between math tests.

For more information on Tien-mu, click this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianmu,_Shilin_District.

As I remember, the story goes:

“Do you know where the name Tianmu comes from? Back in the 1960s, when American Soldiers occupied Tianmu, they would come into the fields and ask the Taiwanese farmers, “Where are we?” But, the Taiwanese farmers, unable to understand English, said, “Tee-yah-buo?” (‘Tee-yah-buo’ means ‘I don’t understand’ in Taiwanese), “Tee-yah-buo?”. The American Soldiers misunderstanding the farmers said, “Oh! Tian-mu! Tian-mu. Ok. OK.” Hence, Tianmu is called Tianmu.”

*My cram school math teacher performed the legend in Chinese; however, it’s been too long for me to remember the exact way he performed it.*

Both my informant and my legend deal with post-world war affairs in East Asian. While the “gook ” legend originated during or after the Korean War, the “Tianmu” legend originated during or after the American occupation of Taiwan in the 1950s, when the U.S was still fighting the Pacific front. However, the story could have also possibly originated in the 1960s when U.S soldiers stayed in Tianmu to help the reconstruction of Taipei’s economy. The legends both show a cultural remembrance in how the U.S shaped East Asia in the 1950s to 1960s post world war II and overall, portray the Americans as a positive influence yet foolish in their approach. Moreover, the tone both the legends were performed do suggest a sort of respect for the work the American soldiers did in Korea and Taiwan.

Another interesting thing my informant mentioned in his performance of the “gook” legend was:

“kind of like how he was born knowing how to play Starcraft, and born knowing that they created the sundial.”

There seems to be a widespread belief on the internet and in online gaming folk culture that Koreans are really good at Starcraft, a online real time strategy game. A simple Google search on “koreans are good at starcraft” yields 2,770,000 results.  More information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft_II:_Wings_of_Liberty.

Also, there seems to be a widespread belief that  Koreans think they invented everything, hence my informant mentions that his Korean friend was born knowing that his country created the sundial, which is not a widespread belief. A quick Google search on “koreans invented everything” yields 2,670,000 results. This is possibly a result of widespread rumors of legal claims that Korea has made to the World Heritage Foundation on several cultural artifacts, which are generally considered Chinese cultural items, such as Confucius, soybean milk and the Dragonboat festival…etc.

A Variation on Macbeth Superstition

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Room 4203A, 920 W. 37th PL. Los Angelos, California 90007
Performance Date: 3/28/2011
Primary Language: English

My informant grew up in Los Angelos. His father is from the Michigan and his mother is from Indonesia. He performed the following variation on the Macbeth theater superstition during a casual hangout with a friend group:

“Informant: So the myth is amongst theater professionals that if you say the word Macbeth, it depends on how serious you are, sometimes people say on stage, in the theater, the most serious people won’t ever say the word, they’ll say ‘Mac B.’ or the ‘The Great Scottish Tragedy’ or whatever because it’s bad luck in the theater, because there’s all kinds of weird superstitions around the theater and I was taught this by my technical theater teacher who was also a guy who had been in it for years and years and years and he was running like an introductory group kids at school called Shakespeareans or Shakespeare Plays. And he to-told them about the rule about how you’re supposed to never say Macbeth and like some kid in the front row like was being a joke and during an entire performance, he kept saying Macbeth, Macbeth just trying to scare the actors and when the intermission came and the lights went down, a light crashed from the ceiling and landed right in front of this kid…and like, it would have killed him if it landed on him, like a huge light, that had never fallen before and never had any problems just like crashed right in front of him and that’s sort of the reason that I’ve been given to believe in the Macbeth rumors that some dark force will drop a light on you if you say it.”

The Macbeth superstition is common among theater groups. The rule remains the same: “Don’t say Macbeth”, but there are many variations on what happens to people when they say it or what one is supposed to do if they say it by accident. In my informant’s story, he attributes the reason for the light crashing to the “dark force” or curse behind the Macbeth superstition and furthermore, he changed from a non-believe of the superstition to a believer after “witnessing it in action”. My informant repeated emphasizes the safety of the light before the accident and after the accident to make his audience (a group of friends) believe that it was truly Macbeth that caused the accident. Ultimately, this is a good example of a personal account that adds to an already existent pool of knowledge that surrounds a superstition or belief, much like how UFO stories add to each other.