Monthly Archives: May 2018

Chinese New Year

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

What holidays do you celebrate?

“We run this race during Chinese New Year called the firecracker race.  It takes place in Chinatown and there are many runs like kiddie runs and the 5k run or the 10k run.

Every year my family would go and run it and we would always have fun. After the race, by going by stands and getting free food and promotional things.  Then after that we would go to a sandwich store called Philippe’s.”

 Background:

The subject began running this race annually due to the fact her father and brother took part in the race every Chinese New Year.  Normally taking place on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month, Chinese New Year traditionally is known as the spring festival.  Each year is named after one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac of which each is named after.  Traditionally the holiday is celebrated cleaning the house to sweep away bad luck and red envelopes with money are often given from the adults to the children.

Analysis:

It is interesting to see how traditions evolve from one country to another.  Family traditions that change as a result to new environments resulting in unique ways of celebration.

Birthday Noodles

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 55
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Proverb:

“On your birthday you are supposed to eat noodles.  Really long, long noodles.  You almost choked on them.”

 

Background:

My mother told me this custom was passed through the family that was told to her by her family.  According to the folk lore, long noodles were indications of a person’s life span, therefore on the celebration of a birthday, the eating of long noodles represents the wish for the individual’s life to be long and prosperous.  While many no longer believe in the folklore anymore, the symbolism behind this custom becomes a wish of good health and prosperity.

Analysis:

While I distinctly remember that I actually choked on the noodles in this particular event, the retelling of this custom reminded me of the memories from the past.  It is interesting to see how superstitions and folklore can transform to represent something different.  In this example, it becomes a form of tradition that means wishes for a long life.

Qing Ming Jie

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 53
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

“Every year once a year, visit the graveyard of my grandparents.”

So was it like holiday kind of thing?

“Yeah, it was called qing ming jie.  Was for grandma, because grandma died really young.  We would visit and clean the graveyard, and do the incense, and at home we would pray and burn paper money.”

 

Background:

The holiday qing ming jie is a festival known as tomb-sweeping day.  Traditionally taking place on as the 15th day after the spring equinox.  Paper money is often burned to provide the deceased with the ability to be prosperous in the afterlife.   There is an incredible emphasis on the importance of family and ancestors in Taiwanese culture.

Analysis:

This reminds me similarly of countries like Japan who would do similar tasks to pay respects to their ancestors.  Sweeping the grave and leaving flowers were some of the tasks that were carried out.

 

Ghostly Body Press

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 53
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

“There was an Airbnb, short term rental house, in Hengchun where a grad student went there, and geology grad students frequently lived in this house to do their field study, and a few of them where they had feelings of pressure from ghosts.   Some felt like there were bodies laying on them, and they couldn’t move.  And it wasn’t just one.”

 

“And I had that experience before, where I couldn’t move but I was awake.  I figured it was something in my brain that my body hadn’t woken up yet but couldn’t move.  But it wasn’t the same experience.  It was rumors and stories from fellow grad students. In Taiwan it was called gui ya shen (ghost press body).”

 

Background:

According to my father, this was a common urban legend among the geology grad students.  This legend was told to him by upper classmen who also explained there was no known reason why the house was haunted. “Gui ya shen” is the term in Chinese culture that means sleep paralysis.  While my father has had his experience of sleep paralysis before, it seemed the case with the Airbnb, witnesses had felt like it was body pressure on them rather than not being able to move after falling asleep.

Analysis:

I thought the story was intriguing, because the experiences that had taken place were not explained easily with scientific knowledge.  While sleep paralysis requires that the victim was sleeping before it occurred, some reports of these events occurred for students while they were doing everyday tasks.   While the term “gui ya shen” does apply for sleep paralysis in Chinese culture, the symptoms that are listed do not match with the witness accounts from this Airbnb.

Voices in the Fields

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 55
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Have you encountered anything supernatural?

“In the house that I was living in in Sacramento, I had a room that was facing the field and I hear talking.

Gong gong (maternal grandfather) said that there were boys and girls in the field making out, but I could hear people talking in the fields.

I lived there for a year or so. I tried to get away from there as soon as possible”

 

Background:

With a mischievous grin, my mother told me this story from her youth.  She stated that she moved to the United States when she was in high school to Sacramento.  This story comes from when she lived in the attic of her house.  Her family on a farm, where there would be vast stretches of field. From these fields she stated she would hear conversations. She proceeded to finish the story with the thought that maybe people were buried in her parent’s field.  She stated that she believes that spirits exist, and that she felt like she was sensitive to the paranormal.

 

Analysis:

While this strikes me as a scary story, I can’t help but think that there is a scientific reason behind it.  As much as I enjoy the occult and want to believe the hypothesis of the graveyard beneath the corn, chances are, the phenomenon has something to do with the properties of sound.  Sound travels large distances when faced with no interference.  Due to farmland being large expanses of land with few people to create noise, it means that sound can travel farther distances which means that the conversations could be from the next farm over.  While it is an equally interesting theory that the fields could be the resting place of wandering spirits, there were no other reports of haunted farms that had hauntings taking place in the fields.  Most others were events where the house or surrounding buildings were haunted.  Oddly, it seems ghosts don’t like attaching themselves to fields.