Monthly Archives: May 2023

The Crushed Lady

Nationality: Chinese-American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 26, 2023
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Text: “So, my mom told me this story. Back when she was younger, she worked on this project in China, and they had to knock down a mountain to do it. But the mountain is a village and people dug out holes in the mountain to live there. So, the people had to flatten the mountain, but one of the construction workers accidentally flattened a woman. And legend has it, people say, the man suddenly switched up and started talking in the woman’s voice. He said, in a woman’s voice, “Who just flattened me?” and then he would switch back to his own voice and the two voices began to have a conversation. They eventually started talking about how they would get together: the woman said that because he flattened her no one would date her, but the man told her that he would. This was terrifying to everyone who saw it, so they took him to a hospital, but no one could help him there. Then they took him to a shaman who couldn’t do anything either. Finally, they went to a butcher who took out two really big knives and hit them against the ground, telling the spirit of the woman to get out, after which the woman finally left and stopped talking. Afterwards, the man snapped out of it and had no idea what happened.”   

Context: The informant is a 19-year old Chinese-American student who heard this story from her mother a few months ago, who was present at the time and place in which it took place. She would not disclose the location where the story took place out of fear that the story was cursed and something bad might happen to her if she revealed any more details. 

Analysis: This supposed firsthand account expresses some very interesting attitudes towards ghosts. In spite of the perceived curse surrounding this story, and how terrified the informant recalls her mother being when she told it to her, I cannot help but wonder if the story would have been even more terrifying and difficult to digest had the woman just been crushed, an innocent life, accidentally and irreversibly taken. Ülo Valk describes that ghosts can be a way for people to process difficult, confusing, and upsetting realities. Perhaps, this ghost story was actually an attempt to assuage the horror of sudden death that the story describes by having the woman live on in the consciousness of the man that killed her. It is also fascinating to consider how the woman’s spirit was removed from the body of the man. Both a hospital and a shaman–traditional sources of healing in most societies–were useless in helping him. It was, as a matter of fact, a butcher, a known facilitator of death, quite the opposite of healing, that was able to successfully exorcize the woman’s spirit. Perhaps, the butcher is symbolic of the very reality that the story refuses to acknowledge: the acceptance of death. I believe the subliminal message in this legend is that death is a harsh, blunt reality, and despite our attempts to lessen its blow by conjuring up spirits or magical awakenings, that reality will never change, and we can only fully heal once we have accepted it in its purest form. This belief may also be rooted in Chinese Buddhist practices where the belief in samsara (traditionally a Sanskrit term), continuous death and rebirth, is widely accepted. According to samsara, no one truly dies, your spirit merely transfers from one form to another, and this story may represent a malfunction in that process, hence why it is viewed as cursed. 

What Comes Around Goes Around

Nationality: American
Age: 63
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Residence: Aubrey, TX
Performance Date: March 26, 2023
Primary Language: English

Text: “So to start, there was a medium-sized town–a long time ago–and there were a few wealthy patrons and some poor people on the outskirts. Some of the wealthier people thought of themselves as above all the poor people who they thought were lazy and didn’t deserve anything. So, there was this guy and his wife riding a horse drawn carriage back home after church, and there was this old lady standing in the road that had her hand out begging for food. The guy who was driving the carriage wasn’t watching and almost hit her, causing her to fall into a ditch. Instead of getting out and helping her up, he just tossed a six-pence at her and then just drove off, thinking “She deserved her lot in life.” However, the old lady was a type of witch, and she put a curse on him. As time went by, the guy noticed that all of his business dealings started crashing, and eventually his business went so bad that he went bankrupt and lost his house, and his wife divorced him. He lost everything, and as he got older and more and more feeble, he had to turn to begging. One day, he was begging on the same road that he first encountered the witch, and this motor vehicle came by and almost hit him and knocked him into the mud. And as he’s laying there in the mud, starving and half drowning, he’s thrown a six-pence by the passing car–the same one he gave the old lady.”  

Context: The informant is a 63 year-old man who was told this story by his grandmother as a child to learn about how treating others poorly might come back to bite you. His maternal grandmother had an ancestral connection to the Salem Witch Trials, which was when this story took place. 

Analysis: This is another example of how a legend can perform an intended social function or reinforce important messages. This story was told to the informant as a child and was meant to instill in him the importance of treating others with dignity and respect. It encapsulates a number of universal messages that every child learns, such as “treat others the way you want to be treated” and, more importantly, “what comes around goes around” (which the informant not surprisingly used as a title). The story is particularly effective at communicating these messages to children especially through its use of polarities and narrative symmetry. The use of polarities and clearly-defined extremes can resonate more effectively with a child who tends to process and understand the world in terms of binaries and in less of a nuanced way. The wealthy man who rapidly descends the socioeconomic ladder to the status of a beggar represents a very clear contrast in order to communicate to a younger audience the consequences of acting insensitively and allows no confusion in terms of portraying his actions as having a starkly negative outcome (the man is “starving and half-drowning” at the end). The story’s moral is likewise reinforced through its narrative symmetry. The legend has an organic ending that perfectly mirrors the way it began, coming full circle as the positions of the old lady and the man are reversed. The old lady, now, is the one throwing change in an identical act to the man in the beginning. The message “What comes around goes around” is thus inherent on an intuitive structural level in the story, where, quite literally, a coin being thrown inevitably gets tossed back. On this level, the message “What comes around goes around” can potentially be translated as “What gets thrown gets tossed back.” This legend is definitely useful for children as it anchors the message in a clear, concrete action that serves as the tangible thematic framework for the entire story. The tactile element of the coin and use of simple binaries throughout the story would naturally appeal to children, so it is no surprise that the informant’s grandmother chose a story like this in order to convey an important life lesson to her young grandchildren. If this story was indeed passed down from the Salem Witch Trials, it may have also been very effective at frightening children (and even adults) who were indoctrinated by the Church into believing in malevolent witches and compelling them to abide by Christian teachings, such as philanthropy and loving your neighbor as yourself. 

The Legend of the Hook

Nationality: American
Age: 63
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Residence: Aubrey, TX
Performance Date: March 26, 2023
Primary Language: English

Text:

Informant: “The story happens in a small town, and there’s a small darkened road that teenagers would go down and park along to kiss and make out. So, the story follows these two teenagers who are parked alongside the road and start to get a little amorous…”

Collector: “Do we know anything about the identities of the two teenagers?”

Informant: “They were just two young kids from the local high school that haven’t been dating for long; they’re very innocent and new to the dating scene, so the whole situation is exciting for them. Anyhow, they’re out, things are starting to get hot and heavy, but they hear some noises out in the woods. The guy rolls down the window and asks, “Hey, is anybody out there? Do you need help?” There’s no response, so they just go back to making out. A few minutes go by, and they hear the same noises again, and the kid rolls down the window and again asks if anyone’s out there. The girl tells him, “Why don’t you go out and take a look?” and so he goes out and looks around the car and sees nothing. He gets back in and rolls up the window, but they hear yet another noise, and this time it sounds even closer, so they start to get concerned. They realize how late it is and decide to head home, and on the way home, they turn on the radio. On the radio they hear that a mass murderer had just escaped from a nearby mental institution and was on the loose. The broadcast described the man as having one defining feature: a hook for one of his hands. And so they’re like, “Oh, well, at least we’re out of that area.” So they drive home, and when they stop in front of the house, the guy gets out to open the door for her, and there on her door handle is a hook.”

Context: The informant is a 63 year-old man who was told this story by his grandmother as a teenager when she was cautioning him against staying out late at night. The informant said that the legend accurately referenced a mental hospital that was close to where he lived as a boy in upstate New York. He explained that the moral is that you can be much closer to danger than you think, and that you should trust your instincts whenever you feel like something isn’t right.

Analysis: Legends can function as a powerful social tool, and this story is a prime example of the kinds of effects that they can have. Legends typically intersect with both reality and some supernatural or extraordinary element(s), which can blend together to become powerful persuasive devices. In this case, this story was used to scare teenagers into behaving responsibly, and I will attempt to analyze how it does so, taking into account the distinctive western context that it is situated in. Teenagers often have a reputation for being fearless and reckless in their behavior, and many American teens, especially, are heavily influenced by the American education system, which arguably prioritizes rational thought and critical inquiry and de-emphasizes superstition and blind adherence to belief. As a result, it is reinforced in many American teens and adolescents with traditional schooling to be skeptical of fantastical monsters and stories. Thus, in an attempt to use storytelling as a method of persuasion for teens, it helps to incorporate some tangible aspect of reality for credence, which legends as a narrative form tend to have. Therefore, in teens, the legend would seem to be particularly effective over myths and tales, which are understood by most at their age as not factually true. The manipulation of reality in “The Hook” is particularly effective here, referencing a real location–a mental asylum–where criminals were really known to be held, in order to give the story a greater rhetorical weight and degree of plausibility. The supernatural element, a deranged man from the asylum, blends so seamlessly with the factual details of the story that I see how it would be highly useful in persuading a skeptical, rebellious teenager (as my informant once was) into avoiding staying out late at night.

The Cure for Sty

Background:
The informant is a 50-year-old Taiwanese woman. When asked about a folk medicine that she knows, she told the collector about the cure for sty that was taught by her parents. The collection happened via a video call.

Text:
Informant: Oh I can think about one. Do you know about the cure for sty? You know, the little bumpy thing that you sometimes grow on your eyelids, and it’s almost like a blister or like a pimple? We always say that if you have a sty, you must have looked at something bad, like peeking at another person in the shower or seeing something sexual.

Collector: Yes. So what is the cure for that?

Informant: Well, you can definitely go to a doctor. They would tell you it’s an infection, poke a hole to drain the liquid, and prescribe you antibiotics and stuff. When I was little, it was not easy to get to a doctor, but kids at my time loved playing in muddy places, getting sand all over their faces, and just getting really dirty while playing. We get styes all the time and our parents would tell us to do this certain move to cure the sty. Let’s say you have a sty on your right eyelid. You use your opposite hand, in this case, your left hand, go behind your head, and pull the corner of your infected eye and the sty would go away in a few days.

Collector: Why not just use the hand on the same side?

Informant: I don’t really know. That’s just how I was told.

Collector: Is this effective?

Informant: Well, honestly, I think sty goes away on its own, with or without interference, but in my experience, it did work, multiple times. So I would say yes.

Analysis:
This cure for sty is a sort of folk remedy in Taiwanese culture, in which styes are seen as a consequence of looking at “dirty” things. Therefore, the cure described in the text can be viewed as a conversion utilizing homeopathic magic. The action of pulling the corner of the eye can flatten the bump that a sty would cause, symbolizing what the person’s eye would look like when there is no sty anymore. It is also fascinating to see how people connect actual dirt or bacteria with the idea of “dirty” sexual content.

月老紅線 Red Thread from the God of Love

Background:
The informant is a 21-year-old woman who lives in Taiwan. She went to a temple and asked the God of Love for a red thread to stop bad relationships from happening. The interview was conducted through a video call.

Text:
Collector: Can you tell me more about the red thread from the God of Love?

Informant: Yeah, of course. The red thread from the God of Love represents the marriage that is meant to be in your destiny. In our culture, there’s this idea of 緣分 [yuan fen] which is roughly the idea of fate in terms of love and marriage. It’s often described as an invisible string that connects two people who belong to each other. The red thread represents the right 緣分, and it will stop other bad or just not meant to be relationships from happening. 

Collector: How do you get a red thread from the God of Love?

Informant: You have to ask for one from the God of Love 月老 [yue lao]. You bring sweet snacks to the temple and put them in front of the altar. You take these things called 筊 [jiao] which are two red moon-shaped wooden pieces that can indicate what the gods and goddesses trying to say. You list out what you are looking for in your future partner and toss the pieces. If you get yes 3 times consecutively, you can get a red thread from the God of Love. I got mine from one of the biggest temples in the city. Your parents can ask for one for you as well, but you should only have one with you at all times. If you own more than one, the old one needs to be burnt in the furnace in the temple after you get permission from the God of Love. 

Collector: What do you do with the thread you have?

Informant: They used to say that you should tie it on your wrist. However, the staff in the temple told me to keep mine in my wallet and make sure I look at it often. She said don’t tie it because it would mean that there will be 結 ([jie]; knots) which represent 劫 ([jie]; obstacles or disasters).

Collector: Will anything happen when you find the right person?

Informant: When they used to tie it on the wrist, they said that it would break and fall when you find the right person. But I don’t think this is the case anymore. What I’ve heard is that you will lose the tread somehow. 

Analysis:
The religious life in Taiwan is mostly a mixture of Buddhism and Taoism. Though the God of Love 月老 mentioned by the informant is a Taoist god, the practice of asking for a red thread is a part of vernacular religion. People who would want to go through the process of earning a red thread are often feeling lost or frustrated about their dating life. The red thread acts as a guiding light in their search for their happily ever after or reassurance from a higher being that the owner’s love life is being taken care of. Owning a red thread is homeopathic magic because it symbolizes the invisible string that connects one to the right person. Jiao bei, sometimes called moon blocks, which are the red wooden indicative pieces are really amusing in the sense that the sign from gods is quite straightforward. It is also worth noting that the name 月老 or the full-name 月下老人 means the old man under the moon (Full moon), this ties back to the common connection of full moon and fertility since the god is mainly in charge of marriage.