JL: “I’ve been Chinese for 23 years. Every year my family in the beginning of May wraps sticky rice in, I think, banana leaves? It’s either banana leaves or another type of leaf. My grandma did it, but now she’s too old, so my mom does all of it now. I help my mom wrap the rice. There’s a story behind it- Why we do this tradition. There was this married couple, and the man fell into a river, and there’s, like, fish inside. His wife made the wrapped sticky rice to feed the fish so that they wouldn’t eat her husband. So, that’s just kind of a fun story. Its sticky rice usually filled with cured meat and sausage and mushrooms and mung beans and peanuts. It’s like a comfort food. Mom freezes it. I have some in the freezer, and I ate it recently. It’s portable. It’s easy to heat up. It lasts a while.”

Interviewer: “who who told you that story?”

JL: My mom told me it multiple times. I heard it in Chinese school. It’s a very common Folktale slash Uh, story, cultural story. In Chinese culture, there’s a lot of meaning behind a lot of things. Every word has a story behind it. Every holiday has a story behind it. People speak in idioms with stories behind it. So that’s important.”

Context: The informant considers herself very close with her Chinese heritage. She is a first gen USC CS games student, and has noted that Chinese traditions rituals, beliefs and culture play a big part in her everyday life. She has a lot of experience cooking, specifically Northern Chinese food, and really enjoys this specific comfort meal.

Analysis: Because the story is rooted in reality, I think this would fall into the Legends category. This cultural Foodway tradition of making this specific meal on a certain day of the month is a big reinforcement of Chinese identity. The informant learned this through an institution, Chinese school, reenforcing the popularity and importance of this story in Chinese culture. The fact that most holidays and rituals are paired with a narrative or story shows how these traditions have adapted in order to be kept alive, even across generations, since the “origin” of this Legend and food started thousands of years ago. Looking at this through a functionalist lens, this story also solidifies this specific food item’s importance. Zongzi metaphorically saved this mans life, is also portable, easy to store, yummy to eat, and filled with nutrient heavy foods, reenforcing how nourishing it is for those who make and eat it.