Author Archives: Amy Kao

Mole-ster

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

Text:

“What do you call 6.022 times 10 to the 23… wait I messed up. Why did the 6.022 times 10 to the 23rd ester get arrested? Because it was a mole-ster!”

Background:

My informant doesn’t remember where he heard this from, but it’s his favorite Chemistry joke.

Context:

This is a joke that is usually said in a casual setting between friends since it is slightly crude.

Personal Thoughts:

This joke is probably spread between people of higher intelligence, since it does require basic Chemistry knowledge to understand. It’s a bit crude, which is an interesting juxtaposition against the topic of Chemistry, but that’s probably why the punch line is unexpected.

Trees are Pretty Fucking Beautiful

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

Text:

“I think I shall never see a poem as pretty as tree.”

Background:

My informant heard this quote from his aunt when he was 10, randomly. He thinks that it means that nature can do amazing things, and people can never make thing as nice. He said that it’s probably a “hippie thing”. He still likes it although he doesn’t think about it all the time because it rhymes and it still makes sense. “Trees are pretty fucking beautiful, and I’m not a huge fan of poetry.”

Context:

My informant’s aunt would say this to him randomly while he was growing up.

Personal Thoughts:

It’s hard to analyze this saying without knowing the informant’s aunt, but I think his interpretation seems pretty plausible. I’m not sure if his aunt made this up herself, or heard it from somewhere else.

UC Berkeley Superstitions

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

Text:

“At UC Berkeley, there’s a 4.0 hill that if you roll down it, you’ll get a 4.0. It’s near the middle of campus that’s called The Glade. There’s also a university seal on the ground that you can’t step on or else you’ll get bad grades. It’s also next to the glade, and it’s hard to miss because it’s really big. But people are actually scared of stepping on it, and go out of their way to go around it.

Background:

My informant heard this from a Berkely student when she was visiting in high school. She doesn’t know when the superstitions started, but she thinks it probably started as a joke.

Context: 

This superstition is passed around the Berkeley campus from students.

Personal Thoughts:

I think this superstition really shows Berkeley’s culture that’s centered around grades, and the effort that students will go through in order to earn good grades. There’s a lot of academic competition there, and students are almost obsessed with earning high grades. Because of this, I think it’s natural that superstitions were started surrounding this obsession.

Taiwanese Lantern Festival

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

Text:

“I’m not sure about the history behind it, but there’s a lantern festival that happens in Taiwan. People write wishes on a paper lantern, light a candle in it, and let it go. Nowadays it happens all throughout the year, but historically it was a specific season, but I don’t remember exactly which day. A specific township in Taiwan is known for this, so now tourists come to do it. Tangled shows it… a lot of cultures may have lantern festivals but I think that’s what Tangled was based on. Lanterns can be pretty big, as tall as my torso, and multiple people may share a lantern” Represents belief in greater being, writing wish and sending it to the sky will make it come true. Never done it herself. But heard about it visiting Taiwan. Multiple people per lantern, can be pretty big. Size of torso.

Background:

My informant believed that it represents belief in greater being, so writing a wish and sending it to the sky will make it come true. She’s never done it herself, but she’s heard about it while visiting Taiwan.

Context:

This festival happens in Taiwan, annually.

Personal Thoughts:

I believe the lantern festival happens in various countries in Asia, and that is indeed what the Tangled lantern scene is based on. It’s an interesting part of Asian culture that has been globalized through movies, and tourism.

You can see more about the festivals here: http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2010/11/where-tangled-animators-found-their.html

Facial Blemishes and Leftover Rice

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/29/14
Primary Language: English

Text:

“If you don’t clean your plate of food, typically rice, then your spouse’s face will have a lot of blemishes.”

Background:

My informant was told this belief by her mom. She would tell it to all of her siblings when they were kids. She thinks that her mom just used this to motivate her kids to not be wasteful with their food.

Context:

Usually, parents would tell their kids this at the dinner table when they said that they were done eating, but still had food left on their plate.

Personal Thoughts:

I think this belief or saying represents the values of not being wasteful, and the importance of marriage in Chinese culture. I’ve also been told a variation of this by my parents, but instead of my spouse’s face having blemishes, she told me that my face would have blemishes, in exactly the pattern of the rice that was left on my plate.