Author Archives: bdevera@usc.edu

Don’t Point at the Moon

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 23, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as MW.

MW: My mom told me not to point at the moon. I don’t know why, but she said that if you point at the moon with your hand, your ear will get cut off.

BD:Where did your mom get this belief?

MW: Her mom told her, like my grandma.

BD: Your mom’s from Taiwan, right?

MW: But my grandma is from China.

BD: Is this belief common? Like, do other people believe in it?

MW: I think it’s common, in Taiwan.

 

Analysis:
Upon researching this piece of folklore further, I found that there is a story that accompanies this belief. The goddess of the moon is angered when she is pointed at, because that is disrespectful to her. As a punishment, she will cut off the pointer’s ear in their sleep. A Taiwanese publication includes this belief in list of some more surprising superstitions: http://focustaiwan.tw/news/afav/201603200005.aspx.

City Kid Morals

Nationality: African American
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing, Artist
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2018
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as WC.

WC: This is just—a, a little banter between different moral codes that exist within my own consciousness because I come from an environment in which the law of the land may be one thing, but how I feel on the inside is an entirely different set of morals. To survive this environment, you do have to adopt the law of the land. The saying goes “the boys outside are takin’ lives, but can’t run and hide. Say if you’re scared, go to church, but they’ll put me in the dirt if I testify.” Which basically just means that things happen that may be a little scary but you’re living in an environment that if you try to tell on somebody because something scares you, the scariest thing possible can probably happen to you. That level of paranoia kinda, maybe sometimes will guide people away from their nature. You know? Because there’s usually problems that we want to solve, but people run from problems because they don’t want more problems.

BD: Did you come up with this?

WC: No, the words I came up with, but the idea is something that has existed generations before I was even a twinkle in my parents’ eyes.

 

This is the second piece of folklore I collected from this particular informant, and it is interesting how his folk beliefs seem to center around karma and attitudes towards what will happen in the future and what is under one’s own control. This particular belief is one that stems from his life growing up in Oakland, where he witnessed a lot of violence and crime. He did not want to share specifics or allow me to record, but he did relate that it was rough growing up in the inner city, and as a result he coined this saying, which embodies a few of the ideas and “rules” of growing up in such a place.

 

Creative Karma

Nationality: African American
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing, Artist
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2018
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as WC.

WC: This other theory that my father received from my grandfather, and it’s very simple, I think many people share this same perspective. He believes—because my father is a creative, and my grandfather was a creative and a professor—that when he gets a new or innovative idea, and they speak it into the universe but they do not act on it, it opens the door and someone within a very short time span will act on that idea and receive all the credit for it. Like my dad wrote music. He would write a song and sing it for people and let them hear it, but never actually record the song and put it out there. The he’d hear a song eerily similar on the radio. This theory basically teaches you to act on your ideas and instincts that you have. And honestly I can’t say they’re wrong!

BD: So you would say you believe this theory too?

WC: Yeah, I have evidence in the universe that I’ve thought about things that didn’t in fact begin to manifest, and then it manifested without me.

Analysis:
While this is a bit of a downer belief, it does push those who believe it to execute their ideas. It is interesting how it runs through a family with creative vocations and modes of thought. It is likely they would not have held onto this belief if they had not been in the arts.

 

Pork and Parasites

Nationality: African American
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing, Artist
Residence: Oakland, CA
Performance Date: April 18, 2018
Primary Language: English

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as WC.

WC: My father has an interesting theory about eating pork. Especially because of my own personal beliefs, I don’t believe in eating pork, and he says he know that pork can carry parasites, but parasites don’t eat pork. So his stomach will be fine. I don’t know if it’s some type of weird reverse osmosis type of situation going on, but he believes that because he eats pork, and worms don’t eat pork, pork being in his stomach protects his stomach from worms.

BD: Did he get this from one of his parents?

WC: One of his older mentors, when he was growing up, just had all types of quirky theories about a lot of things.

Analysis:
This is an interesting logical fallacy that instated itself as a personal system of belief. It is also interesting how the informant is now vegan, rather than a eater of pork, like his father. There is also not much scientific backing to it, which explains why the younger generation is hesitant to believe in it. However, both the informant’s father and his mentor believed in it, showing that there is some hold to this belief.

Eating All Your Rice Yields a Clean-Faced Spouse

Nationality: Vietnamese, American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 17, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Vietnamese

The interviewer’s initials are denoted through the initials BD, while the informant’s responses are marked as MT.

BD: So tell me about why your mom always tells you to eat everything.

MT: In Vietnam, if you don’t finish your bowl of rice, the number of rice grains left in your bowl corresponds with the amount of acne on your spouse’s face. My mom believes this superstition. I don’t know where she learned it from. It’s common among most Asian cultures.

BD: Does everyone in your family believe it?

MT: Yeah, pretty much. Though it’s silly, I think it’s one of those things you never acknowledge, but you try to maintain. But I’m mostly just hungry. So I eat everything anyways.

 

Analysis:
I had heard a similar idea from my mother, and I found it interesting to hear the same idea in another culture. Though most people here in America say to finish all your food, because there are people who go without, this is an entirely different perspective on a reason to finish food. This belief also reinforces the values of Vietnamese culture, the future-orientation towards one’s future spouse.