Author Archives: ivyhong

Praying to Keep the Devil Away

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/21/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese, Japanese

The informant shared this information at my request. They told me about an exchange they had with their Catholic neighbour.

 

They said that their neighbour told them that if they didn’t pray each night, the devil would come for them. Although their neighbour was four years younger than them, the informant says they were still “young and gullible,” so they prayed for a while and signed crosses over themselves. The informant said they only stopped when they realized they were not religious.

 

I thought it was interesting how they easily accepted their neighbour’s words, even if they were both children.

 

This also connects to vernacular religion; the informant also said they made cross signs before doing arbitrary things for luck.

 

Ten Brothers

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 43
Occupation: Esthetician
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/23/16
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

The informant gave out the following piece of folklore at my request. They are of Chinese descent, and the setting was casual.

 

They told me about a Chinese legend, called “Ten Brothers.” This, as the title suggests, is about ten brothers who each developed supernatural powers. They say they do not not remember all of the brothers and their associated ability, but the ones that they did recall are as listed:

  • A brother that can tunnel through ground
  • A brother that can blow large gusts of wind
  • A brother that can hear things from far away
  • A brother that can see things far away
  • A brother that can cry enough tears to drown people

The powers of the other brothers are as followed:

  • A brother that has great strength
  • A brother that has the ability to stretch, as well as invincibility
  • A brother that can grow incredibly tall
  • A brother that can fly
  • A brother that has an iron head


What attracted me to this legend was how the brothers’ powers looked like modern day superpowers. While strength enhancement and such is something quite common— Heracles from Greek mythology easily comes to mind— I am not aware of other Chinese legends where the protagonists have powers.

Breaking Noodles

Nationality: African-Taiwanese American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/21/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

The informant shared this piece when I told them about this project and asked if they knew any folklore. The setting was casual, and the informant is of Taiwanese and African descent.

 

Can you explain the superstition behind breaking noodles?

 

“Um… when you’re cooking noodles, it’s bad luck to break them. Because, um in like Asian cultures… noodles represent longevity or long life so… if you break them, you’re cutting your life short so to speak.“

 

Variations of this superstition can be found across multiple cultures. For example, an old Chinese food superstition is that cutting, or biting off noodles as you eat them during the New years is bad luck for the same reasons as noted above. One can also draw connections to the Fates of Greek Mythology, where life is represented by a string; the third sister cuts the string to mark when the person will die.

 

An argument can also be made that this is representative of homeopathic magic, as the noodles represent life.

粽子 and the Dragon Boat Festival

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/24/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese

The informant is of Chinese descent and shared this piece at my request. It was an informal environment.

 

Tell me about the story behind 粽子  (zongzi or jung) and the Dragon Boat Festival.

 

“So there was this guy who tried to warn his leader about this- this army that was gonna attack him and their, their little town or whatever but he didn’t believe him so the guy ran away and he committed suicide in this river and the people realized he was right and they felt bad. So they threw-, um they threw the jung inside the river to feed his spirit.”

 

The informant said they remember this well because they had read about it recently online. People tend to overlook what happens in their everyday life because it feels ordinary to them. While festivals and their origins are already one of the more obvious examples of folklore, reading something online seems to present the information in a more formal setting than if it was told in passing. This may cause the audience to be more conscious of its significance. In this case, the informant had not considered zong to be something too notable beyond how it is something fairly unique to certain Asian cultures.

 

Annotation: As it turns out, this is merely half of the legend in some variations. Other variations have another half where a water dragon starts eating the zong and the spirit has to come back and tell the town to wrap the sticky rice in bamboo leaves.


Lee-St.John, Jeninne. “The Legends Behind the Dragon Boat Festival.” Smithsonian. Smithsonian, 14 May 2009. Web.

Gravity Hill

Nationality: American
Occupation: Student
Residence: Sonoma, California
Performance Date: 4/10/16
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant and I were on the same hike. They were talking to a friend about this place close to their hometown when I asked if I could record them.

 

So tell me about the urban legend around Gravity Hill.

 

“So the place is called Gravity Hill because it like, defies gravity and your car- if you put it in neutral and drive up the hill- And the myth behind it is that there was this school bus filled with like little children going down the mountain, and then…. went like off the cliff because it’s… just like not a very safe driving route. Um… all the kids died, and like the kids are there, and will like push your car… up the mountain.

 

And like some people say that if you put like flour on your car… um while it’s going uphill, you’ll see like little handprints, but I think it’s like not at all true and have never put flour on my car.”


I thought that this was an interesting piece; it has a fun, “classic” ghost story, and audiences can choose to undergo a quest of sorts to test the validity of this urban legend. I am also reminded of when the class talked about how the general environment and setting influences one’s willingness to believe in ghosts and ghost stories in that moment. While they might not believe in this specific ghost story, the informant seems quite open to the idea of ghosts in general. On a separate occasion, they described a certain building as haunted; they were walking through it alone and late at night when they heard creaking sounds from the walls. In contrast, they shared the first piece in broad daylight with a group of peers around.