Author Archives: Jeff Hsu

Momotaro

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: gateway apartments
Performance Date: 4/24/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

Informant CS is a student at USC who is currently studying physical therapy. He is Japanese, born and raised in Japan, and went to school at an international school in Japan.

Give me a Japanese folk story

CS: “Okay I will tell you the about Momotaro. I don’t really remember the details of the story but I’ll tell you basically what happened. Momotaro was this legendary Japanese hero that is really well known. You can find toy figures of him in toy shops and in stores. His name literally means peach boy because he was born from a peach. It was said that a peach came flying down from the sky and out hatched Momotaro. Two couples found him and raised him. Once Momotaro grew up, he learned of an island full of demons that were terrorizing people, so he set off to fight these demons. He meets some talking animals and become friends with them (I forget how), and then goes fights the demons. He destroys the demons and brings the demon king home as a captive. Then… I think he lived happily ever after.”

Thoughts: When my friend was telling me this story I didn’t recognize who it was but after I went home and did a bit of research on the guy and saw his Chinese name, I knew exactly who he was. I have definitely heard his name before in mandarin classes, but probably the reason why I know him is because there is a theme park in Taiwan named after him. Another fun fact is during WW2 Momotaro’s story was very popular and was used as a metaphor. Pearl harbor was considered the demon islands that the demons (United States) lived on, Momotaro represents the Japanese government, and his animal companions represent the Japanese people. I thought that was really interesting how they use a legendary story as propaganda to boost the morale of their people during WW2 and to get them to have faith in their government.

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Lorenzo
Performance Date: April 24, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Informant EL went to the same high school as me and now currently goes to UC Berkeley. However, because he is interning in LA, he is taking classes at USC this semester to satisfy credits. While we were out eating dinner we began reminiscing about high school when I realized that our school had a lot of traditions and myths, so I asked him to tell me in his own words some of the stories of our school.

EL: “Another I guess myth I remember was the reason why we couldn’t have animals in our school. It was said that 10-15 years ago pets were allowed on our campus, however it changed after a senior prank. Apparently one year the senior prank let loose 3 chickens inside the school buildings and the staff had to go around looking for them. They were chicken, so they pooped a lot, and it was said that these chickens were running around and pooping everywhere, making the whole school smell bad. Because of this incident, the staff decided that animals will no longer be allowed to be in school because they will lay their feces everywhere.”

Thoughts: I remember this story because I had heard it multiple times from different friends and then finally a teacher that had been working at our school for almost 60 years has confirmed that story. I just think this was hilarious and a genius prank by the graduating class of that year, because they went for something simplistic yet incredibly annoying instead of doing these really complicated, elaborate plans that high school seniors do nowadays as their senior prank.

Flowers

Nationality: Cantonese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: West 27th Place
Performance Date: 4/11/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese

Informant AN is a student at USC in the cinema arts school, so she knows a lot of cinema traditions.

AN: “Like the other ones that I’ve talked about, this one also brings bad luck. It is common knowledge that after a production you are supposed to give the actors and directors flowers as a sign of congratulations for a great play. However, giving flowers to the director or actors before a production is a sign of bad luck, I don’t know why though you might want to search it up when you go home.”

Thoughts: I went online and searched this up and I found that the reason you aren’t supposed to give them flowers before the productions is because in the past, in order for people to get cheap but beautiful flowers, the flowers were picked from graveyards. Therefore, if you give flowers to them before the production it symbolizes death of the production, so it is considered bad luck.

No Whistling

Nationality: Cantonese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: West 27th Place
Performance Date: 4/11/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese

Informant AN is a student at USC in the cinema arts school, so she knows a lot of cinema traditions.

AN: “Another taboo thing that theater kids believe in is that you shouldn’t whistle in a theater, regardless of whether you were onstage or backstage. This is because back in the day, people who were working behind the stage for props and special and effects and stuff were out of work sailors. Sailors work with ropes and all the stuff back then was made with ropes, also sailors communicated to each other using whistles because that was how they communicated when they’re out at sea. So you can’t whistle because if you whistle you might accidentally have a sailor do something wrong and hit you in the face with a sandbag or something.”

Thoughts: I found this really interesting because I’ve never heard of this before and I didn’t know that back then the people who worked behind the stage were sailors. I think it’s cool how even though the people who work back stage are not longer sailors and most of the special effects and stuff don’t use ropes anymore, there is still this superstition that whistling in the theater will cause something to go wrong.

Break a Leg

Nationality: Cantonese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: West 27th Place
Performance Date: 4/11/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese

Informant AN is a student at USC in the cinema arts school, so she knows a lot of cinema traditions.

AN: “In theater you are not supposed to tell the actors ‘good luck’ because that will bring bad luck. Instead, you’re supposed to say break a leg. I was told this was because people believe that if you say good luck, there are evil spirits in the theater that would do everything they can to bring about bad luck, like not functioning props, or something forgetting their lines or something like that. Instead, break a leg is used because it means you’re trying to tell the actor to work so hard and do so well that they break the legs of the stage.”

Thoughts: To me this sounds like a self fulfilling prophecy. If the actors think that someone saying good luck to them will bring about bad luck, and then someone says good luck to them, they will freak out and start getting nervous and stuff. This nervousness will cause them to not perform as well as they could and essentially bring “bad luck”. However, it’s still fun to learn about these small little taboo words that can’t be spoken as an actor.