Author Archives: Jennifer Min

“The Crane Maiden”

Nationality: American, Japanese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: New Orleans
Performance Date: March 20, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese

“A long time ago in Japan, there lived a young and poor farmer. One day while working, he comes upon a beautiful, hurt crane. The crane had an injured wing due to an arrow. He takes the crane back home and nurses it back to health. Once its injury mends and it is healthy enough, he lets it go back into the wild. Around a few days after this, or something, a beautiful woman appears at his house and tells him that she is lost. Since the winter is harsh, he invites her to stay. He falls in love with her and allows her to stay the next night, and the next, and so on. Shortly after, they get married. Although they love each other, money is difficult to come by, especially due to the hard winters making his line of work difficult. So then, the woman offers to, make cloth and weave silk to help support her husband. However, she gives one condition, the request to be left undisturbed while she’s doing the whole time she is doing her whole weaving thing. The husband isn’t allowed to see at all. Each time she goes in the room to weave, she stays inside for days at a time and the husband respects the promise he made and doesn’t really disturb her. She comes out with a really, really nice and expensive, shiny looking cloth that they’re able to sell for more money than they’ve ever really had. With the popularity of the cloth the wife was able to make, the other farmers and neighbors began to wonder more of how she made it. This also made the husband wonder and wonder, as his greed for more money also grew.  So, one day while she was at work, he actually opened the door. Surprise! He opened the door to find a crane sitting there, taking and using its own feathers to be woven into the cloth. Having been identified, the crane changed into the wife, who told her husband that she had to leave now because he had found out her identity. Even if the husband repented, she flew back into a crane and left the husband, flew far away, and is never to be seen again.”

This story was told to my informant by her mother when she was a little child. She would listen with her brothers as her mother told the story, and they would listen to it as if it were a fairytale. Her mother pointed out that the man’s kindness to the crane was rewarded as a beautiful woman appeared the next day. My informant learned that kindness is rewarded and being a good person is beneficial for the self too. She remembered wondering about this beautiful cloth that the swan would weave and what it would look like, a cloth made of feathers.

This story seems to have to different parts. One is the reward for doing good deeds, but the other is the opposite, the consequences for bad deeds. Once the man takes in the hurt crane and nurses it back to health, he is rewarded for his actions by the reappearance of the crane in the form of a beautiful woman who becomes his wife and weaves beautiful cloth for him that he makes a great profit off of. However, once he starts to become greedy and eventually breaks the promise he made to his wife opening the door on her weaving, he is punished as he loses his wife and the profit from the cloths. For me, it is a cautionary tale as it illustrates that once life leads to a more successful path, people often change and forget the mindset they had before of thankfulness.

 

The Sound of an Insect

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 30
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Ontario, Canada
Performance Date: April 9, 2013
Primary Language: English

“One night, a man couldn’t sleep because of the sound of an insect. He got so annoyed that he asked a wiseman how to not let the noise bother him. The wiseman said to bring in chickens, so the man did so and complained about the extra noise they were making. Then the wiseman said to bring in pigs, so the man did so and complained about the noise even more. Next the wiseman said to bring in a coyote and the man did so and complained about the howling on top of everything else. Lastly, the wiseman said to bring in an elephant, so the man did so and was surrounded by so much noise that it made him even more furious. Finally, the wiseman said to be rid of the elephant, then the coyote, then the pigs, then the chickens and then asked the man, now is it quiet enough for you to go to sleep and the man nodded and went to sleep.”

My informant was unsure of where exactly she had heard this story, she said probably from a friend. But for some reason, she found that it stuck with her, because she found the content to be profound. For my informant, this story meant to make sure to appreciate the little things in life. Often in life, problems can become greater than expected, and she often thinks she can make them better by doing things to help, but these things do not necessarily make them problem get better, but make it worse instead. It also tells her that if she first learns to deal with little problems, then she can later deal with even bigger problems without feeling overwhelmed. The story illustrates to not complain about the present, since the future is unpredictable and things can turn much worse later, so to enjoy the present.

This story reminded me of a different folklore that I collected, the one about fighting heat with heat. In that tradition, in order to fight the heat of summer, people placed themselves in even hotter conditions, so that the original condition would not seem so bad. This seems similar to the story above, in that when things start to get worse, past smaller trials seem trivial. For me, this story seems to remind to count your blessings. For example, although finals and papers may seem like a huge trial to me at the moment, if I had experienced true poverty or homelessness, or the death of my parents, my current state would not seem so miserable. I must know that I am blessed in this way.

Remembrance Day

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 30
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Ontario, Canada
Performance Date: April 9, 2013
Primary Language: English

“In Canada, we have a holiday called Remembrance Day on November 11. It’s for remembering those who died in service for their country. We remember these brave men and women for their courage and devotion, even in the face of extreme hardship. For this holiday, we wear red poppies on our clothes for support. This tradition is supposed to come from the famous poem “In Flanders Fields” from World War 1, I think. I remember reading that poem in school. On this day, we usually attend different ceremonies and visit memorials. The most remembered wars for this day are the World Wars and the Korean War. I remember my friend mentioning that she really appreciates that her grandfather, who fought in the Korean War is honored by the Canadian government as a war veteran who fought well for his country. Especially since this war is often called the Forgotten War.  This day reminds us as to why we must work for peace every day of the year.”

The informant finds this holiday to be an especially important one, because she believes that it is essential to honor anyone who has allowed future generations to be able to live in piece. It is also important to her because some of her family members fought in wars, and it allows her to honor and remember them, and to see others honor and remember them. In our everyday life it can often be easy to forget such important things, so have a Remembrance Day is important to re-remember those who have allowed us to have peace.

Remembrance Day closely resembles Veterans Day, and even happens on the same date. I thought they might be identical things, but from researching it on the Internet, it seems as though Veterans Day is something unique to the United States whereas Remembrance Day is celebrated by many different countries of the world. Personally, for Veterans Day, I do not think I do anything special to commemorate those who have fought. Remembrance Day seems to be a bigger deal in Canada, with many national ceremonies happening. I think that the act of wearing red poppies is a nice sentiment, as it is a physical symbol of what he day is about.

Weddings in Taiwan

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 10, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“One thing I remember is when my sister got married in Taiwan, there were a lot of Taiwanese traditions that we went through that I think are traditional marriage customs. Like, first my brother-in-law came to our ‘house’ that our family was in, and had to be welcomed in by us to get my sister or else he couldn’t come in the door. Then, he had to formally ask my parents if he could marry my sister, and then he had to bow and give my parents money. Then when my sister left ‘our house’ my little sister had to pick up a fan that my older sister threw out the car window and neither of them could look back and my little sister had to take the fan and put it under her pillow, which was one way to ensure a happy marriage. After that we moved to my brother-in-laws house, but before my sister entered, she had to step over a pot of fire onto a tile and the number of pieces the tile broke into signified the number of children they would have.”

My informant was unfamiliar with the traditions herself as she is Chinese and lived in America for most of her life, and found them very different and interesting. She was not really sure of the meaning for these traditions other than entering a new stage in life.

As discussed in class, marriage is one of the most celebrated occasions in life, so marriage traditions are abundant in most cultures. Now that I know may of the seemingly innocent traditions that people partake of are actually Freudian, I viewed these traditions in a similar light. I found it interesting that my informant’s sister had to step over a pot of fire before finding out how many prospective children she will likely have. This seems to have a Freudian angle as fire can signify passion and sexuality. Also, I have heard that fans can signify union, so perhaps the tossing of the fan can mean the new union formed and a loss of the female’s innocence, which the little sister keeps as she should still have this innocence. This may not be the actual significance of this action, but I interpreted it in this way. Other actions seem to show the traditional way of the woman leaving her home and entering her husband’s. At least in Korea, I know that often newly wed couples will live for a couple years with the husband’s parents. This seems significant in this particular wedding as well, as the husband “bought” his wife from her family by offering money, and they moved from her house to his.

Greetings in Indonesia

Nationality: Korean
Age: 54
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: Jakarta, Indonesia
Performance Date: April 18, 2013
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English, Indonesian

 

“When you greet someone in Indonesia, they only touch your hands on the tips very gently using both hands. So if describe it, it’s like you stand facing each other and put your palms together. And then with your hand, you will touch the other person’s hand only on the tips. This is hard to explain in words. They never grab your hand to shake it like in the western way. Also, if you are a young person and you greet the elders, first you kiss the elder’s hand and then you bring the hand onto your forehead gently. That’s how you show your respect. Between females, when they greet each other, they share kisses on both cheeks, also very gently almost not using their lips.”

This way of greeting, for my informant, looked very elegant and polite. She thought it was a better way than the custom of shaking hands in Western culture. It is very polite which is an important part of the culture in Indonesia. It also shows respect to each other and to elders, which is another important part of the culture. This way of greeting is more personal than just shaking hands, it helps to start relationships between people in the correct path.

For myself, I also find this way of greeting to be very elegant. In Korean culture, we also show respect to our elders by bowing, although handshakes are also common. Handshakes can sometimes have different connotations than just greetings however, as we are even taught of the best way tot deliver a handshake in professional situations. A firm but not too overbearing grip is usually recommended, as different pressures can have different meanings. When there is tension between two people, they are often depicted as aggressively shaking each others hand, trying to win over each other with the strength of their grip. In this way handshakes can almost be something condescending or something used to analyze the other. However, the Indonesia custom is not like his as it shows deference to each other and affection in their relationships.