Author Archives: Kathryn Hillman

Joke

Nationality: Japanese-American
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Long Beach, CA
Performance Date: February 6, 2007

Question: How many Poles does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Answer:  One to hold the bulb, and 2 to turn the ladder

My informant told this joke at a social gathering.  She and her culturally diverse friends were all hanging out and telling racist jokes.  Kathy told this one to her friend of Polish descent because everyone jokingly ridicules him for being a “stupid Pole.”  My informant does not remember where she first heard the joke, but decides to continually use it because she always gets a good response from her audience.

Kathy says that it has become a social norm to make fun of Polish people for being stupid.  She is not sure why this is their stereotype, but guesses that it may be due to historical events.  She says, “They lost very horribly to the Germans in the war sooo maybe because they were completely defeated they were coined the “stupid ones?  I really have no idea!”  My informant says that this “light-bulb” joke is one of many Polish jokes.  Literally, it means that Polish people are too stupid to figure out that you can screw in a light bulb by twisting it with your hand. They think you need 2 more people to turn the ladder that the light bulb holder is standing on.

Our population is so culturally diverse.  We are a generation of mutts, with people from all descents.  Because of this, racial jokes have become very popular.  They always exaggerate an ethnicities stereotype, and the reason they are funny and not taken too seriously is because usually, the person of that descent hardly identifies with their heritage.  Most people live very Americanized lifestyles, so most do not very much offense to the joke.

In The Journal of American Folklore, Judith Kerman explains her take on Polish jokes.  She talks about how the joke has spread, resulting lots of versions.  Such as, “How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?  Only one, but the light bulb must want to change.”  The joke has evolved from being purely ethnic to making fun of the way any group may decide to do something.

I think this is a funny joke, and I find it interesting that folklore such as this spread so rapidly and changes so readily.

Annotation:  Kerman, Judith B.  The Light-Bulb Jokes: American Look at Social Action Processes.  The Journal of American Folklore, Vol.93, No. 370.  Retrieved April 18, 2007 from www.Jstore.com.

Celebration – Japan

My informant learned of this holiday from her mother, who is a native to Japan, coming to the United States in 1950.  In attempts to expose my informant to the Japanese culture, her mother told her of different holidays celebrated in Japan.  There are three very famous holidays: New Years, Golden Week, and Obon.  Obon, which means “Festival of the Dead,” particularly stuck with Kathy until now because it is so different from any holiday in America.  It is a three-day celebration that occurs in West Japan from August 13th through the 15th.  In East Japan, some celebrate it at the end of July.  My informant explains that the holiday is not creepy, but very respectful and representative of the Japanese culture because its purpose is to pay respect to elders.  Kathy is not sure what the significance is, but the Japanese fold paper boats and they float them down rivers.  It is a holiday where the Japanese honor and remember the people who they were close to but died.

Traditionally, Obon is an annual Buddhist event for commemorating one’s ancestors.  It is believed that during this holiday, the ancestors’ spirits return to this world in order to visit their relatives.  It is traditional for lanterns to be hung in front of houses to guide the spirits, for obon dances, or bon odori, to be performed, and for the people to visit graves and offer food made at house altars and temples.  At the end of Obon, the lanterns are put into rivers, lakes, and seas in order to guide the spirits back into their world.  This is different from what Kathy learned because customs vary strongly from region to region.

I think this item of folklore is very representative of Japanese culture.  They believe it is very important to honor ancestors and it is even expected of them to act as caretakers when they get old and need assistance.  We don’t have any holidays like this in America because we do not view our elders in the same light, although we should.

Annotation:  Anonymous. Japanese Lantern Lighting Festical to be Held August 20.  Asian Pages. St. Paul: Vol. 16, Iss. 24.  Retrieved March 2, 2007, from www.ProQuest.com.

Proverb

Nationality: Japanese-American
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Long Beach, CA
Performance Date: February 7, 2007

“My ears do not hear whining.”

Kathy created this proverb to say to her children.  She first explained that the thing that annoys her most is when she hears little children whining and screaming when they want something.  Because of this, when Kathy became the mother of two girls, she coined the phrase, “my ears do not hear whining.”  She explained to me, “I could not stand whining as any kind of interaction.  I don’t ever want to give someone what they want because they whined at me to get it.  I refused to have my kids think that the way they would successfully go through life is to whine enough, and be so incredibly irritating that someone would give in to them.  I want them to earn what they get based on merit, not whining.  The result of my phrase was impeccable.  The moment I first explained what I meant to my kids, they would instantly change their tone, speak in a normal voice, and ask again for what they wanted.  Most of the time they got their way, as a reward for asking without whining.”

Kathy’s children would whine, hear the proverb, continue to whine, realize that she was completely ignoring them, and then speak normally.  It did not take long for her children to completely rid of the habit.  They even began saying it to their own whining friends.  Kathy believes that it was this phrase that curbed her children’s whining habits.  This proverb began as folklore in Kathy’s house, but soon spread to the houses of all of her friends.  The mother’s in the neighborhood began telling their children that their ears just did not comprehend whining, and soon, the children would automatically speak normally as opposed to whine when they wanted something.

I think Kathy’s strategy is a very effective way to impact your children.  She would ignore them completely until they spoke to her in a normal voice.  This item of folklore spread to many households because it was so effective.  It also displays the many different strategies that effective parents create when raising their children.  Each family has different proverbs and traditions, and they are usually passed down through generations. This proverb is one that Kathy and her children identify with, and I’ll bet her children will also have ears that don’t hear whining.

Custom

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 51
Occupation: Teacher
Performance Date: March 10, 2007

Feng Shui

My informant studied feng shui, which literally means “wind-water.”  Nance says, “it is an ancient practice in China that revolves around the placement and arrangement of space in order to achieve harmony with the environment.  Geographical, psychological, mathematical, and aesthetic concepts are some of the elements relating to feng shui.  It is thought that Gui Pu coined the term back in the Jin Dynasty.  Qi, which is the energy of the universe, is carried in the wing and retained within the water, hence the meaning behind feng shui.  Nancy told me that there are many internal and external guidelines.  For instance, some internal guidelines are to avoid clutter, keep tops of tables simple, do not aline the end of the bed with the door, and your stairs should never face the front door.  Some external guidelines that Nance told me are to avoid building houses in front of cemeteries, hospitals, and mortuaries, and that square-shaped lots are optimal for chi flow. feng shui is particularly interesting to Nancy because she believes that Chinese customs are very spiritually based and always very interesting.  She claims that her office and house both follow as many feng shui guidelines as possible,

I have heard of feng shui before from my mother.  She does not take the custom very seriously, but has just mentioned a few of the very basic guidelines.  I think it is really interesting that the Chinese have such a strong spiritual basis, however I do not believe that my energy is influenced very much by the positioning of my furniture.  I do not feel as if my luck, health, and prosperity are going to be determined or influenced by space.  Feng shui has spread rapidly throughout our culture however.  There are feng shui experts that will come to your home or office and decorate it in a spiritually sound manner.  This custom represents how easily an item of folklore can spread internationally and become part of popular culture and everyday life.