Nationality: Korean-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean
- “One time a few friends and I went to Manteca and went to some random ass party and got very drunk and a friend goes “Hey want to go to Milton?” and apparently Milton was this city out by Calaveras and there were 5 residents on the census but if you ever go you’ll only ever see 1 person sitting on a rocking chair on a porch holding a shotgun in front of a white masonic church. They say that the church was used to torture people and beyond the church there’s a field with a portal to hell so if you throw something back there like a beer can or some bottle one night it’ll be gone the next morning. So they went, a friend and I were there waiting in the car for them to come back and they come running back and we left but they never said why. This was my junior year of high school. Last year there was a news piece saying that church burnt down and there’s not trace of it, but the high schoolers say that it’s even more haunted now because the ghosts of the people who were tortured in that church were released so they’re wandering the streets of Milton.”
- She knows this story because of personal experience of watching her friends come back spooked by something there, even if she isn’t sure what that is
- She did however learn of these scary things happening from her friend who encouraged her to go and see this small town
- Context: we were reminiscing together about the old stories people used to tell back at the high school we went to together, and the one of the Masonic temple is a big one at school.
- I think it’s really interesting, this version of the story. What I normally hear is that people will go in the middle of the night and try to get as close to the building as possible, touch it, and go running back to the car. However, this is the first time I’ve heard mention of an old man and a shotgun, or of the census of five but only one present individual. I also feel like these sorts of stories taking place in nearby cities are a product of the classic high school student trying to one up the others by doing something especially daring or stupid. I for one never really tried these things but I have been told that it’s something I need to try at least one time in my life.
Nationality: South Korean
Age: 49
Occupation: Pharmacist
Residence: Oakdale, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: Korean
- Original Script: 청개구리
- Phonetic Script: Chung-kgeh-kgu-ry
- Transliteration Blue frog
- I know this because my mom used to say it to me when someone was acting strangely for attention
- I learned it from my mother
- It just means that when you’re behaving oddly you’re like a blue frog trying to fight the normalcy of the usual green frog.
- The context of the performance was just me and Mom discussing various folk speech in Korea because she always has some sort of phrase to say to me for all sorts of situations.
- I think it’s a very typical piece of Korean folk speech. I noticed through hanging out with other Korean families and watching historical Korean movies that a lot of their customs and culture is built around animals and consistency (as valued in their primary religions of Confucianism and Buddhism). However, growing up I got the impression that to stand out is discouraged unless it’s because you’re more gifted than others. So it makes sense to me that there’s an entire phrase dedicated to those who fight normalcy.
Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: English
- This is the story of Smokey. So growing up in late elementary school early middle school all the little kids got together and played night games and played capture the flag and whatnot, and um we would start the games at 10 or 11 and play until three or four in the morning. So during the summer time our neighborhood was in a valley between two hills but that caused all the fogs to settle in our neighborhood and every night a man would come and walk around the neighborhood smoking a cigarette staring at his feet. He never looked up or acknowledged us but he’d never say anything and he’d appear out of the fog and so one day Kevin’s dad was out blowing snow at 3 am because he had to leave for work at 430 or something like that and he’s pushing snow out onto the road and all the sudden Smokey comes by and he’s walking towards the auger (metal thing that shoots out snow) and so Kevin’s dad yells at him to move and get out of the way, and Smokey took one side step, then continued walking like nothing happened. So whenever we saw him out playing their night games they ask why the hell wasn’t he afraid why didn’t he move to the other side of the road. The only conclusion was that he lived on the corner of two streets, and he was never seen during the day ever so we think he was dead. We saw his wife during the day all the time but we never saw him.
- He knows this story because it was a confusing childhood experience they couldn’t explain
- He didn’t really learn this because it’s one of those things that he experienced first hand.
- To him and the children of the neighborhood, it was the explanation of how a man could get so close to something so dangerous with little to no reaction
- The context of the performance was that he and a friend and I were all sitting together and exchanging interesting and odd childhood stories
- I think it’s really interesting how the explanation for this man’s lack of presence during the day was explained by him supposedly being a ghost. However, there is a man who walks around my hometown in a zombie-like state, never staring at anything but the ground and nobody that I’m aware of has ventured to call him a ghost. However, it does all seem very spooky with the fog and the mysterious man who would never respond to their calls. It adds an air of mystery and excitement to these kids’ playtime. Furthermore, the fact that the parents could explain this man’s behavior to them either makes me feel inclined to think that perhaps this man was of supernatural existence, even though I don’t much believe in stories such as this one.
Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
- My friend when she was little was wearing a jade- a jade bangle on her left wrist I think, and a gold bracelet on the right. Her mom never told me what that meant… or if it had any significance or anything, but she also remembers like, reading a novel and- with a Chinese American protagonist and it said… it’s suppose to bring wealth to the child in the future. And you have to like take off the bangle… before it gets too small for your wrists.”
- She knows this because she needed to collect folklore for a project and this happened to be something she learned during the process
- She learned this from a friend of hers that she interviewed for the project
- It’s just another Chinese folk belief of how to ensure prosperity for your children
- The context of the performance is that she and I were merely discussing the different types of folklore we’ve found over the last several weeks.
- I think it’s interesting how much of an emphasis is put onto making sure children have their best chance at the future in East Asian cultures.
Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/2016
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
- So my friend’s mom puts up contact paper on the big mirrors they had in their bedrooms. Like, the closets have these like mirror doors that slide over each other when they open them. So, um she covers up the top mirror with contact paper, and, um when they go to sleep we slide the second mirror door underneath the covered one. When I asked her about, she just said it was because it’s believed that our spirits like leave our bodies and night and when, um, we’re sleeping so they covered the mirrors so that the spirits wouldn’t get scared of their reflection”
- She knows it because she was collecting folklore and this happened to be something she collected
- She learned this from a friend of hers who apparently didn’t know why her mom did this
- It was mostly a safety precaution for the sake of the spirits at night.
- I find it interesting how in a lot of cultures there’s an emphasis on making sure that the spirits are comfortable. I also think it’s interesting how the mom did this and didn’t’ really explain to her daughter why she did what she did. It was just kind of something the daughter accepted as routine without questioning why. Apparently she thought it was to keep her from getting scared of her own reflection at night.
