Author Archives: lee703@usc.edu

Voices in the Fields

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 55
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Have you encountered anything supernatural?

“In the house that I was living in in Sacramento, I had a room that was facing the field and I hear talking.

Gong gong (maternal grandfather) said that there were boys and girls in the field making out, but I could hear people talking in the fields.

I lived there for a year or so. I tried to get away from there as soon as possible”

 

Background:

With a mischievous grin, my mother told me this story from her youth.  She stated that she moved to the United States when she was in high school to Sacramento.  This story comes from when she lived in the attic of her house.  Her family on a farm, where there would be vast stretches of field. From these fields she stated she would hear conversations. She proceeded to finish the story with the thought that maybe people were buried in her parent’s field.  She stated that she believes that spirits exist, and that she felt like she was sensitive to the paranormal.

 

Analysis:

While this strikes me as a scary story, I can’t help but think that there is a scientific reason behind it.  As much as I enjoy the occult and want to believe the hypothesis of the graveyard beneath the corn, chances are, the phenomenon has something to do with the properties of sound.  Sound travels large distances when faced with no interference.  Due to farmland being large expanses of land with few people to create noise, it means that sound can travel farther distances which means that the conversations could be from the next farm over.  While it is an equally interesting theory that the fields could be the resting place of wandering spirits, there were no other reports of haunted farms that had hauntings taking place in the fields.  Most others were events where the house or surrounding buildings were haunted.  Oddly, it seems ghosts don’t like attaching themselves to fields.

Mid-Autumn Festival Food

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Is there anything you do as a tradition?

 

“On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, we eat taro and sesame rice dumplings.”

 

Background:

Though the meaning of the Mid-autumn festival was lost on the subject, she seems to have been able to attribute the traditional food that is eaten during the festival. She had heard from her parents many of the food that should be eaten on certain holidays.   The Mid-autumn festival is a harvest festival that is celebrated by many of the southeastern countries of Asia.  It was often to give thanks for the harvest and gathering of family.  Often also a day seen for praying for longevity and a good future.

 

Analysis:

Often shared among family, food remains a big part of culture and a reminder to family traditions and culture whether or not the meaning behind the festival is remembered.

Spirit Day

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Do you have any other school traditions?

“We have spirit day at the middle school.”

And what is that?

“It is when every grade gets together into teams of homerooms and we face the other teams for different events such as, brain games, kickball, like many sports.  And it’s basically just a team bonding.  Since on the second to last day of school, its having fun with different people on the last days of school.  “

Background:

According to the informant, spirit day is a time for celebration.  According to her, finals were finally over, and there were no longer any responsibilities left.  It was a time for students to be able to bond with their fellow upperclassmen before they would be graduating and heading off to high school.    It is a custom that occurs every year at the Huntington Middle School on the second day after school. Countries like Japan, have similar events where classes are pitted against each other in an athletic day kind of event for bonding between classes among the school.

 

Analysis:

It was interesting hearing from the perspective of a student that enjoyed the spirit day festivities.  In my experience, this event was often seen as an annoyance.  Due to the nature of it being close to the end of the year, many students don’t see a point in the mandatory participation of the last few days of class.  It never occurred to me then that many of these people would change in high school and the status quo from the past would never be the same.  In the fast pace of life, these traditions allow students continue to be students, before being shuffled into the future.

May Day

Nationality: American
Age: 15
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

Do you have any school traditions?

“In elementary school we did May day. “

What did you do for it?

“For the girls, we had strings that were all attached to a pole and we would go, and a group of girls would be going in one way, and another group would be going the other way weaving in and out, we did it for basically the whole song, and when we finished, and there would be a pattern braided on the pole. “

Do you remember what the other people did?

“The boys would have sticks, like large popsicle sticks.  And there were groups of 5 people would be in circles and they would try to make a star out of the wood, and after they make it they would show everyone.

The kindergarten people did the chicken dance.”

 

Background:

It’s an annual tradition of Valentine Elementary school is to perform a mayday presentation to the parents of the students.  Every year during P.E. class in early spring, teachers would assign each grade a different exercise.  Kindergarteners would get a dance where they dress up as chickens.  Second would get a dance with a multicolored parachute.  The two differences were the dances done by the fifth-grade students.  The boys would be doing a dance with wooden “swords”, called the swords dance, and the girls would be doing a dance known as the maypole dance.  When asked, the subject had already forgotten about how she felt about the performance.  While the original May day holiday that is traditionally celebrated on May 1st but the school varies on the time when the performances take place.   The presences of the maypole dance most closely resemble the European celebration of May day rather than the traditions that formed in the United States.  Many European countries would also celebrate by having a pole attached with colorful ribbons, braided by participants dancing around the pole.

 

Analysis:

I recall participating in the May day performance.  It was always a time of excitement to become a 5th grader to be able to participate in the sword dance.  Hearing about being retold from my sister’s perspective was an interesting experience.

Optimal Sleep

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 55
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Advice:

“From 11 to 1 is the best time to sleep according to Chinese medicine”

 

Background:

This piece of advice came from my mother.  The original source of this advice came from relatives that informed my mother after hearing about studies based off of old medicinal practices.    According to some of these studies, while none of them specifically pick a time that is most effective for sleep, they tend to say that later in the night, it becomes more difficult to wake up.

 

Analysis:

What caught my attention was the matter of how this piece of advice was spreading on.  With no proof or need to verify the claims in the statement, it seems to spread to different members of our family to continue to get passed on.