Author Archives: Matthew Wu

Sneezing – Folk Belief

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 60
Occupation: Biomedical Research
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 03/13/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Context:

I kept sneezing uncontrollably for no reason for about twenty minutes, so I called my father to ask him if he had any allergy medication that I could take. He asked me if I was outside near pollen or if someone had their cat over since I’m allergic to both of those things, but I told him no one had a cat and that I was indoors. My mother overheard the conversation and told me that I was sneezing because she was thinking of me and missed me. 

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Performance [Mother]: “This belief is something that my friends and I used to joke about in school we were your age. I heard it from two of my best friends when we were walking to school and one of them starting sneezing. My other friend joked that it was because her crush at the time was thinking about her. When someone starting sneezing multiple times for no reason and couldn’t stop, we would think that it was because someone was thinking or talking about them. You could have been sneezing because I was just thinking about you coming home for dinner later and missing you!”

Meaning to informant: This was a superstition that my mother and her friends when they were in school and in their teens, and while she does not fully believe that someone is thinking or talking about you when you sneeze, she does not disbelieve it either. She did tell me later on that there were a lot of people in China who actually do think that this is true. She also mentioned multiple occasions in her life where she herself or someone she knew was sneezing, only for the sneezing individual to later find out that someone was talking or thinking about them. 

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Analysis: I would like to think that this belief is no more than a superstition, and is merely a fun way to explain little coincidences in our lives. However, I will say that there are many instances in my own life where someone next to me would sneeze and it was because I was thinking about them in that particular instant or vise versa, so like my mother, I do not disbelieve it. This belief does not just start and end with Chinese people, as there are many references to this particular belief in Japanese anime and Korean dramas as well. For more folk beliefs about sneezing and its implications, see The Omen of Sneezing (Pease). 

Pease, Arthur Stanley. “The Omen of Sneezing.” Classical Philology, vol. 6, no. 4, 1911, pp. 429–443. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/261601. Accessed 2 May 2021.

Spiderman Knows the Pig – Chinese Joke

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 03/17/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese, Korean

Context: This joke was told by one of my coworkers at a boba place. We had closed early that day and the manager had brought us pizza, so we ate and took turns telling jokes. I chimed in and asked if I could use one of them for my folklore project, to which my coworker (KC) agreed. This is the second joke that she told us.

Story: 

KC in Mandarin: “谁最知道猪?”

Roman Phonetic: “shei zui zhi dao zhu”

  • Transliterated:
    • shei: who
    • zui: the most
    • zhi dao: knows
    • zhu: pig
      • Translation: Who knows pigs the best?

Everyone after thinking about it for a while: “Who?”

KC in Mandarin: “蜘蛛人”

Roman Phonetic: “zhi zhu ren”

  • Transliterated:
    • zhi zhu: Spider 
    • zhi: know 
    • zhu: pig
    • ren: man
      • Translation: Spiderman (Know-pig man)

Background: My coworker got this joke online when she was getting ready to tell us jokes. The punchline is based on a pun, because the Chinese word for spider (zhi zhu) also sounds like the combination of the words, “know” (zhi) and “pig” (zhu). So the answer to the riddle of who knows pigs the best is Spiderman, which can also be read as Know-pig man or man who knows pigs. 

Thoughts: I found this joke to be pretty funny, because I didn’t know that Chinese jokes, like jokes in English, frequently used puns. There are many variants of jokes that play off of the word “Spiderman” that are and have been popular in China and in Asian communities. An example of another joke using spiderman is playing off phrases that sound like “shi bai de ren”, which can mean many different things in Mandarin, but plays off of the fact that “shi bai de” ni Mandarin sounds like “spider” in English and “ren” means man.

The Zodiac Rat and Cats- Chinese Myth

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 61
Occupation: Software Developer
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 02/12/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Story: “Before the Jade emperor announced his great race, the cat and the rat were best friends. After hearing that the race was going to happen soon, the cat and the rat made a pact to cross the finish line together. The cat was a frequent napper and very lazy, so he asked the rat to wake him up. The rat agreed. However, on the day of the great race, no matter how many times the rate tried, he could not wake the cat up. Because of this, he had no choice but to set out on his own and complete the race. Being a fast runner, he had no problem getting ahead of most of the other animals. The last part of the race was crossing a great river. Because the rat couldn’t swim, he in the ox’s fur and waited until the last second to jump across the finish line, beating the ox and earning first place. After the race, the cat woke up and realized that he had missed it. He thought the rat tricked him and purposely did not wake him up, so he chased the rat and tried to eat him. That is why cats hate rats ‘till this day and eat them.”

Background and Context: This is another one of the twelve stories told about the twelve different Chinese zodiac signs that serve as the symbols for each year in the lunar calendar. My father was born a year earlier than my mother in the year of the rat, and my mother was born in the year of the ox. My father told me this story of the rat after he told me about the story of the ox and I got curious about his zodiac sign. This happened when I went back home for dinner on Chinese New Year. My father heard this story from his parents and grandparents growing up in China. My father used this story to explain that people born in the year of the rat are very smart workers, much like the rat in the story. He compared it to the story of the ox, reminding He also used the story to explain why cats don’t like him and why he is allergic to them. 

Thoughts: After hearing the story of the rat, I still didn’t think much of the twelve Chinese zodiac myths. Although my mother is very hardworking and I’ve seen many instances of my father working smarter and not harder and teaching me to do so, I still think that these behaviors are coincidental. There are certainly instances of people born in the year of the rat being allergic to cats, and instances where people born in the year of the rat love cats and are not allergic to them. While the myth does hold a bit of truth, my interpretation is that any association of a behavior with a zodiac sign has to be true to some extent purely due to chance. However, I did observe that in Chinese culture, these myths are very important and that everyone I’ve known and met knows them. They are imperative to Chinese culture because of the many holidays and beliefs that are centered around them. 

“用一个筷子吃饭的人是饿的” – Chinese Proverb

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 03/23/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Spanish

Context: AL is one of my best friends that I grew up with, and I always turn to him for life advice or just to have a person to listen to when I feel emotional distress. I was telling him how I felt so lost during quarantine and a little depressed because of the way I had to juggle my workload and living almost in isolation, and he gave listened and told me a Chinese proverb that related to my situation to help me out.

用一个筷子吃饭的人是饿的

Roman Phonetic: “Yong yige kaizi chifan de ren shi e de”

  • Transliterated Proverb:
    • yong: use
    • yige: one
    • kaizi: chopstick
    • chifan: eat food
    • de: *a possessive participle*, roughly means “those who” in this case
    • shi: Are
    • e: hungry

Full Translation: This literally means “those who use one chopstick to eat food are hungry”. However, the looser more accurate translation would be to make sure you have two chopsticks before eating your food or to find balance in your life. 

Explanation: Andy heard this proverb from his Chinese school, and he told it to me when I told him I felt like I was being overwhelmed. My sleep schedule and eating habits were not the best because I was juggling all the work I had to do, so he told me this proverb to explain that I should start with fixing my sleep, which draws an analogical parallel to the chopsticks in the proverb. The way he explains it, “in order to eat a meal, you have to have two chopsticks first. The same goes for dealing with our lives every day. In order to deal with all the work you feel overwhelmed doing, you first have to take care of yourself. Don’t be nocturnal and sleep at least 8 hours if you can, and don’t just eat one meal a day. You have to start with fixing the small things, and then you can move on to the big ones. You’ll feel much better once you’ve created a routine, only then can you begin to find balance in your life”. Whenever I would open up to him about important things that were happening in my life, he would always refer to the proverb first to make sure that I was taking care of myself.

Thoughts: I’ve heard this proverb before from my parents, but we’ve always interpreted the underlying looser meaning to mean those who eat with one chopstick are hungry fools. I’ve always thought that the meaning was more of a “look before you leap” type of proverb, warning people to be prepared before they enter situations. To me, the way my parents told the proverb showed me that they personally value teaching me to always be prepared before things happen. The way my friend told it to me showed me that he values having a routine and starting each day prepared by starting with the small things. Personally, I think that I value both sides of the proverbs, and have followed my friend’s advice.

The Archer and the Oil Merchant – Chinese Tale

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Spanish

Context: I call my best friend from high school (AL) almost every day. We are really close since we are both going to the same college and share many interests. I collected this tale from one of our calls when I asked him if he knew any Chinese tales. 

Story: 

AL: “This tale is one that my mom used to tell me all the time when I was young. There once was a very famous archer in China, who could consistently land nine out of ten shots on target. His skill with the bow drew the attention of the emperor, who was very impressed and made him a high-ranking General. People would come to see him practice all the time, and the crowd would clap and cheer him on. One day, he noticed that an old oil merchant did not cheer or clap for him, and was the only one that remained indifferent in the crowd. Curious and a little insulted, he confronted the old man and asked him why he did not clap for him and find his skills impressive. The old man replied and said that there was nothing very impressive about the archer’s skills. To prove his point, the old man brought out a Calabash and placed a copper coin over it, aligning the hole of the gourd with the hole in the center of the coin. He began to pour a whole jar of oil into the Cabalash without spilling a single drop. The archer was impressed and humbled, and the oil merchant said that there was nothing impressive about the skills gained from hard work because every person is able to work hard.”

Background: My friend heard this story from his mom, who used it to tell him that everyone works hard and that there will always be someone out there who is more skilled than you are. My friend thinks of the tale as a reminder to stay modest and uses it to remind himself that anything can be achieved if he works hard. The Cabalash is a Chinese gourd that has a very small opening, and Ancient Chinese copper coins had a hole in the middle, so the part about the old man serves to show that he is just as skilled, if not more skilled, than the archer.

Thoughts: I thought the lesson that the tale aims to teach was very similar to other Chinese stories. One example can be seen from the legend my mom told me about Li Bai where he sees an old woman grinding a metal rod into a sewing needle, and learns the lesson of anything being possible through perseverance. This also offers insight into Chinese values as traditionally they believe that being hardworking is something that everyone should strive towards.