Author Archives: Nancy Liu

Folk Speech – United States

Nationality: Motswana
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Gaborone, Botswana
Performance Date: April 17, 2008
Primary Language: English

“So during the civil war in America, families use to send their daughters to help with the war effort and the women would be nurses. They would come and nurse the men back to help and just help with first aid needs. When the daughter finally returns home and they’re pregnant and they had to explain to their parents why they were pregnant, they gave them the following story: so basically, they claimed that they were in the line of fire of one of the enemy soldiers’ bullets. And basically as the theory goes, the bullet was shot by the enemy and it penetrated a soldier’s testicle, passed through his body and hit the girl in the womb or whatever the fallopian tube or the girl’s ovaries. Some sperm deposited on the bullet and then went on and fertilized one of her eggs and that’s how she became pregnant, hence the saying ‘son of a gun.’”

Ruchie heard this story from an old American history teacher, Garreth Cole, when he was thirteen or fourteen. The story has American origins and as an American history teacher, Mr. Cole most likely learned this growing up in his Massachusetts home. Ruchie thinks that at least one girl has told this story during the war period and then the excuse was perpetuated throughout families. Since women were expected to be virgins until they were married, they had to come up with excuses that would keep their reputation in tact. It may have also started out as a joke, but the phrase “son of a gun” was catchy and so it was repeated. He likes knowing about these stories because it provides an alternative interpretation of events and it is interesting to see how people come up with these explanations.

I disagree with Ruchie and the validity of the story. Before hearing Ruchie’s story, I personally thought that the word “gun” replaced “bitch” in the phrase “son of a bitch.” Some people do not like to swear, so they say “gun” instead. A male most likely came up with this term because it is derogatory towards women.  In order to compensate for their lack of ability to swear, they use a manly word such as “gun” as a substitute. Another explanation for this term could be that “gun” stands for a man in the army. Children that were born from women serving in the military could be deemed with the name of “son of a gun.” Nowadays, that meaning does not fit the term anymore, so it is less thought of. Most people just use the phrase in lieu of “son of a bitch.”

Joke – California

Nationality: Nepalese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Placentia, CA
Performance Date: April 22, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Nepali

“So basically, you just add ‘in bed’ to the end of any fortune cookie fortune and it just makes it so much funnier.

‘You will touch the hearts of many in bed’

See it works so well with that one”

Rocky heard about this game just a few weeks ago from another friend in Parkside Suites on the University of Southern California campus. She and a couple of friends went to eat at P.F. Chang’s and at the end of the meal, they got fortune cookies. They went back to campus and were just hanging out in someone’s room. They started opening their fortunes and read them out loud and added “in bed” to the end of the fortunes. It made everyone laugh really hard because it was very random and had sexual innuendos in them. This joke is told when people have fortune cookies to eat, so it is most likely told after people eat food from a Chinese restaurant that gives away fortune cookies at the end of the meal.

I believe that sex has become a large part of American society with all the sexual content on television and in movies. People feel freer to express themselves and their bodies. Even though sex is a more common topic, people are still not completely comfortable talking about it in a straightforward fashion. Jokes help relieve the tension and are seen as funny and that is why Rocky and her friends added sexual innuendos to fortune cookies. Turing something clean and unexciting into something sexual in a joking manner is socially acceptable. The joke was probably created by a random person who had sex on his or her mind and decided to let it out after reading a fortune cookie by adding “in bed” to the end of it. His or her friends probably heard it and thought it was very funny and so they shared it with their friends. Differing from the creator, they did not need to have sexual thoughts to pass this on because they told it for the main purpose of humor.

Folk Belief – United States

Age: 30
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Loma Linda, CA
Performance Date: February 12, 2008
Primary Language: English

“When you are pregnant, they say that if you carry low and look like a watermelon, it’s going to be a girl, but if you carry high and round like a ball, it’s going to be a boy.”

My sister, Patti, heard this first from my other older sister, Jennifer, who already had a baby girl. When Patti started showing four years ago when she was twenty six, people started examining the size of her belly and would tell her that she was going to have a boy. Her stomach was very round and did not appear very low.  Patti says that it is a pretty universal conception amongst mothers. People would not bring this topic up unless they are talking about a pregnant woman. When someone becomes pregnant, she starts hearing about all these stories from other people who have already had kids. It even comes from strangers that talk to you because you are pregnant when you are out in public.

This belief is recorded in Popular Beliefs and Superstitions: A Compendium of American Folklore which is a compilation of Newbell Niles Puckett’s folklore collection. It states, “if a pregnant woman carries her baby high, it will be a boy,” but then it also states that “if a woman carries her baby low during pregnancy, it will be a boy.” These conflicting beliefs were collected from women living in Ohio. The same contradicting statements are documented for female babies as well. This demonstrates that many beliefs are held about determining a baby’s sex and that both of them could be both true and false. These statements are most likely all based off of observation, so to some degree, they have truth in them.

All mothers share the common lore of childbirth. With experience, they make observations and come up with conclusions about many different aspects of pregnancy. Using the belly’s size to determine the baby’s sex is only one of the many beliefs. Some women may encounter one type of belly that frequently results in a male baby, while others associate another type of belly with a female. It all depends on the person who is making the conclusions. If an expecting mother hears one type of belief and it ends up being true, then they will most likely share that with other expecting mothers. The odds of being correct are one to two, so there is a high possibility of being correct.

Annotation: Puckett, Newbell Niles. Popular Beliefs and Superstitions: A Compendium of American Folklore. Boston, Massachusetts: G.K. Hall and Company: 1981. p. 27.

Nursery Rhyme – United States

Age: 30
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Loma Linda, CA
Performance Date: March 8, 2008
Primary Language: English

“This little piggy went to the market.

This little piggy stayed home.

This little piggy had roast beef.

This little piggy had none.

And this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home.”

Patti first heard this story from her friends when she first started babysitting the neighbors’ children when she was in seventh grade. This was eighteen years ago. Since many of her friends had younger siblings, they learned the nursery rhyme from their parents. She learned it in order to play with the babies that she watched. Then when I was born, she used it on me. I still remember my sisters playing with my toes and saying this rhyme. The teller would say each line while touching one toe. It is a rhyme that counts the number of toes on one of a baby’s foot. She repeated this rhyme recently when I was visiting her one weekend. She has a new baby boy who is ten months old and she loves playing with his feet. Patti thinks that a mother made this up in a western culture, telling by the kind of food they ate. She believes that this rhyme keeps kids entertained and so if parents need to cut their babies’ toenails, this would easily distract them. It is a very simple rhyme that can be easily repeated and shared with many generations of mothers.

This rhyme is probably very old and dates back to when people went to food markets where there were many vendors that sold different food items. It was made up by a woman because they were the main caretakers of children. They were the ones that went to the market to buy food and were also the ones that made roast beef. I agree with Patti in that the rhyme was made up to keep children entertained. By touching babies’ toes, it tickles them and makes them laugh. Mothers always want to see their children laugh and this technique helps them achieve that. I think that a babies’ laughter is the cutest thing in the world. Especially since their feet are so tiny and soft, adults cannot resist touching and playing with them. This story is mostly told in the same manner now because it was canonized a few hundred years ago in a compilation of nursery rhymes for mothers. Mothers are always trying to help each other out because they have a mutual understanding of the frustration that comes from taking care of kids. Nursery rhyme books were most likely published in order to help mothers soothe their children’s tempers. There could have been many versions of “this little piggy” because one could essentially add any place or food item at the end of each line. Patti says that the last little piggy cried, but I have also heard others say that the last little piggy went wee wee wee. The slight word change is natural in retellings of folklore.

Myth – China

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Rockville, MD
Performance Date: March 8, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

“A monk (forgot his name) was given the task, from Buddha, of collecting Buddhist religious texts, known as sutras. The monk thus goes on a quest to find them along with 3 protectors and a prince. One of the protectors is known as The Monkey King.  The Monkey King was supposedly born from a rock in a mountain that was filled with fruits. He caused lots of trouble and created a commotion in Heaven so Buddha trapped him under a mountain to punish him. He was released when the monk accepted him as one of his protectors for the journey.
He is known to have a staff that can change in size; it was his primary weapon. He was also capable of transforming into other objects and manipulating his size to go through different types of obstacles. His favorite fruit was the peach of immortality. He was a trouble maker and not a good role model, but he was a hero nonetheless.”

Michael e-mailed this story to me, but he first heard it when he was about eight years old from his mother in his home in Rockville, MD. His mother learned about the stories of the Monkey King during her childhood in Beijing, China. He says that it is a very traditional collection of stories that is told to children and adults because it is very entertaining and funny. When families do not have television or computers to keep them occupied, they can tell stories about the Monkey King because there are many versions and tales.
The adventures of the Monkey King also show up on pages 159 to 195 in Essential Chinese Mythology which is written by Martin Palmer and Zhao Xiaomin. It includes three main stories about the Monkey King. Similar to Michael’s telling of the story, the book goes over how “Monkey overthrows heaven.” It goes more into detail about what the Monkey King does to disrupt heaven and how Buddha punishes him. Buddha puts “his five fingers together and Monkey [finds] himself beneath a mountain range on Earth.”
The adventures of the Monkey King also incorporate part of China’s history in its overall storyline, such as the values of Buddhism and journeys along the Silk Road. The main human character is the monk and everyone else is either immortal or some sort of talking animal. This story is not meant to be believed, but it integrates many Chinese themes and beliefs. The tale was created hundreds and maybe thousands of years ago, first being spread verbally. Many people could make up their own adventures about the Monkey King and eventually they were written down and canonized. There are a few main stories about the Monkey King that most Chinese people know about, but there are many smaller stories that could supplement the main ones. Each story includes a villain or demon that the Monkey King and his friends need to defeat. These stories were created to explain the terrain of China. There is a mountain terrain in China that looks like Buddha’s palm and so, people that lived near the mountain or saw it in passing probably made up the story about Buddha’s hand trapping the Monkey King. As a myth, the Monkey King stories take place before the real world and explain how the earth was developed and deal with sacred individuals.

Annotation: Palmer, Martin. Xiaomin, Zhao. Essential Chinese Mythology. San Francisco, California: Thorsons: 1997. p. 159-195.