Author Archives: Nicole Rapatan

The Evil Eye

Nationality: Lebanese
Age: 20
Occupation: Architecture student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 5/1/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Arabic/Lebanese

“So there’s the Evil Eye and the Evil Eye is present in a lot of Middle Eastern and sometimes in Greek. So essentially, it’s an abstracted eye; it’s like a blue circle, a white circle inside of that and a black dot in that. So essentially, the logic behind that, is if someone says something they like about you like “Ooh I like your hair,” you’ll walk off and if you don’t have the evil eye on you, your hair will catch on fire, or “Ohh I like your eyes,” you’ll go and get burned or something and your eyes will screw up. So it’s to ward off the bad stuff I mean, and so everyone tends to keep one of those on them, like on a keychain or on a bracelet. The Evil Eye helps protect you against people who say things like “Oh you have a really nice dress…fuckin’ hate that dress,” and then like…cause the idea is that the people who are complimenting you are secretly jealous of you. And it’s carried over, so even if you don’t have an eye on you, as long as you have a blue, like a turquoise blue on you, then you’re good.”

Based on how widespread the belief is, people in the Middle East well acknowledge the idea of jealousy and people feel that so much, that there is a strong need for protection. The symbol of the Evil Eye can be seen in a lot of places including even merchandise like jewelry and clothing. Before hearing this, I heard of the Evil Eye and seen it, but I assumed it did evil against you rather than ward it off. The name itself contradicts Western norms as usually when in America, you call something evil, you are saying that that the object itself is evil. It is interesting too that though people are aware of who is wronging them, they cling to the protection of an object rather than actively confronting the person who wished ill on them. Perhaps this is because they believe there is so much ill wishing and jealousy around, that it’s easier to rely on one thing than to strike back at everything else.

The Papantla Flyers

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 34
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 5/1/13
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

“Okay, so there’s that this really tall pole and there’s five people around it. One of them is this Indian priest dude and the other four guys are called flyers. The flyers are supposed to represent the…the four elements like air,water, fire and ummm, earth. Oh also, they’re the four points like north, south, east and west. Okay, so the dancers and the priest climb the pole, one at a time, and they’re climbing and climbing. Then when they get to the top, the priest starts playing and dancing on a…it’s like a stage or a platform or something. And he has a flute and a drum and the dancers just fall – they like, throw themselves back but they’re like, tied to the pole by their ankles. Then as they’re moving downwards, they’re supposed to make like, 10 or 13 what do you call that…circles around the pole and that’s supposed to mean something. Yeah, you can look that up or something. But you can see this in a lot of tourist places in Mexico. Yeah, you should see it sometime.”

After talking with Tony, I looked up the story and the 13 cycles are supposed to be the cosmic cycle in pre-Hispanic times. The costumes of the fliers are also supposed to represent “the beauty of nature, the purity of humans, and the reflection of life” (Cit.) This goes back to an ancient idea of admiring the universe and nature in its entirety and recording its way through calendars and rituals. It also ties to the old Totonac culture, and the the Totonac were the people who lived on the coast before the Spanish settlers came. Since it is a significant tourist attraction, it presents current Mexican culture as still heavily tied with cosmic and ancient reverence, which is like that authenticity that tourists are looking for. Tourist attractions are often trapped in an idealistic past so though the Totonac have been long gone and present day Mexico is closer to hispanic heritage, the flyers show is the piece of Mexican history that tourists want to see and therefore Mexico chooses to present. Unfortunately, I was not able to witness this personally, though I did look up some Youtube videos of it afterwards and I suggest that readers do the same.

Citation: http://visitpuertovallarta.com/news/2012/01/los-voladores-de-papantla-regresan-al-malecon/

Yu gong yi shan idiom

Nationality: American
Age: 32
Occupation: Student
Residence: Taipei
Performance Date: 5/1/13
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English, Japanese, Taiwanese

“So this is an idiom. ‘Yu gong’ means foolish old man, ‘yi’ is to move, and ‘shan’ is mountain.

The story is like this: there was an old man whose house was in front of two mountains. These made it really inconvenient to go back and forth from work, so he asked his family to help him level the mountains. The neighbors kept calling him ‘foolish old man’ and he said to them, progeny quote, that ‘I have 2 sons, and my 2 sons will have sons,’ meaning it’s an endless loop, so one day the mountains can be moved. A spirit was overhearing this and was moved by the old man’s stubbornness, so it sent 2 immortals to move the mountains for him.”

This story asserts a few things: one, the importance of having a large family, preferably of sons, and two, the benefits of strong will. When the old man encounters a problem, he immediately is able to rely on his ‘progeny,’ the family that he has raised and who are now raising others. The Chinese concept of the group or family over oneself is necessary to the old man’s solution. The use of the word ‘son’ also ties in with the patriarchy of China and how having baby boys is preferable over having baby girls. The main purpose of this idiom, however, is to teach that strong motivation and hard work can solve anything, and even ‘move mountains.’ I believe that this idea is intrinsic to the work ethic of the Chinese people.

Moon Cake rebellion legend

Nationality: American
Age: 32
Occupation: Student
Residence: Taipei
Performance Date: 5/1/13
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English, Japanese, Taiwanese

“In China, people were unhappy about the Mongol rule of China and wanted to overthrow them. They were the tyranny society, and were hard to get organized. I think the people in charge were Zhu…Yuangzheng and Liu Bowen. That’s not even a Chinese name haha. Anyway on mid-Autumn festival, the people who wanted to rebel gave out moon cakes and slipped messages that said a weapon and day to meet. Then that day, the farmers and civilians banded together on that day and overthrew the king. Since then there’s been the lunar festival which has moon watching and moon cakes still. And a moon cake is a pastry that has red bean, crust, lard, and I think lotus seed paste.”

China is a strongly nationalist country and its steadfastness to maintain its current identity may come from how many past  invasions and changes of rule they had to go through. If the moon cake story is true, it was a clever way for the vast population of China, that stretches over miles of land, to come together. Keeping the tradition of the moon cake as part of the celebrations is another symbol of the current Chinese identity as one sole nation.

Zongzi story and festivity

Nationality: American
Age: 32
Occupation: American
Residence: Taipei
Performance Date: 5/1/13
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English, Japanese, Taiwanese

“There was this one guy, a poet, named Yuan I think, who loved his country very much. Then something happened to do with national disputes between the kingdoms and since he loved his country so much, he couldn’t take it and he committed suicide by throwing himself into the river. The people loved him so much though that every year on the anniversary of his death, people throw zongzi into the river to prevent the fishes from eating his body by eating the zongzi instead. His death anniversary is like around the Dragon Boat Festival, which I think is like the 5th day of the 5th month, and it’s based on the lunar calendar so the day changes every year. Oh and zong zi is that triangular food, triangular prism, and it’s a rice ball, like steamed rice wrapped in bamboo reeds. They’re probably called rice dumplings in the western world.”

In this description, Yuan was a nationalist poet during the Warring States Period who loved his country so much. Through some act of betrayal, he killed himself out of desperation. There are differing legends to the exact cause of his death. The most popular legend is that he gave warning to the Chu emperor that the Qin would take over soon. The king did not believe it, exiled the poet and was soon overthrown by the Qin as Yuan predicted and Yuan subsequently killed himself. Through his sheer, though perilous, patriotism, Yuan became a martyr to his people. This shows how much national pride matters to the Chinese people. The informant did not have a reason as to why this specific food was thrown into the river. The informant said that the food was thrown to prevent the fishes from eating Yuan’s body, but another source I found wrote that Yuan actually became a water spirit and the food was supposed to feed him. A water dragon, however, kept intervening and taking the food, so the spirit of Yuan came back and told the people to wrap it in bamboo so the dragon would not want to eat it. This gives an explanation for the exact type of food that is used for throwing and how people now still throw that in reverence of their national hero.

Citations: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/The-Legends-Behind-the-Dragon-Boat-Festival.html