Night Whistling

G.L is one of my roommates’ mothers and I interviewed her for some folklore she has encountered or experienced.  She is Taiwanese and was born and raised in Taiwan, but she moved to California to raise her children. She thinks that it’s more beneficial to have her children study in the State but also having experience their ethnic culture. Having lived in two countries for a long period time, she had experienced two big cultural aspects of the world, so she would have a decent idea of how the Chinese and Western culture works.

A short myth G.L told was that whenever someone whistles at night, a ghost would come out and attack the whistler. G.L would occasionally whistle, but when it’s night time, and when she does, her parents would immediately shush her. G.L used to assume that it was because the parents were annoyed, but one time she asked why, because she was also annoyed by all the shushing, and her parents said that the whistling would attract ghosts.

She remembers this myth because when her parents that whistling attracts ghosts, she never whistled at night again. In addition, she also told her kids to never whistle whenever it’s nighttime.  G.L also said that in a way, she kind of believes in ghosts since she never whistles at nighttime anymore, if she doesn’t then she wouldn’t care and kept on whistling.

This myth revolves around ghosts and whistling. It would also act as a switch to allow human see object from the other world, which in this case would be ghosts.

As an Asian, I can relate because I have also been told by whistling is bad at night, but not only by my parents, but also by my friends. But either way, I still have whistled at night and not once have I seen a ghost, or maybe they’re just not visible to the human eyes. Obviously who ever believes in this would also believe that there are such things as ghosts.

A Typical Chinese Family Tradition

G.L is one of my roommates’ mothers and I interviewed her for some folklore she has encountered or experienced.  She is Taiwanese and was born and raised in Taiwan, but she moved to California to raise her children. She thinks that it’s more beneficial to have her children study in the State but also having experience their ethnic culture. Having lived in two countries for a long period time, she had experienced two big cultural aspects of the world, so she would have a decent idea of how the Chinese and Western culture works.

G.L told me about an event that would occur every weekend, and it would be a custom for her and her family to attend it every time. This folk tradition would the all of G.L family and eating on a Sunday afternoon together. Since this was in Taiwan, the family would eat at a typical Chinese restaurant. For her, it would be a sense of getting together with the whole family, and to catch up on how well they’re doing. G.L said that the only people you can see not enjoying this are the children.

G.L enjoyed this folk tradition because of how the families would meet up together just for a lunch, and happily talk about their lives. Their families would always meet on a Sunday to eat lunch, even when G.L’s parents were kids, she needed to go these family gatherings. This is a family-generational thing where G.L’s mother’s side of the family and her father’s side of the family would think that it’s a good idea to meet up once a week.

This folk-tradition revolves around family, but the food is one of the reasons that they are able to get together. The family-tradition has passed down from the older generation of the family, and the primary purpose of this tradition is to meet with the families. The whole family aspect of it also revolves around the fact that Asian cultural is really connected by families.

I think this family tradition is a good thing because if the family keeps meeting every week, then it would be hard for them to drift apart. Asian culture does have a big focus on family, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t any Asian who would rather be separated by one another. Passing down this tradition can potentially save a family that’s about to break apart.

Chinese Fortune Teller

G.L is one of my roommates’ mothers and I interviewed her for some folklore she has encountered or experienced.  She is Taiwanese and was born and raised in Taiwan, but she moved to California to raise her children. She thinks that it’s more beneficial to have her children study in the State but also having experience their ethnic culture. Having lived in two countries for a long period time, she had experienced two big cultural aspects of the world, so she would have a decent idea of how the Chinese and Western culture works.

G.L told me that she had an experience with a Chinese Fortune Teller and that she would always trust in them and used what the Fortune Teller said on her children. They would go to the Chinese Fortune Teller and she would tell them how their life was going to turn out. G.L explained that she would actually get a paper from the Fortune Teller and on the paper would be statistics and connections between colors and locations. For example, G.L told me that run, while she and her husband were reading the Fortune Teller Paper for one of her sons, the paper match out so that his lucky colors were green and purple, and that he shouldn’t stay around a mountain area when driving. G.L would try to get her kids to act upon the fortune telling paper, but they wouldn’t force them upon it. In addition, G.L said that her kids weren’t stupid. They won’t purposely drive near a mountain just because I told them its back luck to do so.

G.L started to do this because her mother would also always do this to her. She wasn’t too interested when she was young, but as she grew older she started to participate more in these types of things. She does these because she also thinks it’s very interesting and fun to do. G.L said that it’s interesting to see that it might actually work according to the fortune teller paper.

The fortune teller and the fortune teller paper play a big part in the tradition. The fortune teller and her paper can possible tell how someone’s life will play out, but according to G.L, it’s quite uncommon that the paper would actually be telling the truth.

I personally don’t believe in this kind of stuff, and like G.L said, it’s uncommon for anything to actually happen. For G.L listening to the fortune teller would be her tradition, but the fortune telling aspect would be myth. It’s dealing form the outside world to have something happen to us, or it could be just luck.

The way we eat

Stephen S. is my friend in high school, and he is from Wisconsin. He was born and raised there, but moved to Taiwan for high school. He’s now back in Wisconsin for college.

Stephen S. told me about a folk-custom that he had to endure when he was living with his parents.  Stephen S. said that whenever he would eat alone, he would just eat anything he wants in any particular order, but eating at home, he would have to eat with his mother, and his mother would be very strict in what order he should eat his food, but not what he actually ate, which he thought was strange.  The order was that Stephen would have to eat his fruits first if there were any, and then eat his main meal, and he can only finish his drink until the very end.

This remembered this custom fairly well, because now he can’ eat breakfast without going out of order. Stephen said that now every time he eats breakfast, it would be in order of fruits, the main course, then finishing his drink, it just became natural. He learned this custom from his mom, and his mom always said that she learned from her mom and that’s why Stephen also needs to follow this custom. Stephen never knew what it meant to him, but he always assumed it was to do with health matters.

This custom revolves around how someone would eat something so I would assume it would have to do with culture. May be the Asian culture preferred eating fruit first and finishing the drink because it happens to be healthier that way.

Personally, I have never heard of this custom. My mother doesn’t really mind what order I eat in, as long as I just finish my food. This custom could be a family tradition or a ritual. Eating in a specific order might even please your ancestors if they always had preferred to eat it in that order.

Japanese Turtle Fountain

Stephen S. is my friend in high school, and he is from Wisconsin. He was born and raised there, but moved to Taiwan for high school. He’s now back in Wisconsin for college.

He told me of a tradition and a legend that he has experienced yearly when he was still in high school. He would always go to Japan every year for s skiing trip, and every time they would stay in the same place; at a hotel near the skiing resort. In the hotel there was a well with turtles sprouting water like a water fountain. Every time before they ski, Stephen and his family would rub or pet the turtles’ shell then throw a coin in the well to wish that their skiing trip would be safe. Stephen told me that because of doing this, no one in their family has ever been into a skiing accident.

Stephen remembers this tradition because of how it is tradition that was done out of his own country. He said that he and his family has their “own little thing” that they do outside of Taiwan, and he thought that was really special. He also said that he may not necessity believed that rubbing the turtles and tossing the coin in was the sole reason that all of their trips were safe, but it’s fun knowing that something like may happen and be real. His father was the first one who taught him about the turtle fountain, and Stephen told that his father found out about doing this because he saw another family doing the same thing in the same exact wishing well.

The turtle fountain was the focus of the legend in that the family believed it could be used as a wishing well. Even though the wishing well may not be real, the existence of it was enough to make the family believe that something like this can happen.

I believe that this is a folk-tradition since they do this every year, but the tradition has also been done someone from outside the family. It could be a family tradition or the tradition of the hotel and people in the hotel knows the secret of the Turtle Fountain. This would also be considered a folk-legend because many people believe that fact the Turtle Fountain can grant wishes, but many others would believe it to be a regular fountain. It could be real or not, there’s not really a way to be absolutely sure.