Chinese:
多禮必詐
(Duō lǐ bì zhà)
English:
Excess mannerism entails deception.
Literally translated as “Much ceremony will fraud”, the proverb is meant to create a distrust of those that have “excess mannerism”, or are flashy and over-the-top in their presentation, because their behavior “entails” deception. Like many other proverbs, it’s a piece of advice and a warning, in this case to avoid liars and charlatans.
Chinese:
一人得道雞犬升天
(Yīrén dé dào jīquǎnshēngtiān)
English:
“One guy who finds the way leads all those around to success.”
The informant provided two other possible translations: The first is a translation much closer to what the Chinese literally says: “One guy finds a way, then the dogs and the chickens go to heaven”. The second, closer to how it is used in everyday speech is: “A man succeeds, it benefits all those who are tied to him”. The proverb is close to the English saying “A rising tide lifts all boats,” though, according to the informant, it usage as a saying is closer to the english phrase “Win-Win”. It’s meant to imply a highly advantageous scenario where the success of one leads to the success of everyone else, or at least those dependent or tied to on the successful one.
“If you see a subway car in New York that’s empty, it’s empty for a reason: someone died inside.”
Stories of the New York City subway are extremely popular amongst New York City residents — from horror stories of things seen in the subway, to close shaves with somewhat violent homeless people. According to the informant, this piece of advice has caused him to not enter an empty subway car, simply because, even if there’s no dead body inside, it’s bad luck. This belief is one of many urban legends about people dying on public transportation, especially the subway. Death on the subway may be an affecting topic because of the importance the subway has in the lives of people living in large cities.
“Back in the days when they were still figuring out borders, people had to decide who would get Staten Island, New York or New Jersey. So they had a boat race around the Island to decide who would get the island. New Jersey won.”
This is a myth that’s mostly used as a joke, though some apparently view it more like an urban legend. Perhaps predictably, the nature of the joke changes depending on where you hear it: those from Staten Island, or from parts of New York City, are more likely to tell the more straightforward version of the tale, where New York wins the race and thus Staten Island. The New Jersey variation of the legend, used by some New York City residents (like the informant), is a joke on the expense of Staten Island, as the twist ending of the joke, implies that neither state wanted Staten Island and New York got it as punishment for losing the boat race.
“So there was this kid of a construction worker – an overseer or something. One day when they were pouring cement, the kid fell into it. Nobody saw him. Apparently the kid’s name was Methuselah, and now he haunts the Library.”
According to the informant, the story itself took a backseat to becoming a practical joke played on other students: “Methuselah” became a boogeyman for the students working in the library. Tricks played on fellow students, like moving books and stealing pencils when they weren’t looking, were then blamed on Methuselah the ghost. In this case, the story is not truly taken seriously by those at the high school, and is just used as a way to confuse or scare other students, specifically new students who are not familiar with the Methuselah story.
The actual urban legend follows the general narrative formula of ghost stories, and has a similar plot hole: if no one saw the kid falling into the cement, how do they know about it?”