Author Archives: seunggih@usc.edu

Gender Reveal Party

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 10th, 2018
Primary Language: English

Story

 

“Okay there are many different ways to host a gender reveal party. Oh and gender reveal party is just where the gender of the baby is informed to the parent in different ways. One of the ways that was recently trending was gender reveal through sports. For example, like in a basketball gender reveal party, people will fill the basketball with purchasable colored smoke bombs. One parent will take the shot, and if the get the ball into the hoop, the colored smoke bombs will break open, revealing blue smoke if the baby is a boy, and pink smoke if the baby is a girl.”

 

Context

 

I collected this from my friend that I made in university. He is Asian American and grew up in the city of Walnut his whole life. When I asked of any American folk traditions or rituals, despite gender reveal party not being historically and traditionally embedded into every American household, he informed me of the gender reveal party as it was something that is a very recent trend and something where I could discuss the effects of social media on the spreading of folklore, traditions and rituals.     The gender reveal party, especially in the form of basketball, is significant to my friend as before seeing this ritual, he had no interest and intention on gender reveal parties. However, after watching many viral clips on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, he tells me that now he wants to perhaps have one gender reveal party for his own child because he wanted to participate in the activity due to it looking fun.

 

Analysis

 

The gender reveal party example shows hybridization of traditions. By relating the gender reveal to a very relatable activity such as sports, the gender reveal ritual is definitely more exciting than just being informed of the baby’s gender. Additionally, as it is a party, it is a ritual that promotes socializing with others.

The ritual also outlines the power of social media. The ritual became so popularized on the internet that gender reveal products are extremely accessible.

However, this goes against propagative nature of folklore due to the ritual spreading through views on a video, rather than through word of mouth. This could be due to the ritual being so dependent on the visual effects of the colored smoke bombs, as telling one about throwing a basketball into a hoop to have pink smoke exploding outside indicating that the child is a girl is less exciting than seeing it through video, and hearing the cheers of many people.

Three Year Mountain Pass (삼년고개)

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: March 29th, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Story

 

The three year mountain pass (삼년고개/ sam-nyeon-go-gae) is a traditional Korean folk tale.

“Once upon a time, there was the three-year mountain pass. The mountain pass had its notorious name due to everybody that fell on these mountain passages only having lived three years after falling. One day, a grandfather, who was a lumberjack, was carefully treading the three-year mountain pass when a hare suddenly appeared, scaring the grandfather and causing him to fall. Once realizing that he fell on the three-year mountain pass, he fell ill knowing that he had only three-years left. As the third year became closer, the grandson asked the worrying grandfather what the worry was about and the grandfather explained his fall in the three-year mountain pass. Then the grandson replied: “Then if you fall there again you will three more years and if you fall once more, would you not live six?” After hearing his grandson’s input on the situation, the grandfather went to the three-year mountain pass and proceeded to fall numerous amount of times and lived happily ever after”

 

 

Context

 

I collected this from my high school friend who lives in Shanghai, China. Despite living abroad, I was amazed when I went over to his house because his bookshelf was filled with Korean children’s folktales. He stated in the interview that because he moved abroad to Shanghai at a young age of three, his parents feared that he would lose to ability to speak Korean or not be able to identify renowned traditional stories. So his father made sure to always buy books when he traveled back to Korea for business and carry them back in suitcases. Because he is the youngest child from both the maternal and paternal side of the family, he states that he has no younger cousins to give the books to so he plans to make sure his children read the same books as he did.

This story is significant to only only my friend, but to many people that attended Korean pre-school, kindergarten or elementary school, as the three-year mountain pass is one of the first stories children learn.

 

Analysis

 

The tale of the three-year mountain pass, promotes thinking outside of box. If it was not for the grandson looking at the problem from a different angle, the grandfather would have passed away due to being fixated on the thought of only having three-years left in his life. It can also be interpreted to think simple, as the simple mind process of the child was what was able to save the grandfather.

Additional interesting factors are that this is a tale that is intended for children but it is a story of a child saving the day, despite the lack of knowledge and wisdom. It can have a moral to parents of not completely disregarding the children’s input on a situation, as well as showing kids that its okay to have courage to say what they believe is right to their parents.

On a final note, the story also has themes of worrying about impending doom, as the grandfather lies ill for the three years. The story gives a moral of not wasting times worrying about the impending doom as although the grandfather laid ill for three years, there was no information about the three years, implying that they all went to waste due to there being no relevant information during the three years, other than the fact that he was ill, to show that the grandfather did nothing significant for years due worrying about a factor that he thought he could not influence.

 

Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji (망태할아버지)

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 53
Occupation: Doctor
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: March 27th, 2018
Primary Language: Korean
Language: Mandarin, English

Mang-tae-gi

Story

 

“Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji will come kidnap disobedient children!” (말 안 듣는 아이는 망태기 할아버지가 잡으러 온다!) is a phrase that makes all Korean children shiver in fear. Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji means grandpa (hal-a-buh-ji) of net bag (mang-tae-gi). The net bag was widely used during the pre-modern times and is made from weaving hay together like a net, making a tightly knit bag for carrying goods such as crops.

There are stories of the Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji kidnapping children either to scold them and return them back, never let them return or cannibalizing on them. It is commonly thought that the origin of the Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji is of old men that were leprous carrying the Mang-tae-gi bag. There was a belief of being able to be cured of leprosy through boiling and eating a child.

 

Context

 

I collected this from my mother, who has numerously used the name of Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji in the past in order to get me to become more obedient. This is significant to my mother has herself has also been subjected to this superstition by her own mother. My grandmother, despite being a devout catholic woman, made sure to track all superstitions to keep my then unborn twin cousins safe from harm. One of them involved giving the yet to be born child no pre-birth name (태명/ Tae-myeong) or intentionally giving them a very bad pre-birth name. This was because of the superstition of when one gives a good pre-birth names to children, evil spirits that are around, including Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji, will try to inflict harm on the good child. By downplaying the child through a bad pre-birth name, one is able to avoid the attention from these unwanted evil spirits. My twin cousins were given pre-birth names of Ddol-ddol-I (똘똘이) which means someone that is somewhat bright. Not the worst, but not good enough for evil spirits I guess.

 

 

Analysis

 

Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji can be compared to the Boogeyman, another mythical creature that is used to frighten children into good behavior. By instilling fear of disobeying, the parents can control the child much easier. However, despite using the name of Mang-tae-gi-hal-a-buh-ji to scare children, the parents themselves also take caution against the evil spirit by taken on traditions such as giving no pre-birth names or bad pre-birth names.

 

The Secret Cow Level in Diablo

Nationality: South Korean
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 2nd, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Mandarin

Story

 

“There was a rumor where if in Diablo, if you clicked on a certain cow in Tristram a specific amount of times, you can go to a secret cow level that was just full of cows.”

 

Context

 

I collected this from my older brother, who has been an avid gamer with me since as long as I can remember. When we went abroad to Vancouver, Canada, to study English, we started playing on Diablo on the desktop computer at the house of his homestay. This was in 2006, when Diablo II was already out. By the time we played the game, the game developers have already debunked the rumors and created a secret cow level in Diablo II as a tribute to this rumor. However, despite knowing that the rumor was not true, we would consistently try to click on the lone cow of Tristram different amount of times, hoping that the rumors were actually true and we could witness that awesome moment.

Blizzard Games, the company that created Diablo, continues to create more Cow Levels in new games in the franchise.

 

 

Analysis

 

This collected data emphasizes the propagative nature of folklore. Some rumor that was traveled by word of mouth grew to become a tradition to keep up for the franchise. The rumor on its own is a gaming legend and the ritual to the cow level happens in a very real place within the game.

 

Kappa (河童)

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Massachusetts, Boston
Performance Date: March 29th, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Japanese, Mandarin

Story

 

“Kappa means river child in Japanese. Kappa are children sized and are a mix of turtle, monkey and a lizard. They live near lakes and rivers, have a shell on their back and beaks with teeth. Types of Kappa can vary but all Kappas have a bowl on the top of their head that contains a liquid. If you make the Kappa bow and make it spill the liquid, it will lose its strength and you can beat it. Kappa really likes cucumbers so you can try to negotiate a deal for your life in exchange for the cucumber. Otherwise, it is very strong and is known to be dangerous. They rape women and attack people excreting near the river by eating their organs from the anus. Kappas will pull people into the water to kill them and drink the blood from the person dry.”

 

Context

 

I collected this from my Japanese friend that I befriended during my times studying abroad in Shanghai, China. Kappa is significant to her and I because of me constantly saying Kappa, which is an emote available on the video game streaming site known as Twitch. It is a black and white picture of a man’s face, which represents sarcasm on the website. When I talked using the emote Kappa, my friend asked why I was constantly talking about the mythical creature Kappa. At that moment, she helped me become more cultured about Japanese traditions and I helped her become more cultured about internet traditions.

 

Analysis

 

The story of Kappa warns people, especially children, to not wander around lakes and rivers. This is significant as it prevents people from drowning. Rather than telling people that they might drown if they are near the lake or river, by creating a fear towards the lake or river the drowning can be completely prevented by making sure people stay away due to fear.