Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Guru and the Boiling Water

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

Description: “Yeah so he (Guru Arjan) was like, i guess the Muslim invaders wanted him to comply to their invasion. I don’t know what the exact context was but he like refused so they like boiled him. Er they put like a metal slab with boiling water underneath him but since he’s so spiritually powerful it didn’t do anything to him. For like five days or something like that. Eventually the Muslims were successful. I think they, I don’t really know honestly, but I’m guessing they went to a village where he stayed and he was a spokesperson for those people, like a representative. So like they demanded something and he refused so they punished him. But he was so spiritually powerful it didn’t affect him. There were ten Sikh Gurus. They didn’t necessarily politically rule. I think some of the last one was a military leader too. He was a defence from invaders from Afghanistan and muslims on the east side. But this one was just a spiritual leader. He was just a spiritual leader. Most of these guys are just spiritual leaders.”

2. This was a story that he had seen in books but had also just heard by word of mouth as well.

3. I walked into his dorm and asked him if he could tell me some Hindu folklore. He gave me this one.

4. The Punjabi people obviously have a lot of respect for this man. He is seen as a goal for them all to strive for in their spiritual lives. He protects the weak and honors all as equals. This gives him immense power as an individual.

 

Guru Arjan

Nationality: Indian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

Description: “Guru Arjan was the fifth guru in India. He was the leading spiritual leader when the muslims invaded India. And like Punjabi people are historically warrior people so they were able to resist the invasion. But the rest of india was engulfed. But the leader of the like muslims conquerers wanted to like meet with him. And like Sikh temples are called gurdwaras but they serve food to everybody because they believe in community service and making sure everybody has a meal. But everybody has to sit down on the floor because when the king came he was expecting like this nice reception. But when he got there they were like no we have to all sit down on the floor cause we’re all equals like there’s no difference between you and a homeless man, you know what I mean?”

2. This seemed like a tale that was told specifically by word of mouth.

3. I walked into his dorm and asked him to tell me some folklore. This was one that he told me.

4. This tale sheds light on the spiritualism that’s present in eastern India with the Punjabi people specifically. It also sheds light on their relationship with other nations. The seemed to have a particularly poor view of the Muslims and that’s represented in this Legend. Most people believe Guru Arjan to have actually existed. No one really knows if he had the powers that he is believed to have had.

 

Jiangshi

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: He goes to school here at USC in LA but is from Shanghai.
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

1. “There are a lot of Zombie stories in China, especially the middle part of China. There’s a lot of mysterious people who are so skilled at controlling zombies to do something very bad. These people are suppressed by Chinese people in mid 20th century because the communist party would suppress them and their stories. Stories still circulate today. We call the people who control the zombies Jiangshi. In Chinese it means the people who chase the zombies to control the zombies. They control zombies so they could use them to force people to give them money and if people give them money they would not use the zombies to damage their homes or damage their families. There’s specific details in ancient Chinese books. These are real jobs 200 years ago but it’s prohibited by governments in different eras because they’re mystical. Also, people who take those jobs are against the government.” 

2. He knows stories like these because he’s from Shanghai. Supposedly these are magical tales that parents tell their children.

3.  I went into his dorm and asked him if he could tell me some Chinese folklore. He had so much more that I couldn’t fit into the project as a whole.

4. This element of Chinese culture is not necessarily one seen only in China. Even more so, it’s not necessarily only seen in the eastern parts of the world. For example, there are very similar characteristics associated with voodoo practices in the caribbean. As far as I know from my subject, there aren’t exactly “good voodoo” practitioners in china with zombies like there are in the caribbean. It’s also worth noting that he made an effort to outline the fact that he couldn’t remember all the details that he’s read in the ancient Chinese books. That means not only were these stories spread by word of mouth, but apparently there were some fairly well developed written accounts of these stories as well. That could possibly mean that these books contain not only written accounts of these individuals known as the “Jiangshi” but it’s also possible that they include instructions on how to actually perform the deed of raising the dead as well.

Asian Zombies

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: He lives in LA for school but is from Shanghai.
Performance Date: April 25, 2016
Primary Language: English

Description: “There are a lot of Zombie stories in China, especially the middle part of China. There’s a lot of mysterious people who are so skilled at controlling zombies to do something very bad. These people are suppressed by Chinese people in mid 20th century because the communist party would suppress them and their stories. Stories still circulate today. We call the people who control the zombies goyang-si. In Chinese it means the people who chase the zombies to control the zombies. They control zombies so they could use them to force people to give them money and if people give them money they would not use the zombies to damage their homes or damage their families. There’s specific details in ancient Chinese books. These are real jobs 200 years ago but it’s prohibited by governments in different eras because they’re mystical. Also, people who take those jobs are against the government.” This element of Chinese culture is not necessarily one seen only in China. Even more so, it’s not necessarily only seen in the eastern parts of the world. For example, there are very similar characteristics associated with voodoo practices in the caribbean. As far as I know from my subject, there aren’t exactly “good voodoo” practitioners in china with zombies like there are in the caribbean. It’s also worth noting that he made an effort to outline the fact that he couldn’t remember all the details that he’s read in the ancient Chinese books. That means not only were these stories spread by word of mouth, but apparently there were some fairly well developed written accounts of these stories. That could possibly mean that these books contain not only written accounts of these individuals known as the “Goeng-Si” but it’s also possible that they include instructions on how to actually perform the deed of raising the dead as well.”

 

2. Andrew grew up hearing stories about these zombies. They came in through books and childhood stories.

3. I walked into his dorm and asked him to tell me some Chinese folklore. This was one of the stories that he told me.

 

4. I think these stories also offer interesting similarities to voodoo stories from Haiti. They both contain some sort of mind control. However, the Asian zombies don’t tend to have a priest of a good morale. All their leaders are bad. In fact, one thing that strikes me as interesting is how the suppression of these people has influenced their work as a whole. It’d be interesting to write a paper comparing the two practices.

Bread Crust and Curly Hair

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: San Diego
Performance Date: 3/12/16
Primary Language: English

SS is from San Diego. Her grandma used to tell her that eating the crust of bread would make her hair curly. S tells me, “I didn’t want curly hair, so I would never eat the bread crusts.” To this day S still feels uncomfortable eating crusts. Her grandma really convinced her that this superstition is true. I believe this shows the power that older figures have on the young, especially with folklore. Children take their parents’ and grandparents’ words as law, because it is really their only source of information for the first few years of their life. This explains how parents can influence their children’s behavior so much through various folk beliefs (a theme I keep coming upon in my research).

The superstition that bread crusts give you curly hair is actually an old folk belief. The belief probably emerged a few hundred years ago when curly hair was associated with being healthy. Bread is packed with calories, and it is a low-cost food that almost anyone ate to stave of starvation. A malnourished person might lose their hair, while a healthy one would have a full head of (possibly curly) hair. This is probably the origin of this belief.

Furthermore, the crust is the healthiest part of the bread. Packed with antioxidants, I can see how the belief that it would aid in a more fuller head of curly hair. Curly vs. straight hair, however, is determined by genes, not diet. But this tendency to explain a mysterious scientific phenomenon (genes) with a more easy to comprehend explanation such as diet is a common theme in folk beliefs. These beliefs arise from the lay-person, not scientists. Analyzing them gives interesting insight into how we comprehend our bodies.