Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Preventative Chinese Childhood Folkbelief “Genitals on Head”

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Room 3303C, 920 W. 37th PL. Los Angelos, California 90007
Performance Date: 4/23/2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

My informant is second generation Chinese American female student. She grew up in Chongqing, China but moved to America when she was six and a half. After coming to America, she has moved around from Texas to California to Iowa and finally to Missouri. She mentioned the following childhood belief during a group study session when we were discussing our childhoods:

“Informant: Ok, so, this was in kindergarten. Like…we had bathrooms where the boys and the girls went to the same bathroom and so like the thing was if you like looked at the other person’s genital area, you’re supposed to grow the thing on your forehead [laughter] and so if girls looked at a guy’s penis [giggles] they’ll have a penis grow on their head [laughter].

Collector (me): So did you believe in this? Where did you learn this?

Informant: No, I was in the bathroom when someone was talking about it and I overheard.

Collector: Why do you think this belief spread?

Informant: Um…I guess…probably parents told their kids not to do it and that’s how they were going to scare them.”

I consider this folklore homeopathic childhood magic in the sense that it carries the quality where “like attracts like”. In this case, looking at genitals of the other sex, causes one to grow said genitals on one’s head. And children, especially little girls (in my informant’s case), believing in this magic and unwilling to grow genitals on their heads, will try not to look at the genitals of the other sex. As my informant believes that Chinese parents told their children this folklore to scare them, this folklore is obvious in its preventive nature–stopping childhood sexual curiosity. In that nature, this folklore reaffirms the perhaps university and global belief that children are meant to be kept innocent, naive and sexless. Moreover, this folklore implies the gender/sex division of children as early as kindergarten, which seems to be an aspect of preventing sexual curiosity.

However, considering how the “scare effect” is achieved, the belief “don’t look or you’ll grow one on your forehead” doesn’t scare one unless that person is relatively familiar with what genitalia looks like. That is to say, the only reason a little girl wouldn’t want the male genitalia growing on her head would be because she knows what it looks like. So, this folklore also implicitly shows us that children might be familiar with or already exposed to the other sex’s characteristics in an period as early as kindergarten (or at least in China where this folklore originated from).

It also begs one to consider, if there was such a focus on sex/gender division and naivety, why were boys and girls made to go to the same bathroom at my informant’s school.

Thai remedy

Nationality: Mexican-Slovian-American
Age: 20
Occupation: student at usc
Residence: Arlington, Virginia
Performance Date: April 20th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: some french

“Drinking warm water every day is healthy.”

The informant heard this from her elementary school friend’s mother from Thailand.  She does not believe in this remedy and does not understand it.

Perhaps the Thai culture wants people to stay hydrated by drinking water since Thailand is such a warm place.  However, in Holland it is often cold so drinking cold water may not be as appealing, so perhaps the mother changed the remedy to warm water to adjust to her new climate.  Thai people are also known for their tea so perhaps drinks that remind them of tea, like warm water, express their culture so the drink is encouraged.

Chinese High-Rises

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Residence: Redlands, CA
Performance Date: 5/26/2011
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

In chinese culture, the number four is unlucky. Therefore, high-rises in China will not have the fourth, fourteenth or forty fourth floor. These buttons are often missing in elevators. If a building has that floor, then the apartments are extremely discounted. Eddie saw this in his family’s apartment building in Jilian, China.

? sì 4
? s? death
In Chinese, the words for “four” and “death” are homophonous. Therefore the number is often associated with bad luck. The superstition associating death with bad luck is common.

Mudd Pies

Nationality: German-American
Age: 19
Occupation: student at USC
Residence: Irvine, CA
Performance Date: April 20th, 2011
Primary Language: Hebrew
Language: Spanish

“In elementary school we used to make food out of mud and dirt to make mud pies.  Used to pretend I was a witch and they would mean things if you eat them. Over recess we would leave the pies them out to bake.”

The informant thinks this is about children starting to explore their cooking abilities and their wish to have supernatural powers.  The informant watched lots of tv so she was exposed to the idea of magic from a young age and assumed it was not impossible to harness.

Shows that the kids in Irvine believe in magic and that they watch lots of tv and believe what they see.  There may be stronger belief in witch-craft and people may be more tolerant of supernatural ideas.  I also believe this act was children imitating their parents and trying to cook like them.  Perhaps children are baking to copy the people they admire, such as their parents.

Slovenian Chalk

Nationality: Mexican-Slovian-American
Age: 20
Occupation: student at usc
Residence: Arlington, Virginia
Performance Date: April 20th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: some french

“My mother told me if I have an upset stomach I should eat writing chalk.”

The informant thought that her mother thought calcium is like the drug “tums” so same it is the same idea.  Her mother is Slovenian.  She though the chalk would be impure and gross so she never tried the chalk.

Slovenia is known to have many natural chalk streams in the country.  All the natural chalk must be in abundance so the people must utilize it as common resource.  Because of its availability, some people might have used the chalk as a calcium supplement.  I am not sure however, how calcium is supposed to make someone’s stomach feel better.