The Main Piece
Many East Asian cultures instill values in children through the legends they tell. Catherine recalls a story her grandparents would tell her as a child about a greedy landowner, his workers, and a rooster. Although the landowner was rich, he was extremely greedy, trying to make as much money as possible. Every day his workers would wake up when the rooster crowed and begin plowing the fields. “The landowner wanted them to work more so he came up with…with a scheme! To make the farmers work more, he would sneak up into one of the villager’s rooster house and would make a crowing sound. When the rooster heard this it too would make a crowing sound, but a louder one that woke up the other roosters in the village. Then, the workers would wake up, thinking it was time to plow the fields, making them work longer hours. One night a boy went to take a piss outside and saw the landowner. He told all the farmers so they came up with their own plan. The next night, when the landowner crept up into the rooster’s house one of the men yelled ‘THIEF’ and all the villagers came out and beat him up. That’s pretty much the end.”
Background Information
The informant of this story is Catherine Wang, a current undergraduate student at USC and personal friend of mine. She recalls this story being told to her by her mother in an attempt to teach her daughter not to steal from or swindle others. As a child she enjoyed hearing this story because she felt it was funny imagining the landowner getting “beaten to a pulp.” To this day she still enjoys hearing and telling this story, but now it is because of the righteousness the plot line contains which she believes is absent in reality.
Context
Catherine told me this story as we were riding the monorail together and we were talking about each other’s families. The conversation turned into more of a comparison of our two different lifestyles as we saw how our family’s differing beliefs influenced the stories we were told at an early age.
Personal Thoughts
At first I had no idea what to expect when Catherine asked me “Do you know the story that had the rich landowner and the rooster?” It sounded as if it would be a simple children’s book, but as Catherine later explained to me, it represented the abuse of the Chinese government during the time and encouraged workers to take a stand and revolt against the government. While I always understood many children’s stories to have some type of moralistic meaning behind it, I did not consider this legend to also be a metaphor for the governmental system and abuse and the current time.
Category Archives: folk metaphor
The Blue Frog
- Original Script: 청개구리
- Phonetic Script: Chung-kgeh-kgu-ry
- Transliteration Blue frog
- I know this because my mom used to say it to me when someone was acting strangely for attention
- I learned it from my mother
- It just means that when you’re behaving oddly you’re like a blue frog trying to fight the normalcy of the usual green frog.
- The context of the performance was just me and Mom discussing various folk speech in Korea because she always has some sort of phrase to say to me for all sorts of situations.
- I think it’s a very typical piece of Korean folk speech. I noticed through hanging out with other Korean families and watching historical Korean movies that a lot of their customs and culture is built around animals and consistency (as valued in their primary religions of Confucianism and Buddhism). However, growing up I got the impression that to stand out is discouraged unless it’s because you’re more gifted than others. So it makes sense to me that there’s an entire phrase dedicated to those who fight normalcy.
Las Perlas de la Virgen
Title: – Las Perlas de la Virgen
Interviewee: Armando Vildosola
Ethnicity: Mexican-American
Age: 21
Situation (Location, ambience, gathering of people?): Just me and my older brother Armando, as I asked him to share his most important pieces of wisdom that our family has shared throughout the generations. We do this every so often as some way to strengthen the bonds that we have as brothers, something of a brother meeting or a brotherly bonding session. We are sitting in our home in San Diego around our dinner table, having just finished dinner. Out house is full of family walking about visiting from Mexico. We are both on spring break from school at USC.
Piece of Folklore:
Interviewee- “Las perlas de la Virgen”
Interviewer- “What is that?”
Interviewee- “Well it directly translates to the pearls of the Virgin. As in the Virgin Mary.”
Interviewer- “What does that mean to you?”
Interviewee- “Same thing it means to all Mexicans. It something that you use when you want to make fun of someone for valuing something too highly or when they expect too much. Something like, “You want me to pay you how much for that? What do you think that is, the pearls of the Virgin?” Things like that. It’s really common among all Mexicans.”
Interviewer- “Where did you first hear of this saying?”
Interviewee- “Oh everywhere in Mexico growing up. I remember that my mom specifically said it a lot, and soon when I was around 16 it found a way into the words that I use. I kind of starting using the words my mom used.”
Interviewer- “Why do you use it so much?”
Interviewee- “I don’t know really. I mean it’s just so easy to use and it’s really good for what it does. On one hand I guess that it does fill a need word-wise. But on the other hand using it reminds me of my mother, and my family that I have since lost. It makes me feel like a real Mexican when I use the phrase. I like it.”
Analyzation:
This saying is common throughout Mexico, and one can see that it connects the Interviewee with his culture, even when he is living in the United States. It means more to the Interviewee than other people, but that it just this once case. This phrase is derived from the Catholic faith, and it makes sense that Mexicans would use such a phrase. Mexico is after all the most Catholic country in the world, total percentage of the population wise. It only makes sense for their faith to become a part of their daily lives, including the way they speak.
Tags: Mexico, Saying, Catholicism
Mataron a mi tio!
I work in a kitchen with a large amount of Hispanics. And towards the end of the day when we’re all worn out some of my coworkers will say things to sort of boost spirits amongst the others. There was one I heard a lot: “Mataron a mi tio!” It is said in a tone where the phrase increases in volume. So it kind of goes like this: mataron a MI TIO! The phrase is quick and short, but gets people to smile and keep on working hard.
After asking around one of the workers there told me that it was a play on catchphrase a famous radio show would say on 103.1 FM.
I couldn’t find out what the original phrase was, but literally translated “mataron a mi tio!” means “they killed my uncle!”. I wish I knew more about the inside joke, but now every time I hear it at work I understand through context that the phrase is said to lift spirits and moral. It’s one of those occupational folklore that is only known by people that work there.
Chinese Dragon Symbol
The informant is a junior at USC. She is of Chinese origin, but was born and raised in America. Kim talks about the metaphor of the Chinese Dragon and what it means to the Chinese culture.
Kim: “At a like festival, or you would go to a temple where they have these New Year celebrations. There are people who do dragon dances, so it’s basically like they wear like a dragon head…it’s like a bunch of people, they have like a long train that everyone- there’s a bunch of people holding it up.”
Me: So is the dragon a metaphor or symbol of something?”
Kim: “…It might just be along the line of like scaring away evil.”
Me: “So is that just a New Year’s…? Does the dragon just come around New Year’s?”
Kim: “I mean I think the dragon is like very stereotypically Chinese. I’m pretty sure we do it at other holidays too.”
Me: “So what is the Chinese dragon symbolic of?”
Kim: “I think it might be related to like the royal family…the dragon’s very regal…you know like very royal.”
Me: “ Is the fire breathing symbolic of something?”
Kim: “I don’t know. I’ve been to like the Forbidden Palace, it’s like a castle in China. So they have like all these dragon sculptures, so I think it’s supposed to represent like the emperor or something like that.”
The informant’s ideas about the Chinese dragon aren’t terribly clear, but I think it can be suggested that the Chinese dragon is a symbol often signifying great strength, power, and dominance. I think it’s a very revered figure, and If it is metaphoric of the emperor, a very powerful and highly esteemed individual, the dragon may symbolize the possess the same qualities for Chinese society. In American culture, dragon’s seem to connote a more dangerous, predator-like stereotype.
This is contradictory to the idea that dragons warn off bad affiliations, as characterized in chinese culture.
For other developed conceptions of the chinese Dragon along with legends and idioms related to the dragon, see “The Chinese Dragon: A Symbol of Strength and Power.” ChinaHighlights. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
