Nationality: Korean Primary Language: Korean Age: 50 Occupation: Country Branch Manager Residence: Seoul, South Korea Performance Date: 16 February 2024
Tags: green beans, red beans, seeds, agriculture, South Korea, proverb, saying, result
Text:
“콩심은데 콩나고, 팥심은데 팥난다.”
Literal: “You get green beans where you plant green bean seeds and you get red beans where you plan red bean seeds.”
Meaning: ‘Every result has its own reason.’
Context:
R is a born and raised South Korean. This is one of the sayings R taught me when growing up in Korea, along with a plethora of other proverbs and lessons. Apparently he had heard it from his father before him and so on, and it’s a pretty common Korean saying. R once said this to me when I forgot to bring my coat out one chilly winter afternoon and came down with a cold a few days later.
Analysis:
The English saying “You reap what you sow” might be a variant of this saying, as both are about agriculture and acquiring the direct result of your actions. Perhaps the cultural differences influence the way the saying is said (with Koreans using beans in many dishes and Western cultures liking simple, easy-to-say proverbs), while the meaning behind the sayings are shared worldwide.
Literal: “People fear fame like pigs fear slaughter.”
Meaning: ‘Fame has a price.’
Context:
T is a born and raised Taiwanese local, and this is one of the sayings she grew up with. She actually didn’t teach me this until recently, after she had seen an article on Facebook about a celebrity committing suicide due to scandals and such.
Analysis:
Pork is an important part of Taiwanese cuisine, to the point where there have even been controversies and multiple news headlines about the quality and transportation of pork within Taiwan’s international trading scene. The saying itself reminds me of our class/discussion where we talked about the differences in how people view fame and wealth in Ethiopia versus America, in which Ethiopia has sayings that denote skepticism and warnings towards wealth while America praises wealth and fortune as something people have to work hard for.
“So my dad got me two hulu because it’s like a lucky charm, and they’re like very round. I’m not really sure why they’re lucky, but I know there’s a show called Hu Lu Wa, and like there’s little guys who come out of the hulu and beat evil people up. Yeah, so my dad was like these two things are very, like, brings you luck and safety, security, whatever… good stuff.”
Context:
The teller is a first-generation Chinese American raised in the Bay Area of Northern California. She received the two hulu, or calabash gourds, as a gift from her father, who purchased the items while visiting a riverside ancient city area in China. The teller’s family is from Shanghai, but she notes that the hulu is a common symbol found throughout the country.
Analysis:
Within Chinese culture, the calabash is a common charm for luck, fertility, and protection, charms associated with it due to its shape and also historic use as containers for items like medicine. It is interesting to note that while the teller confesses she doesn’t truly understand the meaning behind the calabash, she is able to find personal meaning through the association of the gourds with the show Hu Lu Wa, or Calabash Brothers. Hu Lu Wa is a popular Chinese animated cartoon in which seven brothers born from a set of rainbow calabash gourds must protect their home from two demons, and it remains a common cultural experience for many in the Chinese diaspora of the current generation*. The teller’s association of this folk object with the show points to how popular culture and media in the modern age influences how folklore is passed on and communicated, particularly to members of a diaspora and those who have a certain degree of separation from the culture and may not organically learn of specific meanings otherwise. *Note from the collector: I as a Chinese person raised in the US have bonded with many First-Generation Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants over knowledge of Hu Lu Wa and other Chinese animations like it. Based on personal observation, I think it is common for Chinese parents born in the 70s to show these to their children as a way to connect our childhood to their own, which explains the popularity of the show amongst Chinese people of my generation in spite of the chronological distance between the 80s and the 2000s. Hu Lu Wa and other shows made by Shanghai Animation Film Studios occupy a similar role in Chinese pop culture that classic Disney movies have in American pop culture.
On Christmas Eve the foods are based on the Viking traditional foods in Sweden :
Cold First course:
Beet salad with beets, pickles, herring
Herring
Rye or hard bread with butter and cheese
Warm second course
Ham with mustard
Julienne potatoes with cream and anchovies
Meatballs
Sausages
Cabbage
Dessert
Cookies with cream and berries
Then on Christmas day aside from the leftovers, the foods are based on Christianised Swedish foods:
We have leftovers from Christmas Eve for the first course
Second course
Lutefisk or another more mild white fish
Boiled potatoes
Peas
Bechamel sauce
Dessert
Rice porridge with milk, sugar, and cinnamon
Put a peeled almond in the porridge (so it is the same color) and everyone takes it without looking
Then we say poems around the table while eating and the person who gets to almond has to pretend like they don’t have it and everyone guesses who got the almond
Whoever gets the almond gets a little almond gift
Context:
The informant is the granddaughter of a Swedish immigrant and these are the traditional foods eaten on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day for dinner.
Analysis:
The informant’s family is Swedish-American and therefore mixes some American traditions in with the Swedish but relies heavily on the Swedish ones for the majority of what they do. Eating these foods although difficult to get and not always the favorite of the American guests allows for the family to retain part of their identity that they find important. They make an annual summer trip to Sweden and would like to eventually spend Christmas there as well as there are more Christmas traditions that they cannot do as they are not in the right location. Because of this, they do the ones they can which include the food they eat. Retaining the pre-Christian Viking food as well indicates a sense of pride in their heritage and brings them together. Keeping the traditions also helps add a sense of family and fosters an atmosphere of community. The family is very close as a result and all of them meet for all major holidays. The traditions bring them together and give clear boundaries of who is considered family and who is not, as it is a big deal to be invited to partake in the traditions.
The informant is a family member of mine that has lived in Lebanon for the entirety of her life and has grown up learning the significance of certain rituals and traditions with the world around her.
Medicine:
The informant describes this medicine as a plant that is seen very traditionally “in many Arabic or Lebanese homes”. Although the plant has an original term and transliteration, it does not have a direct translation to the English language and is “similar to the leaves grown on herbal plants”. The plant is used to heal most wounds that include “deep cuts, scrapes and other physical injuries that required care” and is done by cutting up the leaves and making it into a “paste-like texture” and rubbing it into the wound. She states that it must be wrapped on the wound and left with no other ointments or medications as it is said to “clear the wound of any bacteria and also help it heal with the nutrient provided. The elder of the family, “usually my grandmother” my informant states will usually rub the plant into the wound and say a religious prayer to accompany the physical healing for general health and prosperity.
Context:
Although it is believed to have physical healing properties similar to aloe vera, it also holds religious significance as the plant was believed to have been the “Arabic blessing from god onto [their] gardens.” This is due to the plant not being seen anywhere besides the Levantine region and is seen as a gift that is only presented to them with its supposed healing powers physically and religiously. It is seen in most elders’ gardens as it was believed to have been the most “beneficial plant for bodily treatment”. The religious prayer was usually from the Islamic book, the Qur’an and would denote speeches from there to “help the kids who get hurt from their everyday activities”. The informant states that “it was important for me to do the same for my children and grandchildren because I still believe in this plant’s medicine and how god will listen to us” conveying its importance on her family and bloodline.
Analysis:
The plant is seen as more than a healing alternative to modern-day medicine as it seems to be still used to present the significance of culture on the healing and growth of children who get hurt and are treated with this plant. Religiously, the implications of the medicine being a gift from god allows the elders of the family to be seen as authority figures performing the acts of god on the children, healing and removing their worries from a situation through the use of plants grown in their garden. This blessing of the medicine in Lebanese culture plays a larger role as my informant still believes that it is the most suitable for most cases of harm, presenting it as a sort of ritual. It signifies the transferring of culture from one generation to another as she still uses it today on her grandchildren whilst teaching them the benefits. The life cycle of a plant may also be used to depict the human life cycle as it is also religiously associated and presents connotations of healing, allowing younger generations to feel connected to this certain folk medicine for the rest of their lives and offering them protection.
