Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Korean ghost legend

Text:

“The folklore — or legend — I want to share is a Korean ghost legend that I heard from my mom growing up. I heard it when our family first moved to the United States, when I was in second grade, around Halloween.

The story my mom told me takes place in her high school — an all-girls high school back in Korea. In the last stall of the school bathroom, a ghost pops up out of the toilet and asks if you want red or blue toilet paper. Unless you ignore the ghost and walk out, or say you don’t need any toilet paper, you’re not safe. If you choose either option — red or blue — the ghost kills you or drags you down into the toilet with it.

As for where my mom heard the story, she didn’t specify who she heard it from, but there’s a Korean word called quedam, which refers to well-known, typical ghost stories, especially ones set in schools. Korean high schools are large buildings, and they get very creepy at night with the lights off. My mom said a similar legend originated in Japan, among Japanese schoolgirls, and eventually found its way to Korea, where it became widely known across Korean high schools.

The ghost targets a specific group — students — and the story only occurs in a specific location: the last stall of a school bathroom. I don’t think the legend goes into the ghost’s origins. It’s not specific to one high school or one region. I think its purpose is simply to be a scary story that makes you think twice before using the bathroom late at night at school.

Korean high schools have a unique system where, unlike American high schools that end around 3 p.m., students are required to stay at school until late at night — sometimes until 10 p.m. — to study for college entrance exams. So the school gets dark, and that’s exactly the context where these kinds of ghost stories become very relevant.”

Context:

This text was collected from a sophomore civil engineering student at USC. He shared this legend in a recorded interview, recounting a story he heard from his mother when he was in second grade, shortly after his family immigrated to the United States. The legend centers on a bathroom ghost in the last stall of a Korean school, which offers victims a fatal choice between red and blue toilet paper. The informant learned through his mother that the legend likely originated in Japan among schoolgirls before diffusing into Korean school culture, where it became widely known under the broader category of quedam — a Korean term for traditional, well-known ghost stories. The legend is deeply tied to a specific institutional context: the Korean high school system’s requirement that students remain on campus studying until late at night, which creates the dark, isolated conditions that make the story feel plausible and threatening.

Analysis:

This text is a legend: it is set in the real world, targeting a specific location and population, and designed to feel believable rather than fantastical. Thus, Linda Degh’s point that legends function as debates about belief is useful here: the story doesn’t demand full belief, but it enacts enough doubt that a student alone in a dark school bathroom at 10 p.m. might hesitate and feel scared. This is also the legend’s social function; it governs behavior within the folk group of Korean students, creating informal rules around a vulnerable, isolated situation. Moreover, the story’s transnational diffusion from Japan to Korea is a clear example of oicotypification: the core structure travels across borders while adapting to fit the local institutional context of Korean school culture. The legend also does what ghostlore characteristically does: it attaches supernatural danger to a specific, mundane location, transforming an ordinary school bathroom into a site of folk belief. The story’s survival across generations and national borders speaks to its resonance with universal anxieties around isolation, darkness, and vulnerability.




Luka Doncic Trade Consparicy

Text:
“So, me and basically all my friends I grew up with, we’re all huge sports fans. So, a big conspiracy theory that we thought might have been true is about the NBA, which is the professional basketball league. There was a recent trade of a player named Luka Doncic. Basically, one of the best players in the world. He got traded to the Lakers, which is one of the most popular teams. who weren’t doing so well.
Everyone was like, “How did they agree to this?” And what’s even crazier is that a few months later, the team that traded Luka Doncic got the number one overall pick, which is like, it was like a really valuable thing that they just lucked into by a one percent chance. So the conspiracy theory is that because the NBA’s viewership was really down during that period, they kind of forced that team to trade their star player to a big market. 
And in exchange, they can win the lottery to have the best new and young players. I guess the big thing is, at the end of the day, sport is just entertainment. So the theory is kind of questioning the integrity of the league, and like, you know, is it purely just for profit, or do they still have the respect and love for the actual game still.”

Context:

This text was collected from a male college student who grew up in a close-knit friend group bonded primarily through sports fandom. The conspiracy theory centers on two real recent events: the trade of star player Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, and the NBA subsequently winning the first overall draft pick at statistically unlikely odds. The informant and his friends circulated this theory informally among themselves, piecing together public events into narratives of institutional manipulation. The informant’s concluding reflection (questioning whether the league retains genuine love for the game) suggests the conspiracy functions less as a firm belief and more as a way for processing disillusionment with a beloved institution he has invested significant emotional identity in since childhood.

Analysis:

This piece is a contemporary legend in a folkloric sense: it is set in the real world, centered on debatable truth claims, and functioning as what Linda Degh describes as a debate about belief. Additionally, the friend group collectively constructing and circulating this narrative exemplifies how proximity and shared experience generate folk belief. The theory also demonstrates the Goliath effect, as blame migrates toward the most powerful institutional player, the NBA itself, rather than individual teams or owners. The league becomes the “villain” in the legend precisely because of its size and commercial dominance. The narrative also carries deep community values around authenticity and integrity in sport, and the conspiracy framework is used to articulate anxieties about cultural hegemony. More specifically, the way that profit-driven culture industries reshape experiences that many folk communities hold as genuinely meaningful. The theory ultimately functions as a form of vernacular resistance, allowing ordinary fans to critically examine an institution that holds significant power over their cultural and emotional lives.




The Crocodile Who Walks Like a Man

Age: 20

“On a stormy night a small charter plane was scheduled to land at Boeing Field.

Authorities have never been able to determine who chartered the plane – only that the pilot and passenger were carrying illegal animals into the country.

The plane hit bad turbulence and, after noting the plane losing altitude the radio tower reported hearing a voice in the background yelling something about “it getting out of its cage.”

There was no further radio contact, but a few minutes later the plane tried to make an emergency landing at Paine Field – but failed and went down deep in the woods.

When authorities found the crash site they only discovered the pilot’s body. Coroner’s reports indicated that he died not from the crash impact, but rather from ghastly bite wounds all over his body.

A zoologist from the Woodland Park zoo studied the bites and concluded that they were probably caused by something in the crocodile genus, but with no recorded bite pattern.

Since the crash there have been numerous reported sightings of the crocodile – always at isolated houses or locations deep in the forest.

One such house was originally thought to have been abandoned until clawed footprints were discovered in the flowerbed outside a shattered second story window.

The footprints – hind legs only – were soaked in aviation fuel leading authorities to speculate that the croc may well have mutated from long years of exposure to the runoff waste from Paine Field and the Boeing manufacturing facilities.

But the company denies any such possibility and insists that such stories are merely malicious rumor designed to slander their good name.

this is the story of The Crocodile Who Walks Like a Man that my dad would tell me and my siblings as kids.”

Context: The informant is from Washington state, which is home to many Cryptids. This could be due to the amount of wilderness that surrounds the state. The informant has shared that her father grew up hearing multiple wilderness cryptid stories, and he passed these stories to her when she was a kid. She considers herself a superstitious person, and believes in many of the cryptid stories she was told growing up.

analysis: This legend is a clear statement about how manufacturing facilities around wildlife is dangerous and harms the local communities around them. Its a warning about the predatory nature of big companies, and how little they care for the general publics health as well as the wildlife around them. In a literal sense, these facilities cause massive pollution and harm to the surrounding environment and the animals. There’s paranormal consequences to allowing these companies to invade, pollute and deforest. Its a classic example of folklore used to comment on an institution or company.

La Siguanaba

Age: 23

“A Salvadorian folklore story I know is La Siguanaba. It originated from the Náhuat people. “Sihuehuet” means beautiful woman in Spanish. Its Salvadorian. The gods cursed her for neglecting her son. She was turned into a spirit who lures unfaithful men. She’s also beautiful, that’s how she lures and kills them. When they get close she shows her face, which is, a , mix of a horse or a skull- or a mix of the two, and drives them crazy. It’s basically about temptation. I had this as a research topic in high school. I wanted to learn about the indigenous tribes from where my family is from.”

context: My informant, is a 23 year old male born in America, whose parents were born in El Salvador. Both parents fled to America to escape the Salvadorian civil war. His mother is from a town called El Mozote, which was where one of the largest massacres caused by the US government took place in 1981.

analysis:

Looking at this from a functionalist perspective, the legend is meant to enforce societal norms. Neglecting your child and being unfaithful could lead to divine punishment and temptation could lead to supernatural consequences. I also believe that La Siguanaba follows a common Latin American folklore trope of a supernatural or ghost woman sent out to punish people, like with La Llorona. the informant’s retelling of the story is a way for him to reinforce his own Salvadoran cultural identity. I also believe that many violent Legends (or just legends centered around death) may have emerged due to the Mozote massacre and other horrendous imperialist acts that have been forced upon Salvadorians. Historical trauma can shape how some legends and folk tales in general are viewed, even if those stories predate such events. the passage of time can effect how those stories are remembered or emphasized.

Zongzi

Age: 23

JL: “I’ve been Chinese for 23 years. Every year my family in the beginning of May wraps sticky rice in, I think, banana leaves? It’s either banana leaves or another type of leaf. My grandma did it, but now she’s too old, so my mom does all of it now. I help my mom wrap the rice. There’s a story behind it- Why we do this tradition. There was this married couple, and the man fell into a river, and there’s, like, fish inside. His wife made the wrapped sticky rice to feed the fish so that they wouldn’t eat her husband. So, that’s just kind of a fun story. Its sticky rice usually filled with cured meat and sausage and mushrooms and mung beans and peanuts. It’s like a comfort food. Mom freezes it. I have some in the freezer, and I ate it recently. It’s portable. It’s easy to heat up. It lasts a while.”

Interviewer: “who who told you that story?”

JL: My mom told me it multiple times. I heard it in Chinese school. It’s a very common Folktale slash Uh, story, cultural story. In Chinese culture, there’s a lot of meaning behind a lot of things. Every word has a story behind it. Every holiday has a story behind it. People speak in idioms with stories behind it. So that’s important.”

Context: The informant considers herself very close with her Chinese heritage. She is a first gen USC CS games student, and has noted that Chinese traditions rituals, beliefs and culture play a big part in her everyday life. She has a lot of experience cooking, specifically Northern Chinese food, and really enjoys this specific comfort meal.

Analysis: Because the story is rooted in reality, I think this would fall into the Legends category. This cultural Foodway tradition of making this specific meal on a certain day of the month is a big reinforcement of Chinese identity. The informant learned this through an institution, Chinese school, reenforcing the popularity and importance of this story in Chinese culture. The fact that most holidays and rituals are paired with a narrative or story shows how these traditions have adapted in order to be kept alive, even across generations, since the “origin” of this Legend and food started thousands of years ago. Looking at this through a functionalist lens, this story also solidifies this specific food item’s importance. Zongzi metaphorically saved this mans life, is also portable, easy to store, yummy to eat, and filled with nutrient heavy foods, reenforcing how nourishing it is for those who make and eat it.