Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Litchfield Biker Gang

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: USC Student - Interactive Meida, Music Production
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 4/26/18
Primary Language: English

Transcription:

Interviewer: “You’re from Litchfield?”

Informant: “Yes.”

Interviewer: “Is that a small town or a big town?”

Informant: “Small town 8000 but between two cities that I think are 50(000) or 80000, respectively.”

Interviewer: “Are there any stories with Litchfield?”

Informant: “Um…(laughs) so okay so I don’t…so there’s not really…there’s a rope swing which is creepy but…and I’m sure that had I frequented it more, I would have found some more creepy lore there but I never really did go there. Um…but…so there really isn’t a ton of specific lore. I know the town is almost 300 years old so there’s a lot of like local history. Um…there’s like a graveyard. That kind of thing. So it’s a very uh…there are spooky places in it. But what got me laughing was…there is… and this isn’t necessarily lore as it is objectively factually true but I will continue, I will tell my kids about this. Um…there’s this group of children…we called them the LBK: Litchfield Biker Krew with a ‘k’. Because they’re basically a bunch of um… I think I was in high school when we sorta like designated them but they’re about like just this pack of like 8th graders…like not even like super big but like it was a pack of like 8th graders or something who would just bike around, be punks, smoke cigarettes. And like…yeah it was just so funny because they thought they were such badasses but we’re just like ‘heh look at those kids biking like…around and just thinking that they’re badass’. So it’s like…it’s sorta just this think like ‘oh lol that’s Litchfield Biker Crew’ like everyone sorta knew about that and it was sorta like a rich topic to explore in terms of just like…jokes and things.”

Summary:

So the informant talks about a group of bikers in his hometown, known as the Litchfield Biker Krew. The LBK, as they’re known are a group of 8th grade kids who would ride around on bikes and smoke. They were well known throughout the town. The informant plans to pass this story along to his own family one day, making him an active bearer of this legend.

THREE KINGDOMS

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 22
Occupation: Musician
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4-23-2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

THE THREE KINGDOMS

 

Main Piece:

 

Everywhere. Even before learning about it in class it’s in video games, TV series – there’s a TV series about it new every year, every 4 years a new movie about it, all over Asia, Japan, Korea, etc.

 

Romance of the Three Kingdoms – embellished story of true events that happened way back when China was warring states. This is the coolest story of China’s cyclical warring period. Very epic and a romance, and brotherhood, and betrayal, poor person becomes king.

 

Very exciting story, that’s why everyone likes it, much like Game of Thrones.

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

Used to play a game called Dynasty Warriors – you choose a kingdom to represent and you go through the storyline. You fight as these warriors and these characters are copied from the novels, their mannerisms, personalities, etc., very popular because they have very defining characteristics – such as the brute, the cunning spy, etc.

 

Later learned about the story in high school – everyone has to learn it in China – in excerpts – examples of the Three Kingdoms are used in everything, much like Confucious.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

School / Video Games / everywhere in the culture.

 

What does it mean for them?

Makes him very proud to be Chinese because it is a very badass story and very inspiring, so much cool things happened, and the decisions and courses of actions are all still accurate and reflect the emotions of the characters….overall very inspiring and just a damn good epic.

 

Context of Performance:

Sitting inside friend’s room just talking.

 

Thoughts:

 

Similar like the Chinese folklore of the Monkey King, I also learned about the Three Kingdoms from a video game – although it took me a very long time (probably more than 8 or 10 years) to realize that there is actually a history, a real history to the game – that all of this is based on a very real historical account of what actually happened in the past.

 

Again, it is interesting to see how even at childhood, we can have indirect contact with folklore through say, video games (which are based on on the cultural need to pass down folklore/culture, but from a more monetary need to sell/an intent based more on capitalism or the market system), which can lead to kids like me playing these games and getting into the folklore but in a vacuum like setting…I didn’t learn more about this and it’s real-ness until the internet where I had the freedom to research it for myself.

Also you can find another version/annotation here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms

MONKEY KING

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 22
Occupation: Musician
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4-23-2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

MONKEY KING

 

Main Piece:

Everybody goes up watching monkey king…with bad effect almost like Star Trek, super old but on reruns all the time – on CC TV China’s main channel for everybody.

 

Basically it’s humor – you just watch it for fun – but it’s based on a very old story.

These three people guard this one monk who has to go to India and they encounter lots of mystical events and lessons.

 

In the heavens there’s a garden full of monkeys – and there’s a king of the monkeys – he did something offensive to the Jade Emperor and he was punished by being trapped under a rock/mountain…freed by a monk, but the monk put a golden circle on his head which the monk can use to inflict pain on him whenever he is acting out of control.

 

He can pull out five hairs and turn them into five clones of himself

Shapeshift

Has magic staff that can grow as long as he wants

Has magical cloud called Kinto – can go anywhere

 

Basically Chinese equivalent of Superman, but a monkey

Mischiveous but controlled by the monk

Stories with him and the monk emphasize how different he is from the monk.

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

From the show

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

From the show

 

What does it mean for them?

Chinese Superman – culturally in his mind – his idea of a superhero.

 

Context of Performance:

Sitting inside friend’s room just talking.

 

Thoughts:

Similar to my friend, I had learned of the Monkey King from a video game – but I was born and raised in Indonesia and although I was in a Chinese-Indonesian household, we didn’t really have much talk of staple Chinese legends such as this. It is interesting to note that although we are both Chinese, we may not be open and have access to the same kinds of cultural material due to the demographic and location of where we live.

 

Also, here is another version or annotation of the Monkey King:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Wukong

MULAN

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 22
Occupation: Musician
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4-23-2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

MULAN

 

Main Piece:

 

A lot more melancholy than Disney made it – no talking cricket and dragon and shit. Was basically more realistic – cause it was real – I think.

 

In song form / a long poem / more rhymes + metaphors you wouldn’t get in a movie such as metaphor, beat, and rhythm.

 

Pushed very heavily in China because the government used it as a way to push their agenda – women equality.

 

Basic Premise: In the beginning a father/son has to be recruited for the war – and it was assumed as it was back then if you go to war you would die – so it was this woman who went instead for the male figure and it was a sacrifice. She fights for them in the war and comes back home safe – happy ending.

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

Because of school. Also his father talked about it a little bit growing up – he was a lot into history – and his sister really enjoyed the story as well.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

School mainly, some from father.

 

What does it mean for them?

I guess it’s just like when I was younger…now it’s different but back then it made me realize that damn, sometimes women can be like men – but I think that’s because back then, how I was raised, I thought guys was stronger and girls was weaker….so maybe that’s why the story really stuck out for me back then….but as I got older that story kind of faded for me.

 

Context of Performance:

Sitting inside friend’s room just talking.

 

Thoughts:

 

It was interesting to me to hear how the story of Mulan, the original story of it, is much more melancholy (and in a way darker) than say, the Disney version (much like the Grimm Tales).

 

I also find it incredibly interesting that the story’s message of gender/sex equality was used by the Chinese government as a propellant/medium to advocate gender/sex equality to the public – and I was also interested in how my friend was deeply affect by this in his childhood – and that through this story he was able to view his sister in a different, more equal way – that these stories do have power to change us into perhaps better versions of ourselves, or at least open our eyes a bit wider.

 

For another version/annotations of Mulan:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hua_Mulan

CHUPACABRA

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4-23-2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

CHUPACABRA

 

Main Piece:

 

So the Chupacabra is like….no one really know what it looks like or what it is, but its described as a little werewolf…he’s much bigger than a wolf though…and the thing is he’s very well talked about in South America because there’s this thing “where is the livestock going”? cause they would be killed…he wouldn’t really eat it but just such the blood and dispose of the carcass

 

thinks it’s a cool story because it explains how the livestock is going away

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

Just growing up in a Mexican family in Mexico people would talk about it and my family and cousins would talk about it and you’d tell scary stories and tell stuff like that to scare people…story told a lot growing up to scare us.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

Friends, cousins, uncles, family.

 

What does it mean for them?

Was very into Dracula for a long time so it helped me think of supernatural beings out there existing – they’re not just human beings in human form, but they can be in other forms – such as this beast that sucks blood from animals, etc.

 

Context of Performance:

Sitting inside friend’s room just talking.

 

Thoughts:

 

It is interesting that in this case, the Chupacabra myth was not only born to say, scare children from playing out in the dark at night (which could be dangerous for a variety of reasons), but that it could also possibly be born from a need to explain what is happening to the livestock.

 

Again, it is interesting to see that these ghost stories, much like in Asian cultures, are passed down through family members.