Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Chinese New Year’s Monster

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 55
Occupation: Funeral Counselor
Residence: Arcadia, CA
Performance Date: March 12, 2017
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

Daniel is an immigrant from Hong Kong who immigrated to the United States in search of better opportunities and a better life for both him and his family. Living in a poor family with seven other siblings, he immediately went to work as a police officer after receiving his high school diploma in Hong Kong. Once he moved to Los Angeles, he worked as a computer technician, and subsequently, changed his career to a funeral counselor.

Original Script

This legend is talking about the New Year’s Eve. A lot of Chinese, they like to light the firecracker during the New Year’s Eve because they believe, actually the legend said that there will be a monster coming out during that time. They light the firecracker in order to scare away the monster. I think that this tradition is still used in most of China.

Background Information about the Performance from the Informant

The informant performed this tradition with his parents and relatives ever since he could remember as a child. He continues this practice with his wife and children every year on Chinese New Year’s. Neither him or his family believe in the existence of the monster, but they continue this Chinese custom because it is an enjoyable opportunity to bond as a family. His children enjoy this custom especially, because they can run around freely, lighting firecrackers and making a lot of noise.

Context of the Performance

I interviewed the informant at his house.

According to Chinese mythology, the Nián, whose name means “year,” is a beast that would appear every New Year’s Eve to consume humans and animals alike. However, an old man from Peach Blossom Village eventually discovered that the monster had three main weaknesses: the color red, loud noises, and firelight. Many New Year traditions, such as the firecrackers and the Chinese Lion dance, have originated from the legend of the Nián.

My Thoughts about the Performance

In many cultures, people generate a lot of noise and light during festivals, believing that the sounds and brightness would scare away evil spirits. When I was small, I never wondered about the reason why the Chinese let off firecrackers on Chinese New Year; I merely thought it was for fun. After learning about this legend, I found it fascinating how the Chinese came up with a tool possessing three different features to combat the mythological creature on Chinese New Year. This tool—the firecracker—utilizes the color red, bright firelight, and loud blasts to scare off the Nián.

La Llorona

Nationality: Spanish American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4/25/17
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The interview will be depicted by initials. The Interviewer is QB and the interview is AM.

QB: So do you have any folklore stories that you learned while you were younger?

AM: Yeah. So I’m from Mexico and we have this story called La Llorona, which means “The Crier, and basically the tales goes…there’s this lady who had some children and she was like crazy. And so she got them…she put them all in her car and she drove into the lake and they all died so she regretted it. And now legend says she…like…walks around with this crazy wet hair and cries out for her children because she wants to find them and say sorry.

Analysis: Compared to the many “La Llorona” stories studied within the ANTH 333 class, this one differs due to the fact that it is more focused on La Llorona herself. The student never mentioned the fact that children would be taken in the night, but was only told the story at face value and only believes that their is a lady looking for her children. It is interesting to note that the story is still told for children to fear, but not for being taken.

The Golden Temple

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Tokyo, Japan
Performance Date: 04/01/2017
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

Main Piece: One of the most beautiful buildings in Kyoto is the Golden Temple of Kinkaku-Jin. It is a small shrine to Buddha that is covered in golden leaf and sits on top of a pond, where its reflection is mirrored by the water. But this is not the original temple. This is a second temple that they constructed exactly the same as the first, because its beauty came with a curse. Many years ago, a young monk arrived to Kyoto and he fell in love with the beauty of the gold temple. He loved it as if it were a spouse; he stared at it for countless hours, he talked to it, and it made him feel closer to God. He loved it so much that he became jealous of all the other monks that prayed in the temple, and he became to be tortured by this jealousy. In time, the only thing he could think about was the beauty of the temple. He couldn’t eat or work or even pray; he became consumed by it. So, one day, he decided he couldn’t take it any longer. He lit a steak on fire and there it in the temple, which was immediately consumed by the flames. After there was nothing left of it, the monk tried killing himself with a sword, but he was stopped by the local authorities, who arrived because of the fire. When they asked him why he did it he told them that he “could not stand the beauty of the temple”.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Ga Hyun was born and raised in Tokyo Japan. She and her family heard this story this from locals when they visited the rebuilt Golden Temple. They gave her no specific names or dates.

Context on the piece: Historically, the building was burned down in 1950 by a 22-year-old monk who did try to commit suicide. The part of the story which gives it its status as a legend is the motives that the monk had for doing this. In reality, he was trialed on the accounts of mental illness, and there are no official documents in which he is recorded saying that he did it because he couldn’t stand its beauty.

Thoughts on the piece: The motive that the story gives to the monk for burning the temple shows an emphasis on the aesthetic beauty on the Temple. It makes me wonder if the story is not actually folklore, but rather a fakelore to attract tourists by using the beauty of the temple as a plot device.

Jotos and 41s

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 27
Occupation: Culinary Student
Residence: Madrid, Spain
Performance Date: 04/07/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main Piece: In Spain, they call gay people “Jotos” because of a jail cell. Jail cells are either numbered or labeled by a letter , and until recently, when gay people went to jail they used to put them in cell “J”. Don’t ask me why, ‘casue I don’t know, that’s just the way it was. Now cells are numbered with much more complicated digits because of the increasing number of criminals, but back then, the cells had normal numbers to label them: 1, 2, 3… Again, they used to put gays in cell 41, maybe to keep them away from everyone else. That’s why 41 is the gay number in Spain. It’s like when people in America laugh when someone uses the number 69. If someone says the number 41 or something, it’s pretty funny here. And not only that. In some of the most conservative parts of the country, the number is seen as obscene, and some hotels even take it out of its room numbers, like the number 13. That’s why if you’re gay, the call you a Joto or a 41. It could be used both as an insult or a sign of affection, but they can call you this even if you’re not gay as an insult.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Jordi was raised in Mexico and resides in Madrid and claims to hear people being called Jotos and 41s on a daily basis. He knew that Jotos were gay people because they are also called that way in Mexico, but didn’t know about the 41s. He asked about that to one of his close friends, who told him the story.

Context on the piece: Although there is no recorded reason to why gay people are called Jotos (Jota is the Spanish pronunciation of the letter “J”), there is one about the number 41, which actually originated in Mexico. Apparently, in 1901, there was raid in which 41 men were detained for showing up in women’s clothing. This was reported by the contemporary press and became a scandal during the conservative years of president Porfirio Diaz. The new reached Spain and they adopted the insult.

Thoughts on the piece: Considering the recorded history of using 41 as an insult for homosexuals, it shows how history still has an effects on the present. This is something that happened over 100 years ago, and not only that, but people in Spain have adopted the insult and gave it their own story. To goes to show how the folk from a culture can appropriate even insults to serve their own purposes, and as Jordi says, most of them believe that the term originated in Spain. Not everyone knows the story behind the terms though, showing the disregard of the history of certain words that might be offensive to an entire group because of their past which is also present in American culture.

The Island of Dolls

Nationality: Mexcian
Age: Unknown
Occupation: Tourist Guide in Xochimilco
Residence: Xochimilco, Mexico City
Performance Date: 03/17/2017
Primary Language: Spanish

Main piece: A very old man from back then owned the island, and he had a niece. She must have been around 15 years old and he loved her. More than any of his own children, and she had a lot, a lot of dolls that she collected. One day the girl was looking down at the canals while playing with her dolls and she fell and she drowned. Some people say that it was the old man who threw her to the water because he went insane or was possessed, but I don’t think so. It was an accident and a tragedy that happens. The old man was heart broken by this and that is when he started to loose his mind. He saw the doll that she was playing with when she fell floating in the water and he hung it up in a tree because he thought that would bring back her spirit because she loved the dolls so much. After that, the guy hung the rest of the dolls up in his trees and whenever he sees a doll floating by he hangs it up. That’s how the island got its name, and after the old man died people say that it’s haunted by the ghost of the drowned girl. Some say that the dolls move and sometimes they even lure visitors to the island where the ghost of the dead girl gets them. I don’t believe the sorties, but I don’t want to risk it either.

Background information about the piece by the informant: Eloy is a tourist guide and a local of Xochimilco, the water canals of Mexico City. One of the min touristic attractions is that of an island that is characterised by the old, decrepit dolls that hang from its trees. It creates an unsettling atmosphere and it is said that the island is haunted.

Context to the performance: The informant told the story of the haunted island to me and a group of tourists while we were passing by it on a boat.

Thoughts on the piece: The only facts that are known of the legend is that the island was originally owned by Julian Santa Barrera, the alleged old man from the story. He started the tradition of hanging dolls up in the trees of the island, but there is no way of knowing if she had a niece or if she drowned in the canals. The idea of the island being haunted by an original owner could be due to the guilt of commercializing the Xochimilco zone and making it tourist-friendly. The fact that it was a small girl who was specifically said to be around 15 (a transitioning age in Mexico to adulthood) and the use of dolls of terrifying supernatural purposes can also be a commentary on the loss of innocence that is trying be be re-obtained.

For another version of the legend see: http://www.isladelasmunecas.com/