Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Behind Chinese New Year

AGE: 20

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/01/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: Taiwanese-American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: San Jose, CA

Interviewer: Are there any distinct folktales or myths that you grew up hearing about?

MS: “One was about this lady on the moon, and another was the story of Chinese New Year and the reasons for the different traditions.”

Interviewer: Can you expand a little bit more on the second story?

MS: “I was told that there was this dragon that would come and haunt this village. And every year the people of the town would evacuate the village, until one year this grandma was too old to walk up the mountain and evacuate. So she lit firecrackers and put red all over everyone’s door…to make it look like blood, I guess…and she successfully scared away the dragon. And when everyone came back down, they noticed she was still alive, and so that’s where the tradition began.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

I think it’s safe to say that most people in America (and definitely countries where Lunar New Year is celebrated) know what Chinese New Year is and the typical decorations and celebrations that take place. And even though every year growing up I had attended my high school’s Chinese New Year festival, I never really quite knew why everything was the way that it was. It’s incredibly interesting to learn where certain traditions, especially one as big as this, come from. I would love to hear a little bit more about this said dragon and maybe dive deeper into this tradition’s history, but this explanation shows (to me at least) that there were definitely real fears that occurred back then, that via word of mouth, traveled and transformed into what this tradition is today.

Urashima Taro

AGE: 18

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/06/2025

LANGUAGE: English and Japanese  

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: New York 

CONTEXT:

The person I interviewed is Japanese and Caucasian. He can speak fluent Japanese and is deeply connected to his culture. I don’t know him that well, so it came as quite a surprise to hear him tell me a Japanese fairytale off the top of his head.

Interviewer: Are there any distinct folktales or myths that you grew up hearing about?

NS: “Peter Pan, Boy who cried wolf, urashima taro.”

Interviewer: I’m not familiar with the last one, could you tell the story to me?

NS: “Sure. It’s a story about this boy who is on the beach one day and saves this turtle. The turtle then comes back one day and takes the boy back to some fantasy Atlantis ocean world. There the boy finds a wife…who is a beautiful mermaid [he adds that part in]…and who is the princess of the ocean world… and the boy has to choose between staying there or going back to his family. And he chooses to go back to his family.”

Interviewer: Where did you hear this story?

NS: “Mom told it to me. But I also read about it multiple times in Japanese school.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

I had never heard this fairytale before, so his retelling of it definitely intrigued me. Upon a basic online search, I was shown a slightly different version of the tale. In the one I found online, the boy is a fisherman who is rewarded with the sea princess for saving the turtle. He spends a couple of days with her, but when he goes back home he realizes that he had been gone for 100 years. When he then opens the forbidden box given to him by the princess, he turns into an old man. After reading this version, it was really interesting to see the differences in the iterations. It is worthy to note that I did not do that deep of a search into the tale itself, so perhaps the version I read could have been “wrong.” But even then, that is still a viable version of the tale. It also intrigues me more because my interviewee seemed very familiar with this tale, as he told it so easily. If he’s read it multiple times I’m wondering if he had ever read the version I just saw, or if the iteration he told me was just from whatever he could remember. But I think even if the version of the tale he told me is not found anywhere else, it’s still a viable form of the tale too. I do wonder what the implications or meanings behind this tale were. Is it simply just a children’s fairytale, or does it intend to tell of a deeper life lesson?

Momotaro

AGE: 20   

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/07/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: Cerritos, CA  

Interviewer: Are there any distinct folktales or myths that you grew up hearing about?

NB: “Tooth fairy…[continues to think]…Oh! Momotaro.”

Interviewer: Who is that? Could you tell me that story?

NB: “The little peach boy. I think it’s something like there were old grandparents who always wanted a kid but couldn’t have one. But one day they were blessed with a peach that came down the river stream who ended up being a baby boy so they ended up raising him.”

Interviewer: When did you hear this story?

NB: “I think when I was 6 or 7 years old.”

Interviewer: What do you think the tale is about? Any life lessons or moral stories you think it’s trying to accomplish?

NB: “Mmmm I’m not really sure. [thinks about it for a little] I think it’s about life blessings maybe?”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

Again, this was yet another tale that I had never heard of, so I went online to do some light digging. This tale is about a hero named (quite literally, this is the translation) Peach Boy. This hero can be found in many Japanese tales, movies, books, etc., you name it. According to my basic online sources, he was the local hero of the Okayama Prefecture. In the version of the tale I found online, he was born from a giant peach found floating down a river by an old, childless woman. As he grew older, he became significantly stronger and eventually left his parents behind to fight demons alongside his friends a talking dog, monkey, and pheasant. In the version of the tale NB told me, there was no mention of his fighting demons, simply just that he was a blessing from the gods in the form of a peach. This tale creates many questions for me, such as: why was he born from a peach? What is the significance of the peach? Why did he go off to fight demons? It also just reminds me of more Asian folktales I have heard of that have really interesting or weird characters (often involving fruit or talking animals of some kind, actually) and that the moral of the story isn’t really quite evident. Sometimes stories are just told for entertainment purposes. Does that still count as a part of folklore if it doesn’t have any deeper meaning behind it?

Mothman

Age: 19


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: English


Nationality: British American


Occupation: Full-Time Student


Primary Language: English


Residence: United States

Text:

The Mothman is a cryptid described to be dark and significantly big winged figure.

Context:

Located in West Virginia, there was a bridge built that the people adored, the Silver bridge in Mason County to be exact. So when the bridge collapsed into the river, theories begun to spur. Individuals, speculated that a cryptid known as the Mothman was to blame, claiming to have seen and heard the creature moments before the incident. Some even claimed to have been told by the Mothman himself that he was gonna take down the bridge.

Growing up, my informant heard a joke about Mothman, unaware of the cryptid until he asked his dad about the legend.

My informant doesn’t inherently believe the Mothman exists, but is intrigued about the amount of stories brought forth by the community that made it feel so real and almost believable.

Analysis:

I believe that the Mothman sightings are an interesting concept that can be perceived as real to those mislead by some of the stories spread around by it. The abundance of it all can be seen as overwhelming to those new to the cryptid, which I would be inevitable due to all of the person statements declaring his presence

Paul Bunyan and Babe the Ox

Age: 19


Date of performance: 4/5/25


Language: English


Nationality: British American


Occupation: Full-Time Student


Primary Language: English


Residence: United States

Text:

Paul Bunyan is a 40 foot tall man. He is known to have an exponential amount of strength and work alongside hid ox, babe the blue ox.

Context:

One of the stories my informant brought up was one where Paul Bunyan was asked to cut a bunch of trees down alongside Babe the blue ox. This took place in the Midwest which Paul Bunyan and Babe the ox is used to explain the amount of trees cut down in flat land.

Informant grew up in the Midwest to where he had a book about Paul Bunyan filled with stories about his involvement in the Midwest. Furthermore, they researched more about it after discovering some of the statues commemorated to the Folk Legend in Wisconsin.

They interpreted Paul Bunyan’s story to just be a story rung around by lumberjacks back in the day to pass the time and explain some of the oddities of the forests and landmarks.

Analysis:

Personally, I’d have to agree, much like some of the stories past down amongst workers during long periods of time, there stories were made out of pure entertainment. They really expressed this medium through the more fictional attributes added to Paul Bunyan, much like his height and exponential strength and sometimes magical abilities.