Category Archives: Narrative

Shooting the Drum (Miao Courtship Custom)

Speaker: “This is a custom from a Miao(Hmong) village in Guizhou. It is called ‘shooting the drum.’ Yeah, shooting the drum. It is a pretty interesting one. From what I heard, the way people talk about it now is almost like a legend. It existed in real life in the past, but nowadays no one really practices it anymore. People say that back then, someone would use a stick in a very skillful way, almost like performing magic, to ‘shoot’ or strike the drum in a special way. It is one of those traditional customs that has been passed down in the local Miao community over time. Back in those days, people were very poor, you know, so life was quite different. Because of that, some of these customs were tied to relationships and marriage in ways that might feel unusual now. The story goes that after this kind of ritual or interaction, the couple might be brought back to the home, and then their relationship would basically be settled from there. It was not something easy to walk away from once it happened. People sometimes describe it in a joking way now, comparing it to something like being carried along by the situation, like once you are in it, you cannot really back out. But that is more how people talk about it today rather than how it was formally understood back then.”

Interviewer: “So is it more like a legend now than a real practice?”

Speaker: “Yeah, pretty much. It is something people talk about as part of history or folklore now. Not many people actually know how to do it anymore, and it is not really practiced today.”

Context: This conversation took place during an informal discussion about regional customs and lesser-known traditions in ethnic minority communities in China. The speaker introduced “shooting the drum” as a Miao custom from Guizhou, describing it as something that once existed but is now mostly remembered through stories and informal explanations. His description mixed fragments of historical practice with more modern interpretations and humor.

Analysis: This folklore practice reflects how certain traditional practices, especially those tied to courtship or community rituals, can fade over time and become more like folklore than lived reality. The speaker’s uncertainty and casual tone suggest that knowledge of the custom is no longer widely preserved in detail. Instead, it survives in fragments part storytelling. The mention of poverty and social conditions also hints at how older folklore were shaped by economic and social constraints and evolved by time.

Pre-Performance Rituals in a Chinese High School Drama Club

“Back in high school, I was in this drama club, and whenever we had anything to do with performing on stage, there were always these rituals before the show. Like, unwritten rules. You couldn’t cut your hair the day before a performance, you couldn’t shave either. And then there were certain colors you weren’t allowed to wear — which ones depended on whatever show you were doing at the time. None of it really had an explanation. It was kind of… random? Like, rituals that were made up just for the fun of it, almost like a joke.

Oh, and there’s another one — this one’s more universal in drama circles — you can’t say ‘Macbeth’ onstage. Like, you just don’t say his name. Because supposedly it’ll bring bad luck to your whole company. Because Macbeth is a traitor, right. Yeah. So that one’s more of a real thing.

But the other ones, like the hair and the colors, those were just ours. No real reason behind them.”

Context: This piece was collected in a one-on-one interview with a college student who was a member of a drama club during high school in China. The conversation happened casually and organically, with the informant recalling these customs in a relaxed, amused tone. At one point, the interviewer drew a comparison to the folk belief that athletes should abstain from sex before a game for physical reasons — the informant acknowledged the similarity but pointed out the difference: the athletic belief has a concrete physical rationale, whereas the drama club rules had none at all, which almost seemed to be the point.

Analysis: The pre-performance rituals described here fit into a well-documented tradition of occupational folklore among performers. These kinds of customs are common in theater communities worldwide, serving to build group identity, mark the mental shift into “performance mode,” and give people a structured way to deal with pre-show nerves. What’s interesting here is that the informant herself doesn’t fully buy into them — she describes the club-specific rules as arbitrary, almost comedic. And yet they were still followed. This speaks to how folk practices can persist even without belief, because the ritual itself becomes part of what it means to belong to the group.

The “Macbeth taboo” is one of the most widely recognized superstitions in Western theater, often traced back to early modern English stage tradition. The fact that it showed up in a Chinese high school drama club is a small but telling sign of how theatrical culture — and its accompanying folklore — has traveled globally. The club-specific rules, on the other hand, represent something more local and invented: customs that don’t need history or logic to survive, just a group of people who keep doing them together.

“Cursed” Medallion

Text:

H: “So when I went to Florida with my family, I got on some sketchy website, there was like a weird like medallion with like snakes on it. And it was like probably like two bucks, um, but I just like got it ’cause I thought it was cute and I started wearing it. And all of a sudden, like I was getting a lot of bad luck … I had a really bad night, like of sleep, and I was like getting really bad nightmares, like very vivid, like as if it was like, I was like put in an alternate reality and it was actually happening to me. Like for example, since we were on vacation, I was sharing a bed with my sister, and like I would turn over, I would think that it’s real life, like we’d be talking and all of a sudden like her eyes would go red and she’d like… I don’t, she wouldn’t even do anything, but like it was just like scary.”

C: “And were you like still wearing the medallion?”

H: “Yeah, yeah. At this point I didn’t attribute it to the medallion. And then I went… And then like for example, like she turned evil at one point and then like I thought I went back to sleep, and then I thought I woke up again, but like it was still a dream and like she, ’cause she went normal and I was crying. I was like in tears and she was like helping me, like patting my head like, ‘Oh, it’s okay.’ And then like all of a sudden she would turn evil again and I’m like I can’t tell what’s real and fake, so I now attribute it to sleep paralysis. At the time I thought I was like possessed, um, and that was just like reoccurring all night. I was so scared. And then like the next day I asked I think my dad what to do and he told me to like get rid of the medallion, but I didn’t want to touch it so I made my brother put it in the sand, like just to like get it off my head, out of my hands … That night I had another awful night of sleep, not as bad as the first one, and I found out the next day that he [brother] didn’t put it in the sand. He like kept it in my room for some reason ’cause he was just being like a little brother. And I was like… I had like another like possession thing. So then we threw it in the ocean and it was gone for real. Everyone was mad at my little brother ’cause it was like I wasn’t kidding. I was like crying all night both nights. So yeah, now I attribute it to sleep paralysis, but I don’t know. It’s kind of weird. Like the second I started wearing it, it, that happened. And then it made it weirder with like the whole sand thing, like that, it was still in my room.”

Context:

H was on vacation in Florida with her family when she bought this medallion necklace with a two snakes on it. After purchasing it, H started to have terribly bad luck. After falling asleep, H started to have terrible night terrors like where her sister was evil with red eyes. She woke up screaming & crying, so she gave the medallion to her little brother and asked his to bury it in the sand at the beach. That night, H continued to have nightmares, but not as extreme as the previous night. She once again woke up crying only to find out that her brother didn’t get rid of the medallion but left it in her room. They then threw the medallion into the ocean, and she stopped having the nightmares and bad luck.

Analysis:

Since this is a story that takes place in the real world and is/could be believable, this narrative would be classified as a legend. To get more specific, this legend could also be defined as a Memorate since it is a personal narrative encounter with legendary “cursed item,” which are widely believed throughout the world.

Scottish Fairy Flag

Text:

S: “Umm, it’s a Scottish legend. Umm, there was this like Lord, I think in Scotland who fell in love with a fairy and uh, I don’t remember all of it, but he fell in love with the fairy. Then the Fairy Kingdom said, fine, you can, the fairy can live with the and be a human with the Lord for a year and then she has to come back. So they lived together for a year and then she had to go back. But before she went back, she gave him this flag and it was like from the Fairy Kingdom or something. And the flag is still there in Scotland today.”

Context:

My sister told me this legend, and after doing additional research on the legend, I found that it was believed that the flag could be used in times of crises to protect the castle or win victory in battle – that the fairies may come to the humans’ aid if the flag was raised.

Analysis:

This is a real flag that can be found in Scotland. I believe this legend of the flag being a gift from a Lord’s somewhat forbidden fairy lover came to be in order to put the minds of the people at ease: that if war or battles came, they had otherworldly help to aid and protect them. I also believe that due to many legends of fairies that circulated in Scotland, a mysterious flag would likely be attributed to these supernatural creatures.

Nigerian Red Handkerchief

Text:

T: “In Nigerian culture, there’s this, like, there’s a significance behind, like, a red handkerchief, right. That’s like if you’re carrying it, it’s kind of like a sign that, like, you have, like, powers, like, certain, like supernatural powers. It’s like, like a charm almost … It’s like a medium to, like, exhibit those powers, you know. And it’s like, and there’s this thing called, they call it, like, juju or jazz where it’s like, it’s just, it’s basically just witchcraft. Like … Yeah, that’s the best term to call it. Just, like, use certain charms and things, like, you know, to, like, do magic.”

Context:

T comes from a Nigerian family and has heard the legend of the “red handkerchief” passed down through the generations. In the culture, it is believed that if someone carried a red handkerchief then they had supernatural or magical powers. It is almost like a Scarlet Letter, in the fact that it symbolizes something else.

Analysis:

The Nigerian Red Handkerchief is a legend because it something believed to be true, based in the real world. This legend seems to be both emic and esoteric as it is an insider’s perspective of the significance of a red handkerchief and it communicates something within the group, not to those outside of the group. It carries cultural significance since it is predominately recognized with the Nigerian community. It also carries familiar significance as it is a legend passed down through generations of a family.