隔夜油炸鬼——冇厘火气

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: China
Performance Date: 2020.5.1
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: Cantonese

Main piece: 隔夜油炸鬼——冇厘火气

Original piece in Cantonese: 隔夜油炸鬼——冇厘火气

In Chinese: 隔夜油条——没有一点点阳刚气

Translated: A overnight deep-fried dough stick, doesn’t have any hardness left.

Explain: Deep-fred dough stick is a popular snack in Guangdong area. It is crunchy and tasty when it’s fresh made. But after a night, it will be soft and cold, not as good at all. Guangdong people use this two-part riddle to descrive some one doesn’t have any vitality, or someone who is too good temper and never got mad.

Background Information:

Q is a friend I met on Internet. She was from Guangzhou, China, where they speak Cantonese and Mandarin as their daily language. I asked Q to share some Cantanese proverb with me through internet and she agreed. The category pf proverb we are talking about has a specific name called “歇后语”. It is a kind of two-part allegorical saying. There are some content connection between the first part and the second part as well. Normally, they can form a simple story.

Context:

I was casually interviewing my internet friend Q through a chinese social media.

Thoughts:

This one is different from all the other Cantonese proverb I’ve heard because I have never heard anything close to it in Chinese. At first, I thought it is used to describe someone doing belated action because of the term “overnight” in Chinese. But the usage of this is far different from it. It is very interesting to me.

Red Bean Porridge recipe

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 77
Occupation: Grandma
Residence: China
Performance Date: 2020.3.17
Primary Language: Chinese

Main piece: A Red Bean Porridge recipe taught by my grandma, acknowledged being especially helpful for reducing symptoms of period.

Original Recipe:

红豆一两，黑米一两，薏米一两，红枣数颗，桂圆数颗，花生少许，糖少许

Translated Recipe:

Red bean: 50g; Black rice: 50g; pearl barley: 50g; Red dates: a few; Longans: a few; Peanuts: a few; Sugar: a little;

Background Information:

Almost all of the ingredients in this recipe except sugar and peanuts, are believed to be healthy to women, especially during their periods. Food like red beans, black rice and red dates are supposed to enrich the blood because of its color. Pearl barley are believed to be good to women’s skin. Longans are just healthy in general. And I think my grandma only adds peanuts and sugar to make me willing to eat it. If you want to be extra healthy, you can replace sugar with brown sugar.

Context:

My grandma called me when I was in quarantine and share this recipe as concerning for my health.

Thoughts:

I was never a fan of this red bean porridge when I was young. I thought it is disguesting that my grandma put in all the ingredients and boiled them. When I grew older and started having my period, this porridge actually helped reduce my pain several times. I don’t know if it is just because it’s some hot stuff and you always feel good eating hot food when you are in period. I’d rather believe it’s a magical recipe that would make me feel better.

La Llorona

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 17
Occupation: student
Residence: Franklin Park, IL
Performance Date: 4.2.20
Primary Language: English


Background: My informant is a high school junior. She is also Mexican American. She grew up listening to this story from her mother, but after learning of its folk roots, decided to create her version of the story based on other versions of the story. She is part of the Latin American society on her campus, so she has heard a few versions of this and other Latino legends. 

Main Piece:

Interviewer: Tell me about La Llorona

Informant: There’s a lady who lives in Mexico, I don’t know exactly where, but it’s somewhere near the Rio Grande, and she falls in love with a Spanish man, but she’s not of status. So, after they have two children the Spanish man leaves her for another Spanish, for a Spanish woman, who is obviously more high class because colonization. And um, one day — because he disappears, he GHOSTS her, you know— So, one day she’s in the town and she sees him ride by in his like fancy carriage WITH the other woman and she gets so enraged and so made that she ends up going back home and throwing her two boys into the river. But then she gets so distraught that she did that, she throws herself into the river to drown. But, when she dies and goes up to heaven she gets denied at the gates because she doesn’t have her children with her. So they sent her back down to go find her children so she can enter heaven. But, obviously she can’t find them, and she steals whatever little kid is running by the river to go bring it up to god to be like, “Hey, this is my child!” But, it never works. 

Interviewer: Where did you hear this story?

Informant: Uh, I don’t know. That’s just like, um. I know I heard some of it obviously from my mom and stuff, but I know that wasn’t like the full version. Like that wasn’t — where I got the actual like… pretty sure I musta watched TED ED or something. 

Context: This conversation happened casually over the phone. The informant and I were both aimlessly talking, when I used the opportunity to ask her about her version of a story we both know well. My informant’s tone was extremely casual and slightly sarcastic, like she was telling a story about a friend. 

My thoughts:  As mentioned before, La Llorona is a popular legend for the Latinx community. I have heard many versions also from family, teachers, and friends. What struck me the most about my informant’s version was how casual she talked about a ghost story.  My version was always interlaced with fear, as I heard it always in the context of instilling that fear. The informant is slightly younger than I, and seems more well connected with a more progressive version of the story. The informant highlights La Llorona’s lover did to her in order to cause a temporary insanity. And while she doesn’t praise La Llorona for having some agency as some versions I’ve heard do (see in ‘Annotations’ below), she doesn’t judge the character. Her words were void of emotion in the sense that she just explained what happened. Matter of factly linking action to consequence but not claiming anything. This balanced view of the story was refreshing. Especially since it is a glimpse that the younger generation hopefully sees La Llorona as someone who is not necessarily in the right, but who also did what she had to do and paid the price for it. My version was always interlaced with fear, and I’m thankful to be introduced to versions of this Legend fused with a quiet power, and undeniable agency. 


Annotations: For another version of this Legend that explores feminist themes please see page 54 of MELUS Vol. 24, No.2  (The Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, 1999) for Ana María Carbonell’s “From La Llorona to La Gritona: Coatlicue in Femenist Tales by Viramontes and Cisneros”

Echale Sal al Animal, Quien te Pico

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 45
Occupation: unemployed
Residence: Franklin Park, IL
Performance Date: 3.16.20
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Background: The account below is explaining a game that the informant used to play as a child with her family members. The informant is Mexican American and grew up on the South Side of Chicago. She remembers a few games and stories that she played as a kid that would entertain her and her cousins without toys, or often supervision. However, the specific game below is one she learned from her mom, who learned it from her mom, who heard it from her mom. This has been passed for generations. The informant doesn’t remember playing this in school, only with family members. 

Main piece: 

*** names of informant’s family members are represented by S, J, R

My sisters used to play that. They’d be like okay, “Lie down! Echale sal…” and my mom too. If we were bored in the car she’d say okay let’s play a game. And like you bend over on the legs and you pull the back of your shirt up and you take turns, and you have to guess who pinched you. Was it S, was it J, was it R, ya know, was it mom? Who pinched you? It’s a group game and if you guessed right then that person would go next. If you guessed wrong you’d lie back down and do the pinch over again until you guessed who pinched you. If they were being jerks they pinched hard. “Echale sal al animal, quien te pico” It means, “put salt on the animal who bit you” and pico is like a poke, like a fork. Like you would stick an animal with a  fork, ya know. That’s why they said put salt on the animal — like they’re salting you up when they rub their hands on your back. Echale sal al animal— and PLOOP. And poke. So rubbing the salt on the back is like they’re seasoning an animal and then boop you get pinched… I mean you have to think way back when as kids you had to entertain yourselves. We all played that. Well, the family did.

Context: This conversation took place over a video chat. During the conversation I  asked about her version of this saying, sharing that I had my own. The informant instantly filled with giddy nostalgia as she explained something so natural and personal to her childhood.

My thoughts: I grew with the same Spanish text: Echale sal al animal quien te pico. However, my experience never translated over to a game. My mother would rub my back in circles saying the line, and then she would lightly and playfully give my back a pinch. This happened a lot in an embrace, so it was always a term or gesture of endearment. My family members often did this to each other sometimes if they were being playful. More to the little kids who would go off giggling after being pinched. I was fascinated to learn the informant’s version. I realized that both of our experiences were terms of endearment that we shared with a select few. Moreover, it brings back happy childhood memories. I feel that this game is also related to other hand/ body games that children would play with their closest friends to jovially pass time without worry. 

Chinese Proverb for a Struggling Student

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 17
Occupation: student
Residence: Franklin Park, IL
Performance Date: 4.2.20
Primary Language: English


Background: Below is a conversation about a proverb that the informant was told at the start of her academic journey at a competitive math and science boarding school. Two years later, she still holds the proverb near to her heart and uses it as motivation for her all-nighters. 

Main Piece:

Informant: I was struggling in excel with my workload and my math teacher told me a chinese proverb that helped. He basically said, the proverb goes like this like, “20 years ago was the best time to plant the tree, but the second best time to plant a tree is right now.

Interviewer: What does that mean?

Informant: Basically saying that you know you should have started this thing, a WHILE ago, but now that you haven’t done it you know that in the past that was the best time to start it. But, you haven’t so the best time to start it, again, is right now. And I think that works well cause like I’d procrastinate a lot on homework and then I’d be stressed like there’s no way I can finish this. And it’s like well yeah you should’ve started it 6 hours ago, but — you didn’t. So, the best time to start it is right now. 

Interviewer: Tell me about this teacher

Informant: He was half Chinese, his mother uh— actually I don’t know which region, but she spoke Cantonese not Mandarin. And his father was from Kentucky, he was Black. He was really understanding. Not judgemental, he knew that waiting til the last minute was punishment enough.

Context: This conversation occurred over a FaceTime call where I asked the informant if she had any sayings or proverbs she liked. She instantly told me this. The conversation was casual, but very relatable as we both lived out our shared experience of procrastination and all-nighters.

My thoughts: It was interesting to find out that this was one of those sayings that keeps the informant pushing through some tough times. It felt very personal to know that this has become a mantra for her. I also found it interesting and quite touching that she resonates so wholeheartedly will a proverb from a culture that is not her own. I feels that not only the proverb was given to her, but a kindness and genuine motivation from her teacher was transferred as well.