Peach Boy

Nationality: Japanese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 16, 2018
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English, Mandarin

Folklore:

This story is a Japanese folktale and begins with an old woman going to the river to do her laundry, at the river she finds a huge peach floating down towards her. Inside the peach she finds a baby boy and decides to raise him with her husband. The old couple names the boy “peach” and he grows up to be a very energetic boy. When the boy grows older he decides to save the village from the demons who torment them. To get to the demons he must journey to the mountains, for the journey his mother packs for him four mochis. During his journey he eats one mochi. He meets a dog and convinces him to join him against his fight with the demons by giving him a mochi. He also meets a peacock and monkey who join him, as he offers them a piece of mochi. Eventually they arrive at the demons hideout and waits for the demons to get drunk, when the demons are drunk the boy and his animal companions attack. While the boy is strong the animals use their individual strengths to fight, an example being the peacock who uses his beak to peck at the demons. In the end they defeat the demons and take the demons treasures back to the boy’s village.

Background and Context:

This folklore was collected from a current freshman at USC. It was collected in a casual context over lunch after class one day.  The student is an international student who is ethnically Japanese but grew up in various places in Asia. Before coming to USC she lived in Singapore for seven years and before Singapore the longest she lived in a country was Japan for five years. She learned about the folklore through school as folklore was part of school curriculum and in textbooks. In the story she refers to the boy’s name as peach but is traditionally peach in Japanese. However she does not recall the Japanese translation for the name. She also explains what a mochi is, a traditional Japanese rice cake usually shaped into a ball.

Final Thoughts:

My thoughts on the story is that it gave an important message. The message of the story is be kind and good to others, as all the characters in the story are rewarded for their good deeds. Examples being the old couple who take the boy in and raise him as eventually he saves their village from demons. Another example being the boy as he gives each animal a mochi so they decide to help him in his journey. Other morals that can be taken from this story is don’t be afraid to ask for help as the boy asked the animals he just met to help him defeat the demons and they agreed. Overall the story is an interesting and unique intriguing it’s readers.

Annotation:

Another place you can find this piece of folklore is in the children’s book Peach Boy: A Japanese Legend by Gail Sakurai.

New Year

Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Marino
Performance Date: 4/24/18
Primary Language: English

Interview:

 

“We do Christian and Buddhist things at the same time, we go to church on Christmas, then do New Year Sri Lankan stuff.”

 

What do you normally do for New Years?

 

“On New Year we eat sticky rice because it’s for good luck and then for New Year you pray to your elders and like kneel and pray.  I think that’s Sri Lankan.”

 

Background:

 

The informant was unaware of specifics to the New Year celebration, there were specific consistent features of the celebration for him.  When asked about the importance of the holiday to him, the informant states that it is an important family event.  While traditionally celebrated on April 13th or 14th, Aluth Avurudda, also known as Sinhalese New Year, is celebrated similarly to how the informant’s family traditionally celebrates.

 

Analysis:

It seems that among many cultures celebrate a form of celebration for the New Year.  They also seem to share similar ideas of the cleansing effect of the new year.  Many of the new year celebration involve rituals for the new year that are to bring good luck.

Zhong zi

Nationality: Taiwanese American
Age: 55
Occupation: Software Engineer
Residence: San Marino, CA
Performance Date: 3/30/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin (Chinese)

Interview:

“We eat zhong zi (bamboo wrapped rice dumplings) with the rabbit jumping into the moon.

They were throwing young people into the river as human sacrifice, so a queen who thought it was inhumane, threw herself in instead, so people threw zhong zi into the river so the fish wouldn’t eat her body.

The moon goddesses took pity on her so they sent her into the heavens, where she worked with the mochi pounding moon bunnies.

It was called duan wu jie.

After that its counted as summer.  “

 

Background:

This story was passed down to my mother from her family.  Zhong zi is a traditional Chinese food made of sticky rice and different fillings, that is then wrapped with bamboo leaves.  They are traditionally eaten during Duanwu jie, also known as the Dragon boat festival.  This story that was told bears striking similarities to the legend of Duanwu jie.  The original story was about a highly esteemed poet who lived in the kingdom of Chu.  He was known for his patriotism and warned his king of a coming threat.  Because of jealous peers, he was slandered and his warning fell on deaf ears, resulting in the fall of his kingdom.  His grief ended with him throwing himself in the river.  Many people threw zhong zi into the river to also prevent his body from being eaten by fish.  The second part of the tale seems to have similarities to the Japanese and Korean mythology of rabbits that live on the moon who pound sticky rice cakes known as mochi.

Analysis:

Overall, this folk story seems like it was one that was passed down in specific local regions.  While it draws from the more popular existing mythologies, it has qualities unique to itself.     While some of these similarities may be from my mother combining the folk stories that she remembers, it shows the process in which folk stories evolve and change.

SoundClowns

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 10.40.43 PM

Background:

The term “soundclown” denotes a genre of musical compositions on the music sharing website SoundCloud.  They are known for humorous mash-ups or edits of songs on the platform.  Many of the early popular remixes, included ones involving the main theme of the children’s show “Thomas the Tank Engine”.  “Under the Booty” by TDRloid was one of the first popular SoundClowns that would receive 2 million views within three years.  It was a mash-up of the song “Ms. New Booty” by Bubba Sparxxx and “Under the Sea” from the Little Mermaid which are starkly different musical compositions.  Some of the other remixes would include versions of songs that would replace vocals with air horns, mash-ups of strange pairings, or even other internet memes laced to the soundtracks.  Many of these eventually become popular memes and shared across social media, inspiring other remixes.  Notable examples of SoundClown creators include the artists within the SilvaGunner group and Cyranek.

Analysis:

The rise of Soundclowns represent the innovation that is brought together on the internet.  Through humor and music, they provide entertainment through creativity.

 

Link to TDRloid’s Remix https://soundcloud.com/tdrloid/under-the-booty

 

GilvaSunner (SilvaGunner)

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 10.41.28 PMBackground:

GilvaSunner, the original name of a YouTube account now known as SilvaGunner, is a Youtube account that poses as a music ripper of a similar name, who upload series of video game soundtrack remixes.  Originally, the name GilvaSunner belonged to a Youtube account that specialized in “video game rips” which are soundtracks taken directly from the video game.  After that channel was terminated for copyright infringement, a parody GilvaSunner account was created replacing the L in the original “GilvaSunner” name, with a capitalized I, and mimicked the original account, but instead of posting the video game rips that were promised, it uploaded a remixed version of the soundtrack.   Many of these remixed soundtracks consisted of humorous mash-ups or edits of songs, which is known as SoundClowns.  Many of these rips, eventually permeate across many social media sites, and even become notable memes.  One of these memes, involved the remix of the song “We are Number One”, from the children’s show Lazy Town, had an everlasting impact on a person’s life.  Due to the popularization of the original remix from SilvaGunner, it came to light that Stefan Karl, the actor who sang the song for the original series developed pancreatic cancer.  After Silvagunner linked the gofundme that would fund his treatment, on their twitter, the internet blew up, creating more remixes, while raising awareness for the gofundme.  On August 13, 2017, Stefan Karl shared the message on his gofundme, stating that he was officially free of cancer metastases.

Analysis:

This event is a symbol of the moving force behind the internet.  It represents the power of laughter and creativity on the platform the internet provides.

 

Link to Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ecwl3FTG66jIKA9JRDtmg