盘古开天辟地

Pangu opens the Earth and Sky

Nationality: Chinese

Age: 59

Occupation: Unemployed

Residence: Shangyu, Zhejiang, China

Date: 04/05/2025 

Language: Mandarin

Description 

It’s been a long time, so I don’t remember this story well. We don’t tell these stories often because everyone knows them. I need to think… it’s about Pangu, he was a giant who created the world. He was the first being, and he was sleeping in an egg, and the egg represented chaos and disorder, and there was nothing but chaos. He has an axe, and… first he was frustrated because he couldn’t make sense of anything. Or did he wake up? I’m not sure. I don’t know. But at some point, he took his axe and swung at the chaos around him as hard as he could, then… the egg was sliced open, and it was really loud, like an explosion. After this, Pangu is no longer inside chaos. But he realized that the two halves of the egg were going to close up together again, so he raised his arms and stomped his feet and held the top half up while standing on the bottom half. The top is sky, the bottom, well, is the earth. And he stood for a long time, until the two halves wouldn’t ever come together anymore. Then he collapsed because he was too tired, he just laid down and he died. But there’s more. Parts of his body all became different things in the nature…natural world. His blood became the river, his sigh became the wind, the sound he made when he fell is the lightning… and then… and then what? I don’t remember the rest. That’s just how it goes. Pangu. 

Subject’s Opinion

Interviewer: If you don’t believe in the story, why do you think people still spread them? 

Subject: It’s a good story, it’s very melancholy. I think people enjoy telling it. And having one main God to think about when they think about the Chinese Gods, with the heavenly Gods and everything, when there’s so many of them. And, well, it’s a myth, so you tell it to Children so they understand the world a little better. 

Analysis

The popular Chinese creation myth of Pangu is commonly regarded as the origin story of the Chinese people. Pangu is often regarded as a martyristic figure, as the spirit of sacrifice is highly noble in Chinese culture. The myth is undoubtedly a sacred truth, as it sets the stage for countless myths to come. Though the subject’s rather indifferent towards the truth value of the myth, her vivid telling is indicative of the rich cultural heritage that Pangu is a part of. Pangu’s actions of holding two boundaries apart invite further exploration of our discussion of “the liminal’, the space in which the most disruption and change can happen. By creating a liminal space, Pangu then creates the world as the Chinese people know it, which communicates a powerful and frankly universal perception of the world not as a binary, but the endless possibilities between two ends. 

Don’t cross your eyes!

Nationality: American

Age: 22

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Orange County, CA, USA

Date: 04/05/2025 

Language: English

Description: 

When I was a kid and still now, because now my mom just finds it funny. But when I was a kid, it was like a pretty serious topic. She used to say that if I cross my eyes and someone slaps you on the back, then your eyes would stay crossed that way. And so sometimes, like when I was joking about it as a kid about across my eyes she’d threate to like, come back up and like, uh, hit my back. Not in like an abusive way, but in, like, a funny way. She would tell me how she had this one friend. This boy. And he was like making fun of that or something, and was like walking around crossing his eyes being, like, see, see, like, you can’t get me because it’s not real. And then, he was crossing his eyes, and someone came up and hit him on the back, and he stayed cross-eyed, and she would say he stayed cross-eyed forever, and he could never go to school, he could never do his work, because he couldn’t see straight. And glass never fixed it, and you can’t get surgery to fix it. And it was like something she used to tell me a lot. So, now sometimes we have a bit where I cross my eyes and she’ll come back and then hit me on the back and then I get all nervous about it still. Like, I still get nervous that my eyes are gonna stay that way.

Subject’s Opinion 

Subject: I don’t know who told her that story. It had to have been like, a friend of a friend. It was like, probably one of those things you know where you hear down the grapevine. 

Analysis 

This cautionary tale, as the subject points out, becomes legend as it’s spread through parents to inform each other’s children about the “dangers” of crossing your eyes. In this case, the form of ostention the subject’s mother participates in to this day led me to consider the lingering effects of these cautionary legends. Even though the subject, now an adult, no longer believes in the legend, she still has some anxiety when the ritualistic slap is performed. This indicates that since the subject once believed in the legend, it’s difficult to dispel the belief completely, which in turn reminds me of ritualistic practices that reverse or undo these legendary effects.

“The Belly Button Snatcher”

Nationality: American

Age: 22

Occupation: Student 

Residence: Orange County, CA, USA

Date: 04/02/2025 

Language: English

Description: 

When I was in preschool, my teacher told me this story about the belly button snatcher. Basically, she told me there was this boy, right? And he goes to bed one night, and his mom says, you have to pull the sheets up all the way up to your chest, so you sleep well. And he says, I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to do that. So he pulls the sheets all the way down, so his whole belly is exposed. And his mom’s saying you have to pull your sheets up otherwise. The belly button snatcher’s going to come. He says there’s no such thing as the belly button snatcher. That’s stupid mom! You know, because he’s like a young boy. And so she says, okay, well, good night. And so he goes to sleep and the sheets are down by his feet because he refused to pull him up over his belly button. And he wakes up the next morning and he goes…and he drinks some orange juice. His mom makes him a nice breakfast, so he has some cereal, some orange juice, and he’s drinking the orange juice, and his shirt gets all wet. And he’s like, what’s going on? And he lifts up his shirt, and there’s a hole! And the orange juice is coming out of his belly button. And he’s eating his cereal, and there’s a hole! So cereal’s coming out of his belly button. And it’s getting all over his lap. And he’s like, what’s going on? So he gets up and he goes and takes a bath to try to clean himself off. And he gets in the bath, he starts filling up like a balloon. Because all the water is going in its belly button. So, he gets out the bath, and he drains out his belly button, and he goes Mom! Mom! I don’t have a belly button anymore. And she goes, the belly button snatcher came! He snatched your belly button. And I don’t know how it ends. And I don’t know if he ever got his belly button back. But it was basically, she scolded him for not having the blanket all the way up above his belly button.

Subject’s opinion:

Subject:  I don’t know if it was like a thing where it’s supposed to be…You’re supposed to keep warm at night, or you’re supposed to protect yourself at night? 

Interviewer:  That sounds like it. You’re supposed to keep warm because you get sick. 

Subject: Right? Yeah, but it is literally…I’ve spent, like, a good three years at that age, really paranoid about the belly button snatcher. Like, I couldn’t go to sleep. I would be sweating in bed, but I couldn’t go to sleep unless I had the sheets all the way up because I was so nervous. It’s like the same thing as when they tell you not to stick your foot over the side of the bed, because, like, someone’s gonna eat it or something.

Analysis: 

Based on the subject’s interpretation, the belly button snatcher is both an urban legend and a cautionary tale. While the subject denies the truth value of the tale in the present, her past belief in the story indicates a successful spread and reinforcement of a certain way of behavior that parents expect in their children. The story features key traits of a classic tale, utilizing only two characters and the repeated depiction of how losing a belly button negatively affects the boy character. This pushes the listeners, who are usually children, towards the belief that it’s dangerous to sleep without a blanket. It’s a classic example of a legend informing common beliefs that kids carry into adulthood.

Hospital Room

Nationality: Indian- American
Age: 63
Occupation: Physician
Residence: Las Vegas, Nevada
Language: English

Text: When I was a medical student training in Philadelphia, there was a specific room in the hospital that was never occupied with a patient. Even during the winter time, when the hospital filled up, I never once saw or attended a patient in this room. It was located at the end of the hallway I would typically make rounds in, and it was always well maintained and kept. I asked an attending what the deal with the room was, and he explained that he was also unaware of why patient’s were never placed in the room. Training at Hahnemann for such a long time, I began to feel a sense of nervousness when I walked past this room. I never found out what was wrong with it, if anything was, but the mystery around it- at least for myself- made me feel physically uncomfortable when in its proximity.

Context: Informant first became exposed to this room during his second year at Hahnemann Hospital. He was allowed to begin making rounds completely unaccompanied, and this independence made the lack of presence in the specific room very noticeable. Informant admits to never getting closure over what was wrong with the room, if anything was wrong, but does recognize that its mystery caused some degree of discomfort in his daily life. He, in a logical way, believes nothing was wrong with the room. He believes that he simply became overly- aware of its vacancy, which led him to ponder any potential mishap that could have occurred.

Analysis: This memorate is representatives of common themes in hospital folklore, particularly the mental toll of uncertainty and the fear of holding another’s life in your hands. For new healthcare workers, early clinical experiences carry a much larger emotional weight, as they tend to form the foundations of one’s career. In an already stressed filled setting, an unusually empty room becomes distinctly unexplainable. Though it is very possible nothing was wrong with this room, its vacancy was viewed as a mistake in the mind of someone who was fearful of encountering mistakes on their medical journey. For this reason, these memorates tend to be shared, individually, within the healthcare community.

Staircase Ghost

Nationality: Korean- American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Language: English

Text: When I lived in Missouri, my room was located in the basement. My bed was positioned opposite to my doorframe, which was right next to the staircase. If my door was open, which it often was, I could see most of the basement and the first few steps at the bottom of the staircase. On numerous occasions, mostly when waking up from naps, I would see a black figure quickly move up the stairs and out of sight. I was never motivated enough to pursue it, but I always ended up closing my door to avoid the perceived threat. When informing my parents about this, they would always act like they went to check the basement out, but I was aware they didn’t believe me. I, truthfully, didn’t know if what I was seeing was real or not.

Context: Informant was in elementary school during this time of her life. They recall the previous owners of the home being of older age, and correlate this with the potential ghost near the staircase. Informant was never terrified of the figure, as they were not certain it was real. However, they felt a close- relationship to its presence because of their parents lack of belief in her sightings. Informant believes that, whether the figure existed or not, the chance of its presence promoted her habit of closing her door.

Analysis: This memorate reflects the turbulent boundary of deciphering the known and unknown. The informant cannot be sure of the existence of the figure, but it is clear that the events described had a long term impact on the informant. Drawing a possible conclusion that the figure could have been a past resident of the home, we can see a perpetuation of the commonly held cultural ideas revolving around property ownership and death. This retelling highlights the ambiguity of memorates as legends. Their truthfulness is not essential to their ability to shape behavior. In many cases, proof of presence is not needed for significance.