Background:
Informant is a student at USC who calls herself a stoner.
Main Piece:
“It’s a common story with stoners that having a white lighter is bad luck.”
Context:
This conversation was recorded in-person. I was in possession of a white lighter which my informant took note of.
Analysis:
This example of folklore is a folk belief that is widely shared by a certain group of people (in this case, stoners). In similar vein to black cats crossing the street or walking underneath a ladder bringing bad luck, the actual physicality of the lighter does not bring any luck, but rather has been given a symbolic meaning later on. My informant did not know why specifically a white-colored lighter brought bad luck, and later found out about the urban legend that many famous musicians supposedly died while carrying a white lighter. Whether this is actually true or not isn’t the important part, but such a story would reasonably carry weight among people who possess lighters or frequently use them, and like my informant did, would also pass along the story as a word of caution to people in their circles who also smoke.
Folk Object — Jade Necklace
Background:
Informant (W) is a 78 y/o Chinese woman living in China.
Main Piece:
(Interview is translated from Mandarin Chinese.)
I: Can you tell me more about the jade necklace you gave me when I was younger?
W: Oh, I remember that. Your cousin had one, so you were begging me to get one for you too.
I: Why do people wear it? Is there something special about the jade?
W: Jade is a very important stone in China. If you wear a piece of jade, it sucks out all of the impurities in your body (吸毒, lit. “sucking poison”). When you see a dark spot in your piece of jade, that’s the negative energy it took.
I: So it’s stored in that piece of jade forever?
W: Yes, that’s what the jade does.
Context:
This conversation took place over a phone call.
Analysis:
The jade necklace can be loosely defined as a folk object. The existence of a folk object is defined by how it’s used, which changes over time, and are generally created from natural materials. With its staggering popularity, something like a jade necklace is probably mass-produced and distributed, and most likely has a variety of uses, from purely aesthetic reasons to religious ones (many jade necklaces are Buddha carvings or have Chinese zodiac signs). However, the shape of the jade is generally a round circle or donut shape—folk objects usually are slow to change in its form. In what my informant tells me, this particular instance of a jade necklace also uses contagion magic. By contact with the skin, the jade is able to suck out impurities within the body (specifically what this entails, my informant did not specify). This act gives the jade a sacred purpose and a usage other than aesthetics.
Yeet Hay
Background:
Informant (A) is a Chinese-American student at USC.
Main Piece:
A: It’s like, I don’t even know how to explain it well, it’s like, not hot and cold, but some food just have like a hotter energy or colder energy, it’s like all of this [gestures to her lunch], but that’s yeet hay, and it’s like if you eat too much of it you break out, and bad things happen to you and you need to have a balance in your diet and literally my mom would be so horrified by how I eat.
I: Was there anything in particular that you remember? Like just any food that you remember that maybe your mom was like, oh—
A: Just like, in general, like I would be like, “Parents, I have a medical something” or “Please use Western medicine” and they’d be like, “No, you can fix your issue by not eating chips” like eat a fruit, the balance or whatever.
Context:
This conversation was recorded in-person over lunch. The concept of yeet hay was brought up as my informant noted her lunch wouldn’t be conducive with yeet hay.
Analysis:
Yeet hay (熱氣, zheng qi, lit. “hot air”) is a Chinese medicinal concept in relation to food and the body, drawing on ideas of homeopathic magic. As explained by my informant, eating foods with a certain type of energy would either raise or cool down the body’s internal energy/temperature, which in turn affects biological functions and conditions. The longstanding tradition of Chinese medicine is most likely what drives belief in the idea, as opposed to Western medicine which has sprung up only in the last couple hundred years. Of course, in my informant’s case, yeet hay seems to also be applied as a method to get children to eat healthier by using such a traditional/ancient belief as a method of persuasion.
Sports Ritual — Certain Victory
Background:
Informant (P) is a student studying computer science with a minor in linguistics.
Main Piece:
I: Can you tell me about the words we had on our hands?
P: Yeah, it was 必赢 (bì yíng). We basically both had one of the words and we both wrote it on each other’s hands, with a pen, since we’re both right-handed. It means “certain victory” even though we definitely did not win all of our matches. But it’s fine, it was our special little thing. Better than when people did the racket hitting after they won a point.
Context:
The informant was my doubles partner throughout high school badminton. We wrote the words before each match that we played.
Analysis: This is an example of a ritual that my informant and I created and performed. Writing down the words on our hands was something we both saw from a sports show where a duo did the same thing, and we decided to incorporate it into our pre-match traditions as well. Sports rituals are a common practice—the outcome of a game or match is always unknown, so many athletes consistently perform some sort of ritual as a way to control the uncertain and connect with a non-human, sacred realm. In our particular case, as we were both right-handed, we had the words on our right hand (though this didn’t happen all the time). This act is an example of contagion magic, since the hand with the word would be in contact with the racket to further “strengthen” the power of this belief.
Bill Clinton and the Nine Horse Mountain
Informant (N) is a 53 y/o Chinese woman who is a first-generation immigrant to the US and has lived in the US for around 23 years.
I: Can you tell me about the story about 九马画山 (jiu ma huà shān) we heard by the tour guide when we visited Guilin?
N: (trans.) The Nine Horse Mountain’s rock face has a lot of plants and colors, which is why it’s known as 画山. Legend has it that on this mountain you can “see” nine horses on the rock face, and it’s said that the more horses you can see, the farther that person will go in terms of accomplishments. When President Bill Clinton visited Guilin, he was very excited to see the mountain, but when he got there he wasn’t able to see a single horse, which is saying he’s not very bright.
九马画山的石壁不是有各种植物，颜色啊，所以就称为画山。在这座石壁上呢，传说是能看出九匹马，看得越多人就走的越远，也说越成就。说是Bill Clinton去桂林旅游的时候，他很期待去看这座山，但一到的时候一匹马都看不出，就说他很笨。
I: Why is it that he’s not very bright?
N: (trans.) You can at least see one horse in the mountain, but he couldn’t even see one. But of course, seeing horses is really just saying the person has a vivid imagination.
这因为多少可以看到一匹马的，但他一匹也看不到。当然，能看得出马也只是证明你这个人很有想象力的。
Context:
This conversation took place over the phone. The original performance of this folklore was given by a tour guide while on a boat on the [] River.
Analysis:
The story my informant tells me is a legend, a narrative that is based in the real world but isn’t necessarily factual—both Bill Clinton and the mountain exist, but the number of horses he saw is highly debated. This legend also acts as a subtle dig towards Clinton, which, given the fact that the original performance was in Chinese and given by someone Chinese, makes reasonable sense. Placing a person of importance in such a location also gives the location a heightened sense of fame, making it more alluring to international tourists and participate in the legend (counting the horses on the rock face), which is how belief in this legend also continues.