Always Bring a Gift!

Nationality: Peruvian-American
Age: 23
Occupation: Producer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant relays the tradition of always bringing a gift–usually a dessert– to Peruvian dinner parties.

A: If you’re invited to a dinner. You must bring something. Usually a dessert. 

L: That’s specifically a Peruvian thing too?

A: Some people bring like wine, or other gifts. You must bring a gift, if you’re not hosting. My mom always brought a fruit pie. All the time. Every single time. On the way there, she’d stop at a fucking Krogers and pie a fruit pie, like, “Alright hold it”.

Thoughts:

This tradition also exists in other cultures around the world. However, it’s interesting to see how something so practical has turned into a polite tradition. If someone spends all day cooking a dinner, it’s safe to assume they might not have time or energy to cook dessert. Plus, if someone spends a lot of money on preparing the food and hosting the guests, it’s only polite to chip in monetarily by buying a desert. This tradition seems to be born out of a polite practicality.

Peruvian Time

Nationality: Peruvian-American
Age: 23
Occupation: Producer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant explains the difference between “Peruvian Time” and “English Time”.

A: I didn’t know this was an actual thing until I looked it up. If you say– if you invite someone over to, like, a dinner party or whatever, if you say it’s at six it’s customary for people to show up thirty minutes to an hour later up to two hours later. And it’s not considered, like, a problem. They call it, “You’re arriving at Peruvian time”. 

It’s because, during dinner parties, if you say at six, you don’t expect to serve anything until eight anyways. And if you say, uh, show up at English time, you show up on time.

Thoughts:
When hearing this, I understood why people would show up to functions an hour to an hour and a half late. The party isn’t in fully swing, and dinner usually isn’t served until an hour or two into the event. However, I found it incredibly hilarious that if you want someone to show up on time, you have to say, “Show up on English time”. This gives me the imagine that Americans are seen as these very punctual, straight laced people by Peruvians.

Suitcase ’round the Cul-de-sac

Nationality: Peruvian-American
Age: 23
Occupation: Producer
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 30, 2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant recounts a Peruvian tradition used to bring good luck during travel.

A: You run a suitcase around a cul-de-sac in order to have good luck while traveling. 

L: So anyone of any age does it?

A: Yeah. Not that I was the only one that did it by choice. I was told to do it. 

L: By who?

A: By my mother.

L: Do you know if it’s a family thing, or a cultural thing? Or is your mother fucking with you?

A: No, I think it’s a cultural thing. 

Thoughts:

When I first heard this, I thought my informant was messing with me. However, this is a very real tradition that is still practiced by people today. It seems like this tradition was born from people wanting to do something silly and fun before they travel as a way to bring them good luck.

Hanging Conan

Nationality: China
Age: 19
Occupation: Rapper
Residence: Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Performance Date: 4/27/2021
Primary Language: Chinese



Backgrounds:

“Gatsby” is a college student at Stony Brook University in New York. He is also a rapper. During the pandemic, he was unable to complete his college courses in-person in New York, and particcipated in a Go-Local program at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), where he is taking several in-person courses, instead.

He shared the following folklore with me during an interview when we were having dinner together.

The Main Piece:
In Chinese universities, a lot of students will hang a poster of Detective Conan on their walls before taking exams. This is like a ritual, and the students are hoping to pass the exam by doing so.

Hanging the poster of Detective Conan is said as “hanging Conan”

in Chinese：挂（hang） 柯南（conan）

                     Gua              Ke Na

The sound “Gua Ke Nan” is also the pronounciation for “it is difficult to fail”

                挂科（fail the exam）   难 （difficult）

                Gua Ke                           Nan

So Chinese students hang posters of Conan to hope that it is going to be super difficult for them to fail, which implies that they will pass.

 

Analysis:

The kids draw connection between two events that are entirely unrelated to one another through their identical pronounciations. 

Exams are in deed a painful thing. Although a poster cannot really help students pass the exam, making fun of it is a good way to relieve pressure. It is being spread rapidly through the internet where college students communicate with each other, and it reflects the students’ anxiety for exams as well as their humorous ways of making fun of exams.

 

 

Calamus Dews Can Improve One’s Vision

Nationality: China
Age: 19
Occupation: Rapper
Residence: Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Performance Date: 4/27/2021
Primary Language: Chinese

Backgrounds:

“Gatsby” is a college student at Stony Brook University in New York. He is also a rapper. During the pandemic, he was unable to complete his college courses in-person in New York, and particcipated in a Go-Local program at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), where he is taking several in-person courses, instead.

He shared the following folklore with me during an interview when we were having dinner together.

The Main Piece:

The dew from the leaves of Calamus is said to be able to improve a person’s vision.

Gatsby says he learned this during a class about archeology and ancient Chinese history. He says the professor of the class, Tang Jigen, invited a guest speaker who is an expert in china (the objects, not the nation), and also in Calamus (calamus is a kind of plant that is loved by many famous poets and authors in ancient China) . The guest speakers tells the students that in ancient times, calamus will be raised in very fine environment, and in early morning, they will be moved outside so that dew will form on the leaves, and the owners will collect the dew and use it as eyedrop because the dew is food for the eye.

Analysis:

This is very interesting. Scientifically, dew is just water, maybe even with small particles of dust in it. I don’t see how mere water can be good for the eye. However, I do find that the tradition Chinese medicine do include dew, and calamus dew is really recorded as being able to improve one’s eyes.

Regardless of whether it really is effective, I’d like to analyze why people believe so. To most people, especially ancient people who didn’t know that much about physics, dew is water that come out of nowhere. Unlike water from the lake or the sea, which is always there and dirty things might fall into it, and there’s mud at the bottom, dew suddenly appears from the air. You know where the water in the river come from: from the river. But you don’t know where dew come from. So, there’s no way dirty things can contaminate it, because it appears out of nowhere and is collected immediately.

Ancient Chinese people also have a strong feeling for plants. They like them, thinking that they smell good. Traditional Chinese medicine also believes that many of the plants and flowers, calamus included, can be taken as medicines. Therefore, whater that comes out of nowhere and sticks on beautiful plants that might be taken as medicine is considered to be the purest thing. That might be why people believe it is good for the eye.