Opening an Umbrella Inside of a Building

Nationality: China
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Shanghai, China
Performance Date: 5/2/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Backgrounds:

P-M was born in China and finsihed his middle school and high school in LA, California. He is currently studying at USC. P-M shared this piece of folklore with me after I asked him whether he know of any interesting folklore when we were chatting after dinner.

The Main Piece:

P-M: You know the umbrella one?

Me： What？

P-M: The umbrella. So, if you open an umbrella when you’re inside……

Me：You don’t grow tall?

P-M: Exactly.

Me: Why?

P-M: Uhhhhh…… It’s more of a rumor. Think of an umbrella, indoor. Like, this shit, is like a ridiculous misbelief.

Me: but why is it there? How did u learn of it?

P-M: Where it’s from, when it’s from, I dont know. I’ve heard of it from my grandma grandpa generation. But nowadays people don’t take it that seriously.

Analysis:

The interesting thing is that I’ve heard of this belief myself as well. I want to try and explain why there is such a folk belief. A roof sets a limit to how high one can go. An umbrella, when opened, is like a roof. With only one roof, a person can handle it, but when an umbrella is opened indoor, there comes a double roof: the roof of the umbrella and the roof of the room. The two roofs combined might limit one’s growth.

The Origin of Bloody Mary

Nationality: China
Age: "No no no, don't tell them my age"
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Residence: Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Performance Date: 2/24/2021
Primary Language: Chinese

Backgrounds:

Ms. Z is an elementary school Maths and Chinese teacher in Shenyang, China. We were having dinner together when I mentioned my folklore collection project. She then shared some of the interesting folklores she’s learned of from the kids in her class or from her colleagues.

The Main Piece:

Z: I recall this ghost story about Bloody Mary going around among my students. So, basically, this Bloody Mary used to be a prostitute. She hated the way men treated her, so she wanted to revenge. Since then, every time when she was hired by a man, she would kill him and then drink his blood. And after she dies she becomes a ghost.

Me: So how do we call her out. I know other versions of this story, and they had their own ways of calling her to appear.

Z: If a boy walks into a dark bathroom, turn off all the lights and then say “Bloody Mary” three times facing the mirror, the ghost’s disfigured face will appear in the mirror, and she’ll scare the boy to death.

Analysis:

The Bloody Mary story might be one of the most famous ghost stories, this time not around America, but around the world, since the elementary school Z works in is in China. It is interesting to see that there are so many different versions of the orginin of Bloody Mary, how to summon the ghost, and the consequences of summoning her. Through all the different versions, we can see how a piece of folklore can have different variations in difference places. I know of classic origin stories of Bloody Mary that is linked to European history, or linked to religion (Virgin Mary). I guess for the reason why the ghost’s origin becomes a prostitute in the Chinese elementary school is this: the kids in the elementary school has little or no knowledge about western religion or western history, because they aren’t taught about them in elementary school. So, their cultural backgrounds and knowledge doesn’t allow for such origin stories. Therefore, the origin of the ghost might then turn into a more relatable story, prostitutes, which exist in almost all cultures, unlike religious or historical figures that are known only to a specific group of people that share the same culture.

For another version of the story, see Bloody Mary by Austen Le

http://uscfolklorearc.wpenginepowered.com/bloody-mary-10/


Throwing a Fallen Tooth

Nationality: China
Age: "No no no, don't tell them my age"
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Residence: Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Performance Date: 2/24/2021
Primary Language: Chinese

Backgrounds:

Ms. Z is an elementary school Maths and Chinese teacher in Shenyang, China. We were having dinner together when I mentioned my folklore collection project. She then shared some of the interesting folklores she’s learned of from the kids in her class or from her colleagues.

The Main Piece:

Z: I’ve got this one from one of my colleagues. So, when a kid’s tooth falls, we should throw it out. If it is the tooth from the upper jaw, we throw it downward. If it is from the lower jaw, we throw it upward. You know, in elementary school a lot of kids will have their teeth fallen, and when this happens I’ll tell the kids to do this. It’s believed this will make their new tooth grow faster.

Analysis:

This piece of folklore reminds me of the concepts of contagious and homeopathic magic. We can see the connection that the direction to which we throw the fallen tooth is the same as the direction towards which the new tooth will grow. So throwing the fallen teeth from the upper jaw downward is believed to make the new teeth to go down(come out) faster. There is also this link between the kid’s fallen tooth and the kid him/herself. So this practive is a combination of homeopathic and contagious magic. It also reveals the wish that the new teeth should grow faster, which represents the hope that the kid should grow up quicker.

Hotpot Sauce in Sichuan

Nationality: China
Age: 19
Occupation: Rapper
Residence: Yibin, Sichuan, China
Performance Date: 4/26/2021
Primary Language: Chinese

Backgrounds:

LEX was born and grew up in Yibin, Sichuan, China. He is currently attending Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China.

The informant is a rapper, and so am I. We decided to go and eat hotpot together, and by the way also discuss future collaborations. During the meal, he made a classic Sichuan style hotpot sauce for me and shared the ingredients with me.

The Main Piece:

The Sichuan style hotpot sauce is called 油碟（you die), or oil dish. The ingredients are as follows:

mashed garlic，oyster sauce，sesame oil， coriander，green onion

When the food in the hotpot is cooked, we dip it into the You Die and then eat it.

Analysis:

LEX says all the liquid oil in the sauce can help to cool the hot meat that has just came out of the pot.

Personally, I noticed a significant difference between the hotpot sauce in Shenyang, where I came from, and in Sichuan. In Shenyang, we use sesame butter, which is more thick, with a lot of sugar, making it super sweet. But the Sichuan style You Die has no sugar in it. I think it is because most Sichuan People are accustomed to the super spicy food in the hotpot, because Sichuan food is famous for being super spicy. They grow up eating it and got used to it. But we people from the north are less accustomed to the spicy taste. So, we need sweet suger to offset the spicy flavor.

I also find that the Sichuan style hotpot sauce goes extremely well with animal organs, while the northern sesame butter goes better with meat. The difference in hotpot sauces reveal the different food preferences between northern and southern people in China

People Don’t Eat Shrimps in Yemen

Nationality: China
Age: 75
Occupation: Interpreter
Residence: Shenyang, Liaoning, China
Performance Date: 4/20/2021
Primary Language: Chinese



Backgrounds:

CC was born and grew up in Beijing. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Arabic, and then served as an interpreter for China’s medical assisstance team sent to Yemen. He stayed in Yemen for over 10 years, helping with the communication between the patients in Yemen and the medical workers from China. During his time in Yemen, he got to know many local Yemen people and was able to learn a lot about their culture from local people.

The informant shared this piece of folk practice during an interview via phone call.

The Main Piece:

CC asked: “Do you know that Arabic People (I personally think he’s mostly referring to people in Yemen) don’t eat shrimps? They say that shrimps are made of the dead skins and dirt from Alah’s feet, saying they’re dirty. When I was in Yemen, sometimes we go to the beach, we might see the beach full of shrimps, but nobody takes them or eat them. But we’re Chinese and we didn’t care, so we would collect a lot of the shrimps and we would eat them. But people know shrimps are delicious, so nowadays more and more young Muslims started eating shrimps, but the older ones I know, they don’t eat shrimps at all. “

Analysis:

I know there are some restrictions on what a Muslim can or cannot eat, but I didn’t know it would involve such common foods like shrimps. It is interesting that this habbit of not eating shrimps is linked to the creation of things: the people in Yemen give everything an origin in their creation myths, and shrimps, unfortunately, have a less popular one.