Covering One’s Ears to Steal a Bell – Chinese Joke

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 03/17/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean, Cantonese

Context: This joke was told by one of my coworkers at a boba place. We had closed early that day and the manager had brought us pizza, so we ate and took turns telling jokes. I chimed in and asked if I could use one of them for my folklore project, to which my coworker (KC) agreed. 

Story: 

KC: “Okay so this joke is one that I found really funny, but I think I found it funny cause it just seemed really stupid. So there was this guy who wanted to steal this huge bell from a rival clan in China.  This bell was very important to the rival clan. There was a problem though because the bell was very big and lugging it around would be too obvious due to the noise it would make. So after sitting around for a while and thinking about how to steal the bell, he came up with what he thought was a brilliant idea. He used two pieces of cloth to plug his ears because he thought that this would reduce the sound that the bell made and that no one would be able to hear it. He started to carry the bell away, and people soon stormed in and caught him in the act.”

Background: My coworker learned about this joke from her father two weeks prior to telling it to us at work. She really likes the joke because she “didn’t get the punch line at first when [her] father first told her, but upon realizing what the thief actually did, [she] kept laughing for a few minutes”. According to her observation of the reaction that people have after she tells them the joke, they either “snort of the sheer stupidity of the thief if they get the joke right away or chuckle for a long time after realizing the punchline. 

Thoughts: When my coworkers and I were told the joke, a few of us got the punchline immediately and snorted at the same time, which made everything even funnier. I went home to tell the joke to my father, who laughed and said the joke was actually really popular in China and there was actually a Chinese idiom that was made because of the joke. The idiom, 掩耳盗铃, means to cover one’s ears while stealing a bell and is supposed to tell people not to deceive themselves with stupidity and to think things through before doing them. 

The Dragon Boat Festival and Sticky Rice Balls – Chinese Legend

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 60
Occupation: Biomedical Research
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 04/30/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Context: I went home for lunch over the weekend, and my mother (SS) had bought sticky rice balls for the Dragon Boat Festival in celebration of the Duan Wu holiday which was to be held on May fifth of the following week. Since we had extra rice balls, we ate some for lunch and I asked my mom why people celebrated the Duan Wu holiday using dragon boats and sticky rice balls.

Story: 

SS: “The Duan Wu holiday is celebrated in honor of the famous poet Qu Yuan, who committed suicide because he felt overwhelming for the Chu capital being captured by the Qin empire. You know about Qu Yuan right?”

Me: “Yea I’ve heard about him in Chinese class and read some of his poems. According to legend, he committed suicide by jumping into a river right?”

SS: “That’s correct! There were many people who respected him and raced out in boats to find and save his body, which is the origin behind the dragon boat races. No one knew if his body was ever found, so the people made sticky rice balls so the fish in the river would eat the rice instead of his body just in case. It is said that even the fish would respect his body and eat the rice balls instead because they felt compassion for Qu Yuan. That is why people throw the rice balls into rivers and eat them on May fifth every year”

Background: This legend is very popular in China, and many people know it and celebrate the Duan Wu holiday. The river where the famous poet Qu Yuan is said to have died is near the city where my father grew up, so he has been to the river and attended the festivals near the river personally many times. My mother first heard the legend from her parents when she was young and celebrating the Duan Wu holiday, and later moved to the same city as my father for high school where she also was a part of the holiday customs there. 

Thoughts: When I was younger, I never really thought about the reasoning behind all the traditions that my family and community performed. However, I realized from this interaction that the Duan Wu holiday demonstrates a lot of Chinese values that were present in my household while I was growing up. For example, the holiday is celebrated in remembrance of Qu Yuan, and the traditions that are practiced during the holiday originated from what happened throughout history in order to honor and respect Qu Yuan’s body. I was able to see that remembering and honoring ancestors is important to Chinese culture and that these values connect with a lot of the folk beliefs and stories that I was told in my childhood. 

The Zodiac Ox and Second Place – Chinese Myth

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 61
Occupation: Software Developer
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 02/12/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Story: “You’re already familiar with the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, but why do you think the ox is only second place and the second zodiac sign? The ox is actually very talented and good at swimming. He is a very hard worker. On the day of the Jade Emperor’s great race, he woke up very early and got straight to work making his way towards the finish line. The last part of the race was a great river that all the participants had to cross. The rat who won first place made it to the river at the same time as the ox, but the rat couldn’t swim, so he hid in the ox’s fur. The ox unknowingly carried the cunning rat across the river, and the rat jumped across the finish line off the ox’s back in the last second. That is why the ox had to grudgingly settle for second place, and the rat got first place in the great race.”

Background and Context: This is one of the twelve stories told about the twelve different Chinese zodiac signs that serve as the symbols for each year in the lunar calendar. My mother was born on the year of the ox in 1961, and the animal sign for this year (2021) was the ox. My father was born a year earlier than my mother in the year of the rat. My father told me this story of the ox after I went back home for dinner on Chinese New Year, which he heard from his parents and grandparents growing up in China. He used it to explain why working hard like the ox is good, but working smarter like the rat is better. He also stated that my mother is such a hard worker because she was born in the year of the ox, and why my mother is very good at swimming. My father says that while people born on the year of the ox are stubborn, they don’t typically hold grudges for long.

Thoughts: I didn’t really think much of the myth. Growing up, I was used to hearing the stories of the twelve zodiacs, and my parents would use the stories of the year of the snake and the year of the horse to explain the behaviors of me and my brother and what we had to watch out for. My father believes that the zodiac signs signify actual behaviors in people who are born in the associated years, but I see it as more of a coincidence. From what I’ve seen, the specific behavior of an individual that matches their zodiac sign is used to explain why the zodiac signs are significant in Chinese culture, any discrepancies that do not match associated behaviors can be dismissed due to multiple other factors such as weather when they are born, month or time of birth, the relationship of the individual’s zodiac sign with those of their family, their siblings, and many other factors. I went to a Chinese school for six years from elementary to middle schools, and my teachers would tell me similar stories. There were many similarities in the ways that my Chinese teachers and my parents treated these legends, as they refer to them with at least some form of truth and application to the real world. Even when talking about students or gossiping about coworkers, they would refer to the zodiac signs when discussing their behaviors.

“学好三年, 学坏三天”- Chinese Proverb

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 61
Occupation: Software Developer
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 04/23/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Context: My father has always told me Chinese proverbs about how to be a good, successful person in life. This specific proverb was one that was widely used in China. In the city that my father grew up in, proverbs were constantly used to give life advice, and this proverb is one that my grandparents had told him. 

学好三年, 学坏三天

Roman Phonetic: “Xue hao san nian, xue huai san tian”

  • Transliterated Proverb:
    • xue: learn
    • hao: good (can refer to habits or nature)
    • huai: bad (can also refer to habits or nature)
    • san: three
    • nian: year
    • tian: day

Full Translation: Learning to be good takes three years, learning to be bad takes three days. This refers to habits and nature also and doesn’t mean that it actually takes three years or three days to be good or bad. The three years and three days in the proverb are there to show that learning to be good is hard and takes a lot of time and self-control while learning to be bad is a lot easier than that. 

Explanation: My father grew up in Changsha, Hunan, and his family didn’t have much at the time. My grandparents knew the value of education and would use proverbs to teach my father. This specific proverb was used to tell my father that the value of one good test score or one good day of hard work is easy, but doing well over a long period of time is hard to maintain. This is opposed to taking it easy, as that takes no effort and everyone wants to take it easy all the time. This created an environment of hard work and maintained effort for him in his childhood. The proverb is very important for him because it is a part of his character today, and reminds him of how he got to where he is today. When he told me the proverb, he used it in the same way as my grandparents, often referring to good work habits when it comes to school and work. He also adds in the emphasis of the second part of the proverb, stating it is easy to go astray and do things that are fun and easy in the short term, and developing bad habits is easy to do.

Thoughts: Growing up, my parents had always reminded me of the importance of hard work and good habits. Proverbs like this were often told to me and my brother. I often heard this proverb in middle school and high school, when my parents would remind me to keep up my hard work after getting good grades or making any accomplishments. While this proverb can be interpreted to mean not to do bad things, it was used more to encourage me to continue to do well, as doing well is not what is hard, but keeping up good work for a long time is what is hard. I am extremely grateful for my parents teaching me this proverb, as I am constantly reminded by habit to do things well multiple times over a long period. It has also lead me to not take things easy because those can quickly become bad habits in my life.

The Farmer and the Snake – Chinese Tale

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 61
Occupation: Software Developer
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 02/02/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Context: My father (GW) was telling me to be careful of strangers and being overly compassionate when I moved in with my roommates. He told me a Chinese tale as an example. 

Story: 

GW: “There once was a farmer who was very compassionate. He was always tenderhearted to everyone and supported his neighbors and his community when they didn’t have enough food. Everybody really liked him. One particularly cold winter, he was going into his house when he found a snake lying on the ground, freezing, and half-dead. Feeling pity and sadness for the snake, the farmer held the snake close to his bosom and went inside, hoping to warm the snake and save its life. When the snake woke up, the farmer was relieved. The snake bit the farmer, and the poison soon reached his heart. The farmer died.”

Me: “Wait that’s it?”

GW: “Yup”

Background: This story was one that my grandparents told my father when he was in his teens. My father told me the tale to tell me to be careful of strangers because while an individual can be kindhearted and want to help someone, there are people in the world who will take advantage of that. 

Thoughts: I was really surprised about the abrupt ending of the tale given the way my father told the tale in the beginning. I was expecting the ending to be the farmer saved the snake and something good happened. My father said that the abrupt ending he used was to emphasize the coldness and finality of the farmer’s death. Of course, we all want to be compassionate towards others, and we often feel sympathetic when we see other people in pain, even when we do not know these other people personally. The tale has taught me to be smart about my decisions, and to keep in mind that while helping others is always good, it is also important to always be cautious.