Vampire’s Favorite Drink – Korean Joke

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: 03/24/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Korean

Context: I went over to my friend, JK’s, place in Santa Barbara, and we went out for lunch and talked about what we did over Chinese New Year. I asked him if he knew why people wear red and make so much noise over Chinese New Year, and he told me a myth explaining the reasoning behind these things. I also asked him if he knew any jokes, and he told me a joke that his Dad likes to tell people.  

Story: 

JK: “What is a vampire’s favorite drink in the morning?”

Me: “What is it?”

JK: “코피 (Kopi)” *grins*

Background: This joke is one that JK says is a dad joke and one that his own father uses frequently on people. The word for “blood” in Korean is 피 (pi), and 코 (ko) in Korean means “nose”. Since vampires drink blood, their favorite drink would be from a bloody nose. However, when you put 코 (nose) and 피 (blood) together in Korean, it sounds like kopi (coffee) in English, which is the punchline of the joke. 

Li Bai’s death – Chinese Legend

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 04/20/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Spanish

Context: This is another legend from my friend (AL) in the call where I asked him about Chinese tales and legends. This is the last story that he told me. 

Story: 

AL: “This one is about Li Bai, the poet dude we learned about in class. I went home and asked my dad more about him, and apparently, he died by drowning in the Yangtze River. This was because he loved drinking wine, and indulged in it so much he was known as “jiu xian”, or the “wine immortal”. Li Bai also loved the moon, and it was the object of his affections in many of his poems. On the night of Li Bai’s death, he was extremely drunk and thought that the moon’s reflection in the river was so beautiful that he tried to embrace it. He jumped from his boat in pursuit of the lovely moon’s reflection and is said to have drowned to death. Legend says that you can see his shadow sometimes during the fall in the reflection of the Yangtze River when you are looking at the moon”

Me: “What did you think of the story?”

AL: “I honestly thought it was pretty cool cause while the way he died was kinda tragic, it was also very fitting since he often wrote about the moon’s beauty. Although most people would probably be really sad if someone died from drowning today, some people back then found honor in death, especially because they believe in ghosts, the afterlife, and immortals. Li Bai’s death was almost romanticized, and his death in the story is one that I think is almost a little too perfect.”

Thoughts: When I heard the story, I also thought that the story was extremely romanticized. The story seemed to be more of an unfortunate accident written off as a romanticized death because Li Bai was so famous. This is supported by the fact that Li Bai was an alcoholic, which is something that is looked down upon in most cases. Li Bai’s case is excused due to his fame and skills as a poet. I did some further research at home and found that poets and scholars after Li Bai’s time often watched the moon in the river during mid-autumn when the moon was the brightest in order to commemorate Li Bai’s death. 

The Color Red and Fireworks – Chinese Myth

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: 03/22/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin, Korean

Context: I went over to my friend, JK’s, place in Santa Barbara, and we went out for lunch and talked about what we did over Chinese New Year. I asked him if he knew why people wear red and make so much noise over Chinese New Year, and he told me a myth explaining the reasoning behind these things. 

Story: 

MW: “Is there a specific reason people wear red and are supposed to make a lot of noise on Chinese New Year?”

JK: “A long time ago there used to be a monster called Nian, which also means “year” in Mandarin. The monster would come to town every year to eat people, and so the people feared the monster. One year, an old man was passing by the village and noticed everyone evacuating. He was curious, so he asked why everyone was in such a hurry. The people responded by telling him that they always evacuated the village every year around this time because they were afraid that the Nian was going to eat them. The old man thought about what to do for a while and told the villagers to stay because he had a plan. The old man advised the villagers to decorate all the houses in the village with red. When the Nian came to the village, the old man and the villagers made noise using fireworks and drums. The Nian was scared and surprised and started to run away. The villagers continued to make noise and chased the monster until it was too tired to run. The villagers killed the monster and ever since, it has been a practice every year to wear red and have fireworks.”

Background: My friend first heard about this story at his elementary school when his teacher who was an Asian American told the class why Chinese New Year was celebrated and the reasons behind the practices done on the New Year. JK said that there were many reasons why people wear red on Chinese New Year, and this myth only explained one of the reasons. He states that people wear red because people believe it represents good luck and joy after the color red helped scare away the monster. People also typically wear red undergarments and underwear for good luck. The money that children receive on Chinese New Year also comes in red envelopes. 

Thoughts: Although I always knew that people were supposed to wear red on Chinese New Year, I never really knew the reasons behind wearing red. After hearing about the myth, I did some research on my own and went back home to ask my parents if they knew why people wore red on Chinese New Year. My parents said that some people believe that red scares away ghosts and evil spirits, while others say that it’s best to wear red and gold to go with the festive mood of the celebrations. The death of the Nian monster also signified a new beginning for the villagers, so it is also customary for people who celebrate the new year to wear new clothes, get a haircut, wash and change clothes and the sheets, and clean the house to signify a fresh new beginning. 

“因噎废食” – Chinese Proverb

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 03/20/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese, Korean

Context: I asked my coworker if she could help me with my folklore collection and if she knew any proverbs that she could share. She gave me an example of one that her older sister used to tell her all the time.

因噎废食

Roman Phonetic: “Yin ye fei shi”

  • Transliterated Proverb:
    • yin: because
    • Ye: choke
    • fei: abandon or give up
    • shi: food

Full Translation: The literal translation is “because choke abandons food”, with the meaning behind it meaning giving up food because of the fear of choking.

Explanation: The meaning behind this proverb is to say that one does not simply stop eating food just because there is the possibility of choking. The broader application would be to not let fear stop someone from living their life. This proverb was very important to my coworker when she was nervous about big decisions in her life in high school and college, and her older sister would tell her this proverb to tell her to just go for things because there is a risk in everything, but if she never took those risks, she would never be able to start to accomplish anything. 

Thoughts: I found this proverb pretty inspirational and applicable to my life as well. It is also similar to a proverb my mom would tell me about not worrying too much about what could go wrong and focus more on how to do things right. My coworker said this proverb to me on my first day of work when I was a little nervous about interacting with customers. The context she used was to tell me to go out and just talk to the customers and to greet them without thinking too much about what bad things could happen. The proverb also gives insight into Chinese culture, because there is often an environment that creates go-getter attitudes. 

Sneezing – Folk Belief

Nationality: Asian American
Age: 60
Occupation: Biomedical Research
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: 03/13/2021
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Context:

I kept sneezing uncontrollably for no reason for about twenty minutes, so I called my father to ask him if he had any allergy medication that I could take. He asked me if I was outside near pollen or if someone had their cat over since I’m allergic to both of those things, but I told him no one had a cat and that I was indoors. My mother overheard the conversation and told me that I was sneezing because she was thinking of me and missed me. 

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Performance [Mother]: “This belief is something that my friends and I used to joke about in school we were your age. I heard it from two of my best friends when we were walking to school and one of them starting sneezing. My other friend joked that it was because her crush at the time was thinking about her. When someone starting sneezing multiple times for no reason and couldn’t stop, we would think that it was because someone was thinking or talking about them. You could have been sneezing because I was just thinking about you coming home for dinner later and missing you!”

Meaning to informant: This was a superstition that my mother and her friends when they were in school and in their teens, and while she does not fully believe that someone is thinking or talking about you when you sneeze, she does not disbelieve it either. She did tell me later on that there were a lot of people in China who actually do think that this is true. She also mentioned multiple occasions in her life where she herself or someone she knew was sneezing, only for the sneezing individual to later find out that someone was talking or thinking about them. 

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Analysis: I would like to think that this belief is no more than a superstition, and is merely a fun way to explain little coincidences in our lives. However, I will say that there are many instances in my own life where someone next to me would sneeze and it was because I was thinking about them in that particular instant or vise versa, so like my mother, I do not disbelieve it. This belief does not just start and end with Chinese people, as there are many references to this particular belief in Japanese anime and Korean dramas as well. For more folk beliefs about sneezing and its implications, see The Omen of Sneezing (Pease). 

Pease, Arthur Stanley. “The Omen of Sneezing.” Classical Philology, vol. 6, no. 4, 1911, pp. 429–443. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/261601. Accessed 2 May 2021.