Tag Archives: Chinese legend

The Monster Nian, Chinese New Year, and Red

Age: 19

Text:

Interviewee:

On the first day of Chinese Spring Festival (New Year’s Eve), my family and I would set off firecrackers and fireworks, and it’s best if they are very loud ones. It was then that I was told about the myth of a monster named Nian. The physical appearance of Nian looks like a lion, with pointed teeth and a scary, ugly face. According to the myth, on the first day of the Chinese Spring Festival, Nian will come out from the mountains to the neighborhoods of every Chinese family. Nian will be hunting for children to eat.

In the past, people had no idea what to do when Nian came, until one day, someone set off a firecracker exactly when Nian visited their house. It was then that the firecracker brought out “fire,” and Nian was very scared of fire, so it ran away.

There are other sayings about what drove Nian away. Some people say that Nian is very scared of the color red. Therefore, during Spring Festival, everyone will wear clothes in red in order to drive the monster away and protect themselves and their families. For instance, I was born in the Year of the Pig, and my grandmother always tells me to wear red socks during the Year of the Snake, because the two zodiac signs conflict (snake eats pig), according to Chinese traditional beliefs.

Red also became a symbol of good luck in the context of the Lunar Chinese New Year. For instance, people will hang up red lanterns to decorate the house, elders will prepare red envelopes to give out Lucky Money or [压岁钱 ya sui qian] to children in the family, and the window papercut we use specifically to celebrate Chinese New Year is always red.

Context:

The interviewee learned the myth of monster Nian as a child, around 6 or 7 years old. This myth was shared by the elders of his family when they were celebrating the Chinese New Year together. The interviewee’s thoughts: he found Nian a scary figure as a child, but got used to this belief (and the rituals around wearing clothes in Red during Chinese New Years) gradually as he grew up.

Analysis:

Myth as an explanation for ritual: Monster Nian’s story is an example of how a myth has led to the emergence of a ritual, long practiced by the Chinese when celebrating the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) every year.

Temporal Liminality: New Year is a threshold moment, marking the end of the old year and the beginning of a new year, and Nian comes exactly on New Year’s Eve. This is representative of liminality being a time when the line between the human world and the supernatural world gets blurred. Nian’s presence on New Year’s Eve makes the distance between the human world and the supernatural world closer and thinner.

Development of a set of rituals, including ones related to fireworks and the color red: The development of a set of rituals following Nian’s story is representative of a growing Communitas: a community spirit or “togetherness” that grows from a ritual or being in a liminal zone together. This applies to the practice of setting off fireworks or putting on clothes in red when it’s Chinese New Year—as this became a ritual, everyone around is doing the same, and going through the same “liminal” phase of entering the new year.

Chinese Legend General Zhuge

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April13, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Note: The form of this submission includes the dialogue between the informant and I before the cutoff (as you’ll see if you scroll down), as well as my own thoughts and other notes on the piece after the cutoff. The italics within the dialogue between the informant and I (before the cutoff) is where and what kind of direction I offered the informant whilst collecting. 

Informant’s Background:

My parents and I are from Central China, but I grew up in Kentucky.

Piece:

My parents told me about this general from China, who lived however many dynasties ago but he was just known for being very clever. And like one of the smartest, most cunning generals out there. He was fighting out there, with I don’t know exactly who, but he was talking to one of his lieutenants and he said that in order for them to have a successful battle, they were going to need 100,000 arrows. There was no way to get that many, so they were as good as done. But the general said he could figure something out. So he concocted a plan, his name was General Zhuge. So General Zhuge found a day where it was especially foggy. He had a plan to kind of trick the enemies into giving them their arrows. On that day, the enemies were prepared and on edge because at any moment General Zhuge’s troops would storm the beach. Zhuge had boats sent across the river. It was foggy so they couldn’t see anything so the general freaked out on the other side and ordered the enemies to start shooting arrows at these boats. What was clever, what the general did was that he filled these boats with straw people instead of men. So the arrows got stuck in the straw and as the straws got stuck, Zhuge started pulling the boats back. By the end of the day, he had more than 100,000 arrows, and all from the enemies. And I guess the kind of like moral of the story is that you have to be cunning if you want to win a war.

Piece Background Information:

I don’t know if it’s true or not but it was kind of to frame how clever and how cunning this general was back in that dynasty. They told me one day when I was out with my parents and my dad wanted to share Chinese folklore with me. I was in high school, in like sophomore or junior year. He learned that from his parents, and I guess also from the culture because it’s a pretty famous story.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Context of Performance:

In person, during the day at Ground Zero, a milkshake shop and cafe on USC’s campus in Los Angeles.

Thoughts on Piece: 

I enjoyed the informant’s story on the legendary General Zhuge. While this story about collecting the arrows with straw may or may not be true, General Zhuge existed. The Wikipedia on General Zhuge Liang states that this particular event is not documented in the official dynasty history and is purely fiction.