Tag Archives: Chinese

年年有余 (nian nian you yu)- Chinese Proverb

Text: 年年有余 (nian nian you yu)- which translates to “year after year, may you have abundance in your life”

Informant: “I know this proverb because my mom said it my whole life, it’s like a blessing and we say it for lunar new year. You eat fish when it’s the new year because of the play on words of “yu.” Fish and surplus are both pronounced the same. There’s also rules on how you eat the fish too, you’re not supposed to flip the fish over, if you flip it over, it’s like your ship capsizes. So you eat the top half and then you pull out the bones and then you eat the bottom half.”

Context:

The informant learned this proverb from their mother while growing up in a Chinese household. Their family would say it during Lunar New Year as a blessing for abundance and prosperity, often when serving the traditional New Year fish dish.

Analysis:

This proverb reflects a culture that places deep value on longevity and stability, prioritizing sustained fortune over short-term success. What makes the proverb unique is its wordplay, which allows it to function as a spoken blessing, pun, and ritual. Folk speech and verbal folklore like this is especially common in Chinese culture because the language contains many homophones, so different characters can share the same pronunciation but carry drastically different meanings. Thus, meaning is not only conveyed through definition, but through sound, and language itself can hold symbolic power.

Burning Paper Money- Chinese Ritual

Text:
Informant: “During the New Year or Qingming Jie or the Ghost festival on 7/15, on these three dates we remember our ancestors. When I was young I did this for many years and I still like to do it, although not everyone does it now. We would take yellow paper and hammer coins onto it to make it look like money. My brother and I would go outside into the street and draw a circle on the ground. We put the yellow paper money inside the circle and burn it to memorialize our ancestors and give the money to them. At the end we take one piece of the paper money and put it outside the circle. That is for the little ghosts around, the people who don’t have families. While burning the paper we also say things like, ‘Grandma, Grandpa, we miss you. We hope you have a good life in another world. Hopefully this money can support you.’ And we also say something to the ghost friends so they can enjoy the money too.” My father and mother taught me to do this.”

Interviewer: “Do you still do this?”
Informant: “When I got older people started using printed versions of fake money instead of making it. I did it once in America by the beach but then realized it was against the law. In China, in the south people still do this today, but in the north many places moved the burning to cemeteries because of regulations.”

Interviewer: “Is this something that only kids usually do?”
Informant: “Yes, young kids do it. It’s kind of like a job and part of the culture.”

Context:

The informant learned this ritual from their parents while growing up in China in the 80s and participated in it with their brother during holidays associated with remembering ancestors, including Lunar New Year, Qingming Jie, and the Ghost Festival on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month. The informant remembers that during these times it was common to see many families in the neighborhood performing the same practice.

Analysis:

This example is a form of ritual folklore, since it involves a repeated set of symbolic actions performed during specific calendar events. The ritual follows several steps, such as making the paper money, drawing a circle, burning the money inside the circle, and placing one piece outside the circle for wandering spirits. These actions are believed to send resources to ancestors in the spirit world and to acknowledge spirits who do not have families to remember them.

The ritual also reflects cultural values related to ancestor respect and family continuity. Speaking to ancestors while the paper burns creates a moment where the living symbolically communicate with the dead, reinforcing family memory and responsibility across generations. At the same time, the practice shows multiplicity and variation. While the central idea of burning money for ancestors remains consistent, the informant notes that some people now use printed paper money or perform the ritual in different locations due to regulations. Despite these changes, the ritual continues to circulate and remains an important cultural practice for remembering those who have passed.

Chinese Red Date String Game- Children’s Folklore

Age: 54

Text:


Informant: “It’s something you say while doing a string trick. You use a piece of string and form a shape that looks like a date. The string represents the fruit, and through different movements it changes shape and eventually disappears while you say the rhyme out loud, ‘大枣大枣，越吃越小，吃了剩核，一拍没了。(Dà zǎo dà zǎo, yuè chī yuè xiǎo, chī le shèng hé, yī pāi méi le.)’. It’s meant to be a little like a magic trick. The phrase translated in English is something like, ‘Big date, big date, the more you eat it the smaller it gets, then you clap and nothing is left.'”

Interviewer: “When did you first learn it?”
Informant: “My mom taught me when I was very young. There weren’t that many things to do for fun back then, so we did a lot of hands-on activities like this, and all you need is a piece of string, it’s pretty easy to do.”

Interviewer: “Did you teach it to anyone else?”
Informant: “Yes, I taught it to my kids.”

Context:

The informant learned this string game from their mother during childhood while growing up in China in the 1980s. They explained that there were not many forms of entertainment available to children at the time, so simple hands-on activities like string tricks were a common way to play. Because the game only required a piece of string, it was easy for families to share and teach to children. The informant later passed the game on to their own children, continuing on the tradition.

Analysis:

This example can be interpreted as a form of children’s folklore, specifically a children’s game that combines a rhyme with a small physical activity. The game also demonstrates the folkloric concepts of multiplicity and variation. Similar string games appear in many cultures using the same simple materials but different shapes and rhymes. For example, it is similar to the string game cat’s cradle I learned as a kid, which also involves manipulating a loop of string to create patterns. Because the movements are difficult to understand without seeing them performed, games like these are usually learned directly from another person rather than through written instructions, which helps preserve their oral and performative nature.

Double Happiness Red Paper- Chinese Wedding Tradition

Age: 54

Text:
Informant: “When people get married, friends and relatives help prepare for the wedding. They cut out the double happiness character, ‘双喜 (shuāngxǐ),’ using scissors. It means double happiness. They cut the character out of red paper, it has to be red paper. The character is 喜 (xǐ) for happiness, and the wedding version combines two of them to make double happiness. People only do this for weddings, they make both small and big ones and place them everywhere in the house of the bride and the groom, like entry doors, windows, gates, the bed board, and furniture.”

Context:

The informant is from China and and explained that this practice of cutting the 双喜 out of red paper is widely performed in China and considered a cultural tradition and blessing associated specifically with marriage. The informant also shared that they personally participated in this custom when they got married and when their friends and family married.

Analysis:

Wedding decorations like the double happiness character (双喜) are a form of customary folklore tied to an important life transition. Weddings mark the beginning of a new stage of life, and symbolic objects are often used to express hopes for the couple’s future. The repetition of the character for happiness represents the union of two people and the wish for joy and prosperity in their marriage.

The decoration also has elements of material folklore, since the character is physically created by cutting it out of red paper. In modern times, people tend to buy the paper pre-cut, but there are still people who cut it by hand. The process of preparing and displaying these decorations is often done collectively by family members and friends, which reinforces the communal nature of wedding celebrations and an overall community emphasis in China. Placing the symbol throughout the home not only signals to others that a wedding is taking place, but also symbolically invites happiness and good fortune into the new household.

War Orphans in WW2 China (遗华日侨)

Context:

The informant is a senior undergraduate International student from China, studying at USC. She grow up in a very traditional Chinese household, and are well-educated in Chinese culture.

Text:

“This story is about the wife of my grandmother’s younger brother.

She was born in 1938, during the war between China and Japan, which was the early stage of World War II. Her biological father was an officer in the Nationalist Party. Her biological mother was a Chinese woman who could speak Japanese.

I think one of the big problems at the time was this: after Japan occupied Northeast China, many people born there — including Japanese settlers and local Northeasterners — experienced an identity crisis. They couldn’t tell whether they were Chinese or Japanese.

For the Japanese born there, they thought: “Our country has occupied this land. I was just born on land occupied by my country. I was born in the fourth year of the Shōwa era, so I am Japanese.” Later, when this land was redefined as China, they still considered themselves Japanese.

For the local Northeastern children, because the Japanese required everyone to learn Japanese, they spoke Chinese at home but had to speak Japanese at school and pledge loyalty to the Japanese Emperor. So they too experienced this identity confusion.

The mother in this story was exactly that kind of person with an identity crisis. Ethnically, she was Chinese, but she was fluent in Japanese and worked as an interpreter for the Japanese. Naturally, at that time, she was labeled a “traitor” (汉奸).

Around the time the War of Resistance against Japan was about to be won, in the mid-1940s, the Nationalist government was retreating to Taiwan around 1944–1945. Her biological father was very irresponsible. He bought only one boat ticket and abandoned the mother and daughter in Northeast China. The mother was left alone with a baby only five or six months old, barely able to carry her in her arms. Life was extremely difficult. Also, because she had been labeled a traitor, she couldn’t raise her child properly. So one day, she placed the baby on a woodpile in a rural area, hoping some kind-hearted person would adopt her.

Soon an old woman came out to gather firewood for the heated brick bed (炕) common in Northeast China. She found the baby. The baby hadn’t been wrapped properly — her right foot was exposed, which later caused a permanent disability. The old woman took the baby home and slowly began raising her. To be honest, the old woman wasn’t entirely kind-hearted: she wanted to raise the girl as a future child bride for her own son. But regardless of her intention, she did save the girl’s life.

The girl grew up in that household. Besides her future husband, there was an older brother, much older than her. The brother treated her more or less okay, but after he got married, the sister-in-law was not so kind. For example, when the girl wanted to study, the sister-in-law wouldn’t let her use the oil lamp. She suffered a lot, but through her own hard work, she got into China Agricultural University — which is still a prestigious university today.

When she grew up, the Cultural Revolution had already passed. Then, in the 1990s, someone contacted her, claiming to be her biological father. It turned out that he had never made it to Taiwan for various reasons. Later, during the Cultural Revolution, his identity as a former Nationalist officer was exposed, and he was severely persecuted, even losing the use of one leg.

As for her biological mother, she fared relatively better. After leaving the baby at the old woman’s home, the mother claimed to be a Japanese refugee. Since Chinese and Japanese people looked similar, and she spoke fluent Japanese, no one could tell the difference. Before the People’s Republic of China was founded, she managed to flee to Japan, where she remarried — a Japanese man — and lived a fairly happy life. Although the Japanese economy was poor after the war, under American occupation, people could still get enough to eat.

So, in the end, this is a family tragedy set against the backdrop of a turbulent era, but also a small family legend.”

Analysis:

This is family legend shaped by historical trauma, where large political events are understood through personal experience. It highlights themes of identity instability, as characters are caught between cultural and national affiliations and judged by shifting social norms. The narrative also reflects a common motif of abandonment and rescue, though presented with moral complexity rather than clear good or evil. Overall, the story shows how family narratives preserve cultural memory while helping later generations make sense of difficult and ambiguous histories.