Tag Archives: Chinese

Ghost story in Chinese village in Sheng yang

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Nationality: China
Age: 21
Occupation: student

Text:

“The entrance of the village had a big millstone that the entire community shared. Every night, there would be a small, white thingy that people thought was a small white ghost, running around the millstone over and over again. And you can’t get close to it. I mean, if you get close to it, it would jump on you and start to tickle you. It would tickle you until you laughed to an extent that you couldn’t breathe anymore and died. My grandma said she saw it once, but she was not tickled by it. And after the Cultural Revolution, this little thing was gone forever.”

Context:

This legend was passed down from the informant’s grandma. The legend took place long before the Cultural Revolution in China. Our informant thinks it was the “Elimination of the Old Four” movement by the Chinese government at the time that had eliminated the ghost. The “Old Four” include old ideology, old culture, old tradition, and old customs. It was a time when many historical treasures were destroyed. The informant thinks that the villagers believed that the ghost belonged to the Old Four, so it was gone after the movement.

interpretation:

This is a great example of explaining personal experience or rationalizing it with existing legends. It’s a kind of belief enhanced by the informant’s grandma’s own sightings. Similar experiences around the village might have occurred, and added up to the formation of the ghost legend. Obviously, it’s an unwanted ghost. My interpretation of the tickling is that the ghost is small, probably a childlike figure. It’s not rational for a child to kill grown people, and laughing is often associated with children.

The “elimination of the old four” movement, or “除四旧” (pinyin: chú sì jiù), was a movement in China during the cultural revolution that caused a lot of historical antiques and culture to be destroyed. The “old four” refers to old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. The movement firmly grasped the idea that old and superstitious ideas, or anything counter-scientific, went against the principle of communism. This movement’s dogma provided the villagers of Shenyang with a spiritual tool to wash away what they feared in their collective past. The small ghost by the millstone might have been a troublesome existence in the lives of the villagers. In the context of the elimination of the old four, it was eliminated and washed away like all the other things deemed bad and counter to the Communist Party.


					

		
		
	


	

				

			
						

				Impart means promiscuous party in China
			

								

			

			
Nationality: China
Age: 20
Occupation: Student/Rapper
Performance Date: 2/21
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
	
		

				

			

Text:






“‘Impart’ is a more universal folk language that has just been created not for long. But it’s a folklore that’s widespread in China. It is because impart is a homophone for the word ‘yin pa’ which directly translates as promiscuous party.”
“I think it’s because people in China think we don’t study and do sex every day.”






Context:






FG is a USC student who studies History and Economics. He is currently in Ireland. FG and I are both considered international students in China. International students can also mean students who study internationally, rather than foreign students. F thinks that the Chinese use word “impart” as “promiscuous party” signifies the stereotypes mainland China has toward international students. They think international students are all rich second generations that paid their way to education who don’t study and who have sex every day.






Analysis:






“Impart,” yin pa,” or “淫趴.”






I don’t really agree with F’s perspective. I don’t think it’s a stereotype toward the Chinese international student, but more toward the American people. People who use “impart,” as promiscuous party is often making jokes. The goto phrase is “ni men kai impart bu han wo,” or “你们开impart不喊我,” which means “why do you have a promiscuous party without me?” This is obviously more trifle than serious.






There is a rising trend of English homophones with Chinese words as a new genre of folk speech in China. I think this is due to the rising level of education and globalization through social media that had connected the two cultures closer. Another example of an English homophone in Chinese is “lash,” which is similar to the Chinese word “la shi”, or “拉屎” which means shit in China. I wonder why it’s always the sordid words that get popular with their English homophone.

					

		
		
	


	

				

			
						

				Chen as Taboo in Qing dynasty’s Navy
			

								

			

			
Nationality: China
Age: 20
Occupation: Student/rapper
Performance Date: 2.22
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English
	
		

				

			

Text:






“It is said that navies in the Qing dynasty in China don’t recruit personnel whose names include Chen. The entire Qing dynasty’s navy doesn’t have a single person whose name includes Chen.”






Context:






FG is a USC student and a good friend of mine who is currently studying in a transfer program in Ireland. He learned about this tabooistic vocabulary when he was eating fish with a friend. Free is very into history. He is always the one with the most jokes and strange stories on any occasion. And he is always eager to share them with his friends.






Analysis:






The very popular Chinese name Chen（陈） is a homophone for the Chinese character Chen （沉）， which means sink in Chinese. Qing （清） dynasty is very superstitious. Homophones can actually decide the faith of people. The beginning of all these tradition is the “literary prison,” or 文字狱, in Qing Dynasty. The dynasty before Qing Dynasty is called Ming（明） Dynasty. And because Qing Dynasty overthrew the Ming dynasty, many people at the time thought Ming was the legitimate dynasty and Qing is the rebels. Of course, Qing emperor thinks it’s the other way around. It had become so sensitive that the emperor of Qing had killed thousands of people who had published content that creates a positive connotation of the word Ming（明）. This signifies how superstitious Chinese people were at the time of the Qing Dynasty. There are many more examples like Chen in the navy. One is that when a fisherman in China eats fish, and they want to turn the fish to the other side, they can’t say fan （翻）， which means turn the fish, but hua（滑）， which means slide. Because fan also means capsize in Chinese

					

		
		
	


	

				

			
						

				Chinese Dream Proverb
			

								

			

			
Nationality: American
Age: 21
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Hebrew
	
		

				

			

Text: Well, ever since my mom’s brother suddenly died at the age of 62– two years ago, I think this proverb has continued to provide my mom with a sense of comfort and release. “All in life is a dream walking, and all in death is a going home.” She passes this on to anyone in need of feeling at peace with recent tragedies or deaths. I think that for her, it’s a reminder to feel grateful for the joyful parts of life and that…when death comes, one part has fulfilled their purpose.





Context: K is twenty-one years old and of Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish descent. She was raised in San Francisco, California. Her maternal grandparents are Asian immigrants whose culture she was raised with.





Analysis: K’s mother told her the quote above is a Chinese proverb. K would frequently hear proverbs from her mother while growing up, typically used and repeated as little bits of advice or reminders throughout a day. In Chinese culture it’s considered a sign of a good education to include proverbs in your writing or advice to others. Proverbs speak on a range of topics– often moral, like patience or kindness to strangers. They intend to provide wisdom to its listeners, and are meant to be respected by both the speaker and the listener even if not always successfully followed. Many proverbs are accredited to Confucius or Lao Tzu (although some are miscredited), but many don’t have distinctive roots with one speaker or author. The majority of proverbs were passed down in oral traditions among the peasant class in China, and were not written down until years, sometimes hundreds of years after their inception. Many proverbs still haven’t been translated to English. This makes sense why there isn’t much available on the proverb above other than the quote itself. However, its ruminations on the meaning of life, death, and dreams are not uncommon topics for proverbs. It’s also interesting to note that traditional Chinese medicine believes that one’s dreams are directly related to their physical health, hence the proverb’s association with dream and “life” or the living, bodily world.  

					

		
		
	


	

				

			
						

				Chinese Lunar New Year
			

								

			

				
		

				

			

Context:





A, 18, is a student at USC. He is a French citizen of Chinese descent; he told me about how his family celebrated Lunar New Year when he visited China. He told me he grew up in France, so he seldom celebrated this tradition, only when he was in China back when he was young.  





Text:





Chinese Lunar New Year is celebrated on the second new moon after the winter solstice, so it’s usually around the end of January or the beginning of February. Every Lunar New Year is about a different zodiac animal, this is the year of the rabbit (2023). We usually wear red or red clothes and use traditional Chinese red paper lamps. We also put up fish posters to symbolize wealth in China, we put them on walls and doors to bring good fortune. We eat dumplings and blow-up firecrackers and fireworks.





Analysis:





Chinese Lunar New Year is a very common celebration among the Chinese diaspora throughout the world. It celebrates the New Year, and just like many other cultures, it lines up with the life cycle calendar beginning with spring (birth) and ending in winter (death). It is a liminal time between two cycles, so it is a magical time outside of the norm filled with superstitions, feasts, and celebrations. This festival is annually celebrated, as one might assume by its name; however, contrastively to the Solar year and Gregorian Calendar, this festival aligns with the Lunar Calendar, which is why it is on a different day every year. The rituals and superstitions that are celebrated during this festival often are practiced to bring good luck; similar to most cultures around the world that also have “good fortune” superstitions during their new year celebrations as well.