Tag Archives: Chinese

Feng Shui

Background:

Informant is a Malaysian international student with Chinese ancestry at USC.

Main Piece:

“I had my Feng Shui read by an old lady when I was there [hometown in Fujian]. I have fire, fire, fire, wood, so the Feng Shui master gave me a necklace that’s supposed to be water to balance it out.”

Context:

I was discussing Western astrology with a group of friends and my informant, who did not know much about zodiac astrology, started talking about Feng Shui.

Analysis:

Feng Shui is probably one of the most common pieces of Eastern folklore/pseudoscience known to a Western audience, but only in regards to architecture or interior placement (how to design your bedroom, how should your house be facing, etc.). My informant’s piece is more focused on personal astrology, which in its essence, is trying to look into an uncertain/sacred/”other” realm in order to understand oneself better. The necklace my informant receives is an example of a conversion superstition, where something is done to undo the bad luck an action can cause—in this case, to balance out my informant’s energies. While my informant got his necklace for free, selling objects with folk belief attached to them is an easy way to trap unsuspecting people (tourists especially) into buying the objects, especially if the belief attached has same form of connection to the sacred.

Pangu Creation Myth

Background:

Informant is a 53 y/o Chinese woman who is a first-generation immigrant to the US and has lived in the US for around 23 years.

Main Piece:

(trans.) “A long time ago, our world had no shape, just an expanse of chaos, which eventually shrinks into a large egg. Inside the egg was a giant named Pangu who was birthed from this egg. When he stood up, he grew taller each day, and was eventually able to separate the egg into the sky and the earth. Many thousands of years pass as Pangu stands with his arms holding up the sky and his feet firmly planted on the ground, and eventually, he passes away. Pangu’s corpse becomes many different things, his eyes are the sun and the moon, his blood is the river, ocean, etc., the details I’ve forgotten, but just like that we now have our world today.”

盘古开天的故事啊，让我想一想。。。嗯，简单的说，好久以前，我们的世界本来是没有任何形装，混乱的一片，慢慢的缩小，变成了一个大蛋，然后有一个巨人在这个蛋里，就是盘古，出生了。他站起来的时候，越战越高，每天长那么几厘米，就把蛋分为天和地。好几万年盘古就这样的站着，手撑着天，脚踏在地上，最终也去世了。他的尸体就成为了世界里面的各种东西，眼睛是太阳和月亮，血是河，大海，等等，细节忘掉了，反正就这样子变成了我们现在住的世界。

Background:

This conversation took place over the phone. I asked my informant about Chinese creation myths she knows of.

Analysis:

Around the world, myths are few in number—myths are often creation stories with transcendental truths in them that answer why the world is the way it is, exploring the relationship between humans and the cosmos. The belief in myths doesn’t stem from the literal narrative it tells, but rather from the sacred meaning behind it, which is why myths have many different variations, but they generally do not change over time. Myths can be analyzed using Levi-Strauss’ structuralism approach, which takes the smallest components of a myth and how they relate to each other, which is most commonly presented through binary oppositions, and thus come to an understanding about that particular culture’s ways of thinking. In this Chinese creation myth, there are a couple of key symbols. First, the primordial chaos that is contained, specifically, into an egg, the egg is then separated into Earth and Sky, there is then the birth and growth of a giant, who eventually dies, and finally his corpse turning into various celestial and natural elements present in the earth and sky. While extremely simplified, these binaries are all somewhat related to the ideas of recycling and reincarnation, and that nothing is ever truly destroyed—Pangu splits the egg, his body dies but turns into the natural world. 

Either way, it is interesting to think about this creation myth in the context of modern China, which generally doesn’t push for any specific religion, and these myths are now usually found more in written texts rather than passed along by speaking. This myth is generally associated with Daoism, though elements of reincarnation lean more towards Buddhism. 

For another version of the Pangu myth, see Goldin, Paul R. “THE MYTH THAT CHINA HAS NO CREATION MYTH.” Monumenta Serica, vol. 56, 2008, pp. 1–22, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40727596.

Bad Luck with Double Doors

Nationality: Taiwanese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/27/22
Primary Language: English

“Opening both doors at the same time will lead to bad luck.”

CL is a Taiwanese student at USC who lived in Taiwan for a few years before moving to the United States. This is a superstition that I have never heard before, and it is definitely interesting since it is focused on such a mundane task as opening a door. The above quote was said after CL opened one door of a double door entryway at the same moment that someone opened the other door from the external side.

When asked where she learned this superstition, she replied that it had been passed down to her from her mom, though she had never questioned its origins. There are some theories as to where it comes from. Other door superstitions state that it is bad luck to leave through a different door than the one that someone entered through, particularly in houses. Though the above superstition is not exactly similar, a person is leaving the door while someone enters simultaneously in the above situation. This could be a variation of the superstition of departing and entering through different doors that has been adapted for a double door entrance.

Doorways often represent a transition or a gateway into another space, the passage between one place or state of being and the next. As such, it is not surprising to see superstitions that arise out of these passageways. They could also be regarded as thresholds between the physical and spiritual worlds, so it can be seen that our interactions with doorways have an influence on the external forces acting on our lives, which in this case takes the form of good or bad luck.

ZhongQiuJie: Mooncakes

References:

Chinese Characters (Simplified): 中秋节
Chinese Characters (Traditional): 中秋節
Romanization: zhōngqiūjiě
Transliteration: Middle – Autumn – Holiday
Free Translation: Mid-Autumn Festival

Text + Context:

Q: Was there a point as a kid where you first started celebrating or learned about it?

A: Oh ever since I can remember things, it’s always every year that way. We go to relatives homes they come to our home we eat mooncake. And in China there are many different type of mooncake, like made by fresh ground pork, and uh and you know they have different style, cantonese style, SuShe I don’t know how they call in English, is basically the uh the place near Shanghai they have some kind of special SuZhou is the city close to Shanghai, small one. They have a particular way to make mooncake.

Q: Would you usually eat a particular type of mooncake? Is there a particular one in Shanghai?

A: We have both, either they call sushe guangshe, I mean it’s Shanghai so they have everything. shushe is a little less expensive, guangshe is a little cheaper. But when people come to our home, as guests, they bring a gift? Usually they bring Guangshe gift, just because it’s uh it looks a little nicer and costs a little bit more. But I remember my uncle, because uh, come to our home, since our mom is his older sister. He would always come and um bring gifts um bring moon cake. bring mooncakes. And my aunt, my mom’s older sister, 3 sons they would go to they would bring the mooncake to my mom. Up to now, even last year they give to bring the mooncake. 

Q: Is it expected to bring mooncakes to relatives, and is it older relatives? 

A: It’s uh kind of expected if you go to relatives you always bring some small gift, but if it’s moon cake I mean mid fall festival, then it’s just, people just naturally bring mooncake as a gift.

A: I have never done that because I left the country very early. I just never got the chance to do that.

Context of performance: collected from an in-person conversation.

Personal Thoughts:

In Chinese culture, it’s expected for a guest to always bring a small gift when they visit. In turn, it’s expected for a host to play some 客气 (kèqì, literally means polite), which is a game of the host pseudo refusing the gift by calling the guest too generous. It’s interesting that for this particular day about reuniting with relatives, people just tend to bring mooncakes. For one thing, 中秋节 is always on the Harvest Moon, so being called a mooncake makes sense. In addition, the moon has a particular meaning linked with reunion. Overall, it’s fascinating to see a specific food with a specific intention for a specific festival.

ZhongQiuJie: Chang’E

References:

Chinese Characters (Simplified): 中秋节
Chinese Characters (Traditional): 中秋節
Romanization: zhōngqiūjiě
Transliteration: Middle – Autumn – Holiday
Free Translation: Mid-Autumn Festival

Text:

Informant: Chang e feng yue [嫦娥?月 (Chang’e Fengyue)] is uh, so there is – I, so I was reading this today, but somehow story is a little different from what I know. So what I know is that Chang’e is the lady, and her husband is a man. They don’t see each other until the moon day, so that is the day they can see each other. Chang’e is the name of this lady. Fengyue Feng yue means uh running with the moon. So when you In China, sometimes they have a drawing of the moon, bright moon, then have this lady, beautiful have beautiful clothes and kind of like.. next to the moon, and also have a small rabbit next to her. That’s a kind of a traditional character and picture, we call it Chang’e Fengyue. Chang’e that’s her name. Feng means run, yue means moon. Basically fly to the moon, and she will has the ancient clothes. Which is like beautiful long dress, 是唐代 Tang Dynasty clothes. All those really really long sleeves, you can’t see your hand, or if you do a like Tang Dynasty clothes thing you’ll probably see.

So it’s kind of interesting, uh besides all the serious part, right – eat mooncake, stuff like that. Also have, this kind of like, tale.

Her husband has a name, say they are 10 sun in the earth, so he shooting down 9, only left 1. One we are having now. 

Me: Oh! like the Chinese Archer man? [Houyi]

Informant: Right right, his wife is Chang E. And so he has a, some kind of medicine, that if you eat it you will live forever. But his wife steal it and ate it. Now, she’s going to live forever, and he wouldn’t. So somehow, I don’t remember the story exactly, and then she is now living in the other side not on the Earth, with the moon and with the rabbit and so they began to see each other once a year at 中秋节。

Informant: Since it’s a story, so it varies. That’s the part, they tell the story to foreigners. I mean, because sometimes the foreigners will ask, I mean, foreigners to Chinese. Will ask, hey what is ZhongQiuJie mean, what do you do. And sometimes they just tell this story. 

Me: Wait they made this story for foreigners?

Informant: Uhh they have this whole story even before the foreigners. but uh, since, in the past, nobody cares about Chinese ZhongQiuJie, but now with the more open to Western, more communication, everything, uhh so from time to time the foreigner will ask about this. So they say ok, we’ll just tell them this.

Context:

Q: Was there a point as a kid where you first started celebrating or learned about it?

A: Oh ever since I can remember things, it’s always every year that way.

Context of Performance: Collected from an in-person conversation. 

Personal Thoughts:

This particular story is very interesting to me because it displays a relationship between women and the moon. In many cultures across the world, women are associated with the moon. However, the typical associations are about witchcraft, menstrual cycles, or perhaps goddess representing the moon. So it was a great shock to see a story about a woman LIVING ON THE MOON. In addition, this legend displays a sort of blaming of women typically found in other stories. Chang’e is sort of exiled to the moon because she stole an elixir of immortality from her husband. This story choice likely reflects society’s greater blame towards women.