Informant (N) 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.
I: Can you tell me about the story about 九马画山 (jiu ma huà shān) we heard by the tour guide when we visited Guilin?
N: (trans.) The Nine Horse Mountain’s rock face has a lot of plants and colors, which is why it’s known as 画山. Legend has it that on this mountain you can “see” nine horses on the rock face, and it’s said that the more horses you can see, the farther that person will go in terms of accomplishments. When President Bill Clinton visited Guilin, he was very excited to see the mountain, but when he got there he wasn’t able to see a single horse, which is saying he’s not very bright.
九马画山的石壁不是有各种植物，颜色啊，所以就称为画山。在这座石壁上呢，传说是能看出九匹马，看得越多人就走的越远，也说越成就。说是Bill Clinton去桂林旅游的时候，他很期待去看这座山，但一到的时候一匹马都看不出，就说他很笨。
I: Why is it that he’s not very bright?
N: (trans.) You can at least see one horse in the mountain, but he couldn’t even see one. But of course, seeing horses is really just saying the person has a vivid imagination.
这因为多少可以看到一匹马的，但他一匹也看不到。当然，能看得出马也只是证明你这个人很有想象力的。
Context:
This conversation took place over the phone. The original performance of this folklore was given by a tour guide while on a boat on the [] River.
Analysis:
The story my informant tells me is a legend, a narrative that is based in the real world but isn’t necessarily factual—both Bill Clinton and the mountain exist, but the number of horses he saw is highly debated. This legend also acts as a subtle dig towards Clinton, which, given the fact that the original performance was in Chinese and given by someone Chinese, makes reasonable sense. Placing a person of importance in such a location also gives the location a heightened sense of fame, making it more alluring to international tourists and participate in the legend (counting the horses on the rock face), which is how belief in this legend also continues.
Tag Archives: Chinese
Don’t Sleep With Wet Hair
Background:
Informant is a Chinese-American student at USC.
Main Piece:
“My family was just so convinced that like, nothing is ever dry until it’s bone dry. So I would go to blow dry my hair, and they’d be convinced, ‘no, it’s still wet’ and I would just keep on going, and they wouldn’t let me like go to sleep with like wet hair because I think they were just being like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna get sick’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s fine.’”
Context:
This conversation was recorded in-person.
Analysis:
Not sleeping with wet hair is something my parents have also told me. It’s a folk belief that is loosely tied with medicine/sickness, with the belief being propagated by the fact that it will scare children into drying their hair properly (though as my informant shows, at a certain age this wears off). There are probably scientific reasons either proving or disputing this claim, but considering that it was much easier to get sick pre-modern era, actions easy to control like drying your hair would probably be focused on the most.
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
“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.