Tag Archives: Chinese

Chinese historical legend: Xiang Yu wang

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 23
Occupation: Student (Communications)
Residence: Shenzhen, China
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

“At the end of the Qin Dynasty, there were a lot of uprisings because people got tired of having to leave home to work on the emperor’s construction projects, and Liu Bang and Xiang Yu were two rebel leaders. So after the Qin Dynasty got overthrown, they have to fight each other to see who would rule China. And there were a lot of battles, but finally Xiang Yu got defeated. Liu Bang knew Xiang Yu would pass by this boulder by this river, so he wrote Xiang Yu wang, death to Xiang Yu, on the boulder in honey. And because there was honey, ants swarmed over the words, so it looked like the ants were forming the words. And when Xiang Yu saw it, he thought it was a message from the gods that he should die, so he committed suicide and Liu Bang became emperor and founded the Han Dynasty.“

My informant thinks he learned this story from his father, who is interested in ancient Chinese history.

This legend is built around real historical events. Xiang Yu did commit suicide after his defeat, although the truth value of the part with the ants and the honey is uncertain. The legend shows that Xiang Yu was honorable and faithful to the gods’ will, which is partly why Xiang Yu is now commonly viewed as a tragic historical figure. The legend also portrays Liu Bang as being an adept manipulator—he won by using his understanding of his opponent’s motivations—and the Chinese value cleverness over physical force.

Chinese tale: Cowherd and Weaving Girl

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 23
Occupation: Student (Communications)
Residence: Shenzhen, China
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

牛郎织女

Nui Lang Zhi Nu

Cowherd and Weaving Girl

“There were seven goddesses in the Sky Temple, maybe the know Chang E. And they’re the daughters of the mother queen of the Sky Temple, so the king of the Sky Temple is their brother. And these seven, they’re bored so they fly to earth and take baths on earth. I don’t know why, I guess they can’t take baths in the Sky Temple. So every month, they go to earth to take baths in a pool. And normally, no one’s there, they put their clothes by the side of the pool, and they swim and play in the pool. And one day, a lucky guy, Niu Lang, a cowherd, he comes across the seven naked women, and he, he’s a pervert I guess, he takes a set of clothes, and the clothes turn out to be the oldest sister’s. And when the sisters are done with the bath, they go back to the Sky Temple. Because they have to go back, or their mother will find out they escaped from the Sky Temple. So six of the sisters fly back, but the seventh one, Zhi Nu, can’t, because the clothes have some sort of magic power that let you fly. Wait, they should be able to fly by themselves because they’re gods. So maybe the oldest sister just doesn’t want to fly naked? Or maybe she just wants her clothes back. Anyways, six of them go back, and she stays. And this cowherd, Nui Lang, comes out, and he says, Hey woman, I have your clothes. You have to say with me and I’ll give these clothes back to you. And, I don’t know what happened, I don’t want to say, but she falls in love with this guy. I don’t know why, maybe she’d never seen any men before, but they fall in love. And you know, time passes differently on earth than in the sky temple, one day in the Sky Temple is a year on earth. So after a few days the queen of the Sky Temple, she finds out that her oldest daughter is lost. She uses her magic and found that her daughter is married to this human being and they have children. She commands the daughter to come back. The daughter refuses. The daughter had her clothes back, but she just didn’t want to go back.

The daughter had become a mother and a good wife and didn’t want to be separated from her family. The queen was very angry and sent an army to get the daughter back. But Niu Lang and the daughter beg the mother, and they say, kids shouldn’t grow up without a mother, and the queen thinks, yeah, I guess the children need a mother and she shows some mercy and allows the couple to meet once a year. But you know, according to the time rules, I guess that means she has to go every day, and Niu Lang only sees her once a year, so I don’t know how that works.

The queen mother uses the Milky Way to separate the couple. And every year on Qi Xi, Chinese Valentine’s Day, the queen sends some birds to form a bridge and Niu Lang brings their kids, and meets his wife Zhi Nu on the bridge one time a year. “

My informant can’t remember where he learned this story, but he thinks that the appeal of it is in the forbidden love. He said that until recently, and even still in some parts of China, people weren’t allowed to marry freely. He compared the story to Romeo and Juliet, two lovers who defied rules and their parents to be together. The fact that this tale is associated with the Qi Xi Festival, sometimes referred to as Chinese Valentine’s Day, supports this theory.

Annotation: The main character in the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid attends the Qi Xi Festival and sees a shadow play of this story.

Chinese Architectural Superstition

Nationality: Korean
Age: 54
Occupation: Nurse
Residence: Cerritos, California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Korean
Language: English

“A house that has a staircase that leads directly to the front door is a cursed house.”

 

My informant first heard about this superstition from her friend Mrs. Jin.  Mrs. Jin had been boasting about how she had been able to rent a beautiful house in Irvine for the cheap price of $1100 when it should have been $1700.  She told my informant that the owner of the house who rented it to her was a Chinese man.  He was aware of the old Chinese superstition that a house with a staircase that runs into the front door is cursed, leading to inevitable death.  Mrs. Jin and my informant laughed about that notion because they were at church function at the time, so as Christians they found the superstition preposterous.  Eerily, Mrs. Jin that same week went in for a bypass surgery that should have been simple enough, but she died from complications.  Now she is uneasy about the superstition.

Mrs. Jin’s death and her renting the “cursed” house could have been a mere coincidence.  A front door that connects directly to the staircase can cause uneasiness because good fortune can fly out the door easily, or perhaps death can easily find you since the stairs are a direct pathway to your room.  I am a Christian, so I should not pay attention to such superstitions about death, but to be on the safe side, I myself would never live in a house like that, especially after hearing about what happened to Mrs. Jin.

月饼 (Mooncakes)

Nationality: Singaporean Chinese
Occupation: Student
Residence: Singapore
Performance Date: March 2007
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English, Hokkien

During the Mid-Autumn festival, it is customary to eat mooncakes (月饼) while drinking tea and admiring the moon. Mooncakes are essentially pastries that are filled with lotus seed paste, red bean paste or mung bean paste and a salted duck egg yolk. It is said to originate during one of the dynasties to ensure that a secret message to coordinate a rebellion were hidden as a message in the mooncakes.

                  This was practiced by my informant ever since he could eat solid food. It has been part of Chinese culture since at least the Yuan dynasty. However, this practice has been becoming less frequent due to the fact that one of the essential ingredients to making traditional mooncakes is lard; and in today’s health conscious society not many people would like to eat something so very fattening.

                  Even though mooncakes are a very traditional sort of food, it has begun to change in the last couple of years. Now, there are all sorts of mooncakes made with all sorts of flavors and materials. In Asia, Hagen Daaz sells chocolate coated, ice cream filled mooncakes and in recent years, there have been snow-skin mooncakes with the outer ‘skin’ being made out of glutinous rice paste.

                  It is interesting that the mooncakes have changed so much in the recent days with the introduction of more varieties in fillings and crusts. There are even mooncakes for the heart healthy because as mentioned above, many people now don’t want to eat fattening mooncakes.

Red Packets (红包 or 利市)

Nationality: Singaporean Chinese
Occupation: Journalist
Residence: Singapore
Performance Date: February 2007
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

During Chinese New Year, children are given red packets filled with money. In the past, the red packets were placed under the pillow for good luck in the New Year and to ward off evil spirits from invading the dreams. The money inside of the packets is always an even number like 8, 10, and 20 because good luck comes in pairs. The packets are red because red is a lucky number.  Only unmarried people can receive these and only married people can distribute it, regardless of age.

                  My informant has been receiving these packets since birth and was required to pass these out in Singapore since the 1960s. Most people in Chinese communities all over the world practice this particular custom. Most Chinese kids see it as a way to get money during the New Year season.  To get one of these red packets, kids need to greet their elders with auspicious phrases and wishing them good luck.

                  This is not just limited to the Chinese, but there are many other countries that have variations of this custom as well. The Malays also give money after Ramadan, during Hari Raya, but in green packet with odd numbers. The Vietnamese giver something similar to these red packets and the Japanese have white packets with the names of the receiver written on the outside. It’s interesting how customs like this are spread all throughout Asia because it is an example of diffusion and adopting customs.