Tag Archives: fish

Don’t Eat All Your Luck

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: March 25th, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Mandarin

Informant Background: The informant was born in Los Angeles. His family is originally from Taiwan. He grew up with his parents and grandparents who still speak Chinese, he does too. Many of his relatives are in Los Angeles so they all still practice a lot of Taiwanese/Chinese traditions and celebrate all the Chinese holiday such as: Chinese New Year, Ancestry day, Chinese Ghost day, etc. He said his family still hold many Chinese folk-beliefs and superstitions. He also travels back once in a while to visit his other relatives who are still back in Taiwan.

When you eat a whole finish, you can’t eat all the fish… like if you get the whole fsih in Chinese restaurants …if you finish all the  fish meat then it means that you eat all your luck…You can’t eat it clean to the bones…You’re supposed to leave some part of the fish so you still have some luck left. 

According to the informant, this folk-belief express how fish represents luck in Chinese culture. This folk-belief is passed on to him through his parents. Fish and fish meat represents luck. To finish the fish is then to finish your good luck and bad things can happen to you.

 

 

I think this idea might seem strange to other culture if the fish they consume is larger in size or fish is not cooked as a whole. Chinese cuisine uses fish that are large enough to fit onto one plate and is cooked as one piece. I think thag fish is also considered a delicacy that not many people get to eat because it is difficult to get it fresh. I think it is also very difficult to cook a whole fish and make it taste good. It is also a dish usually put in the middle of the table to be shared by all. In this case to finish the fish is then to eat everybody’s luck.

This reflect the importance of beliefs and superstitious and how it is entangles with everyday life. This is a scenario where there would be no method of proving the truth value scientifically but the folk-belief is practiced to prevent bad luck, and bring in good luck. This also shows the importance of belief itself whether or not it is true. It is similar to how people let other blow their dice for good luck or how some carry their own lucky charm. It shows how beliefs itself is psychologically important. The belief that good luck will remain will allow the individual to feel better than to have the belief that he/she finished his/her luck.

This is concept of fish as a symbol of luck is widespread. It ppears in Chinese Cooking for Dummies. In this book there is a special section titled “An ocean full of luck” where this idea is explained. “Fish has long held an auspicious position not only in the Chinese kitchen but also in Chinese culture. The Chinese word for fish, yu, is a homonym for another yu, meaning abundance or prosperity. Always in tune with symbolism, the Chinese have thus associated fish with the same luck and success as its homonym.” (Yan, 126-127). The book also stated how fish is perceived as luck in different context. It said that not only that fish is consumed for special occasion for good luck but is also used as a symbol for different events such as weddings. Chinese culture does have a lot of folk-belief around homonyms such as the negative connotation around the number four because it sounds like death.

This folk belief reinforces the psychological effect of the idea of “luck” how it is represented through object and actions around that object. In this case it is also similar to the idea of homeopathic magic where “like” creates “like.” To not finish the fish, in this case, is to have fish/luck remains.

 

Annotation:

Yan, Martin. Chinese Cooking for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Worldwide, 2000. Print. 126-127

Russian Proverb about a Broken Wash Basin

Nationality: Russian-Jewish
Age: 53
Occupation: Mathematician
Residence: Santa Barbara, California
Performance Date: March 11, 2012
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English, Hebrew

“Do you want to go back to your broken wash basin?”

This Russian proverb comes from a fairytale, which my informant recounted to me:

“This is a story about a golden fish. An old man, very poor, lives in a cottage next to the sea. He goes to fish, and he catches in his net a golden fish. And she talks to him in a human voice, and she says, ‘Old man, let me go, I’ll give you whatever wish you want.’ The old man is a kind person, and he says ‘Oh, go little fish, swim in the sea, I’ll find other fish to eat.’ He doesn’t ask for any wish. So he comes home, and he sees his wife, an old woman, sitting near their cottage, which is falling apart, and she’s trying to do a wash, but she washes the clothes in a wooden basin and it’s falling apart, there is a big hole in it, it’s broken. And he tells her the story about how he caught the golden fish, and how she said that she can do any wish he wants. And the old lady is furious; she says, ‘I can’t even wash the clothes, the basin is broken, and you let her go!’ So, he wants to make his wife happy, he goes to the ocean and calls for the fish, and he says, ‘Can you make my wife happy, can you give my old woman a new basin, which is not broken?’  He comes, and he thinks his wife will be very happy because she got a new wash basin. But she’s furious—she says, ‘You could ask anything you want, why do you ask for a basin? Ask for a new house, don’t you see the house is falling apart, there are holes in the roof?’ So he goes back, and he says, ‘I’m sorry, fish, can you please give us a new, nice house?’ The fish says, ‘Okay, you go to your wife.’ So he goes home, and instead of his old, falling-apart cottage, there is a beautiful new house. He thinks his wife would be happy, but she is furious. She says, ‘Why do you ask just for a regular house? Ask for a palace with servants! Nice clothes, nice dishes, everything. I want to be a noblewoman!’ So, as you can expect, he goes back, he gets her a palace with servants and all that, but even that is not enough. After some time, she wants to be a queen.  Okay, she became a queen, to cut the story short. The old man doesn’t recognize her. She doesn’t want to associate with him, she doesn’t want any of the servants and all of these people to know that he is her husband. So, he is some lowly worker in the yard, sweeping the yard, while she is the queen in the palace, with servants and all that. So, some time passes, and she calls him again, and she says, ‘I’m tired of being a queen. I want to be a Tsaritsa of all of the seas and I want the golden fish to be my servant.’ The old man goes, and he says, ‘There’s nothing I can do. That’s what she wants.’ Suddenly, there is a horrible storm, and the fish just went away. So he comes back, and here is his old house, falling apart, and his old woman is sitting with a broken wash basin.”

Q. When would somebody use this proverb?

A. Let’s say a person did something for you, or did you a favor, and you demand more and more and more—he could say it. It’s like saying, “Look. Stop it.” Instead of pointing out that a person demands too much, this is a nicer way to say it. Usually, people like their childhood memories and fairytales, so they won’t feel antagonistic.

Q. Do you feel that in Russian society, people use proverbs more than they do here?

A. Yes—Russia doesn’t have much mobility, and in a society that’s very stable, it’s easier to have proverbs that move from generation to generation. The culture is homogeneous, so people know what you mean.

Annotation: Russian writer Alexander Pushkin wrote a poem about the story of the golden fish, entitled “The Fisherman and the Golden Fish.”

Pushkin, Alexander. “The Fisherman and the Golden Fish.” Trans. Irina Zheleznova. Russian Crafts, 1998-2007. Web. 26 April 2012. <http://russian-crafts.com/tales/golden-fish.html>.

This tale has also been featured in multiple works of Russian art, including lacquer boxes:

http://russian-crafts.com/home-decor/lacquer-boxes/tale-about-golden-fish-939.html

Bamboo Leaf and Rice

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

There was once an evil king that did not care about his people and did not listen to anyone. A kind governor tried to help the king, but the king would not listen. The governor was so distraught that he committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, into the sea. The people under the governor’s rule loved him immensely and they did not want the governor to be eaten by the fish in the sea, so they covered sweet rice with bamboo leaves in order to satisfy the appetite of the fish, so that their governor’s flesh would not be eaten.

My informant first heard this story from his parents on May 1st as a child, as it is tradition to eat bamboo leaves and rice on that day in honor of this event. The fact that the governor committed suicide out of shame due to failure and an unwillingness to continue to work for an evil king is an interesting moral lesson to teach to children through this legend. Respect for the elders and the dead is also features prominently in this story as it does in traditional Chinese culture and explains why the tradition is still practiced today.

Swedish Lutefisk Recipe

Nationality: Finnish, Swedish American
Age: 77
Residence: Temecula, CA
Performance Date: 4/8/12
Primary Language: English

The informant is 77 years old. She was born in Minnesota, and is of Swedish and Finnish descent.

Over Easter Brunch, my informant supplied me with some traditional Swedish folklore. The first thing that came to her mind was a recipe for Lutefisk that her family used to make. This is what she told me about the traditional Swedish recipe:

“Lutefisk is an old Swedish fish dish. It’s cod preserved in lye. I think my mother used to soak it in milk, or actually probably water. The only time she would make it was Christmas Eve. I used to help a little bit, but I think I mostly got in the way. It was actually really disgusting. No one liked it, not even my mother who spent the time making it every year! I don’t know why we kept making it for so long, but it was a traditional thing that made us feel more connected to our roots. After leaving the old country, it was nice for my parents to have a little something traditional, even if no one really enjoyed it!”

I agree with my informant’s reasoning about why the tradition continued. If no one actually enjoyed eating the lutefisk, then it was most likely made as a way to stay in touch with the family’s Swedish heritage after moving to America.

Recipe:

1 piece dried lutefisk, sawed into 6 lengths

2 tablespoons lye

Prep: Soak the fish in water for 3 days. Add two Tbsp. lye into a gallon of water. Soak for 3 days in this solution. Then soak for 4 days in water, changing water every day.

Cooking: Tie the fish loosely in a square of cheese cloth. Drop in a large enamel pot of boiling water. Cook 10 minutes or until well done. Remove cheese cloth put on a platter and debone. Serve with a mustard sauce.

Superstition – Chinese

Nationality: Cantonese-American
Age: 34
Occupation: Engineer
Residence: Anaheim, CA
Performance Date: May 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Cantonese

For good luck, never flip a fish over.

Growing up in a family-run Chinese restaurant where his dad was the chef, Carl learned this superstition from his parents from when he was young.  At a meal, a fish is usually served family style, but there is an accepted way to eat this fish.  He says that one is supposed to eat the meat from one side, then remove the bone to eat the other side. Carl once asked his father where this superstition came from, and learned that it came from the ancient fisherman culture.  According to this story, if one flips the fish over, then it symbolically flips the fisherman’s boat over.  This flipping over of the boat is bad luck, thus flipping the fish over is bad luck as well.

The Chinese culture, which includes the Cantonese culture, is filled with various superstitions that one learns while young.  These superstitions originated in Asia, but as the immigrants came over to America, these beliefs were brought over with them.  In this way, Carl is brought up with the same Chinese beliefs that his father grew up with, even though he is in a completely different country.  The effect of the 2nd generation Cantonese-American does not rid one of a culture, but rather integrates the Chinese culture with the American culture.

Since Chinese fishermen have a long past, it is expected for them to have many superstitions about luck.  Thus, these beliefs are transferred to modern habits of dinner etiquette rather than a struggle with good luck.  In other words, the superstitions of the past are now acknowledged as good manners and not simply for luck.  Though it seems as if the bone is being removed for ease of accessing the meat of the opposite side, this is actually a superstitious act to get good luck.  Chinese society revolves around luck and is believes that it will help achieve a successful life.