Tag Archives: Taiwanese

Dragon Boat Festival

“Every year, in China or whoever celebrates [the Dragon Boat Festival], people ride on boats and eat Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings).” 

The Dragon Boat festival is celebrated mainly by people from China on the fifth day of the Lunar month. The holiday was created to celebrates a former prime minister of China, Qinyuan because he had committed suicide by jumping into the river. After his death, the people of China decided to dump a lot of zongzi into the river so the fish would eat the dumplings and not his body. My friend had mentioned that he did not really participate in this holiday other than eating the food, but he knows about it though his schooling in Taiwan. 

When I asked my Taiwanese friend about any rituals or traditions that he celebrated, I had expected one that I would have at least heard of such as the Lunar New Year festival or Mid-Autumn festival. I was intrigued when this was the first one that he thought to tell me. Although I know he didn’t put too much thought into, the decision to share this event with me made me realize how much of his culture I really don’t know, despite having knowing him and both of our closest Chinese friends for years. I also thought it was interesting that he had limited knowledge about this festival. He had never really participated other than knowing what the event is for and eating the zongzi. It made me wonder about how other people celebrate the event, and the variation in how people celebrate events are in general. 

Happy Birthday sung in three languages

Nationality: Taiwanese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Animation student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA / Queens, NY
Language: English

Text:

JC: “Okay, so um… for context, well you know this but my parents were originally from Taiwan, but my dad grew up in Costa Rica, so he’s picked up an understanding of Spanish. And in my family, we had this big group of like… in a lot of holiday celebrations, so like New Years or in the summer, we all tend to gather around and like, celebrate a specific holiday. And as a tradition we sing happy birthday first in English, ’cause everyone understands it, and then in Chinese to kind of like.. just for all the grandparents to understand, for them to join in, and for.. all of the like, Taiwanese people around. And then for the Costa Rican side, we end up singing it in Spanish.”

Context:

Informant JC is part of a multi-cultural and multi-lingual family. He added, “I always thought that was very interesting, like my family dynamic. I’m primarily Taiwanese-American, but we still ended up incorporating like a lot of Costa Rican cultural bits. There’s like, having Costa Rican food on the side, or being more open to Costa Rican culture. I also feel like because we’ve all like, grown up in America, like my parents moved when they were very young, and my relatives came in more progressively, and they’ve had to assimilate to American culture. A lot of what we end up doing feels very American.”

Analysis:

Happy Birthday songs are ritualized celebrations of the human life cycle, commemorating the completion of an approximate solar year since a person’s birth. They provide an opportunity for one’s community to get together and reaffirm their bonds with a person.

JC’s multilingual birthday ritual is especially significant in light of broader political changes. From 1949 to 2007, Costa Rica had diplomatic relations with Taiwan. After nearly 60 years, Costa Rica decided to break off this relationship in favor of establishing ties with China. Despite these shifting political alliances, JC’s family birthday ritual demonstrates that community bonds extend beyond the borders and interests of the nation-state.

Selling Fragrant Farts Folktale

Language: English

There once were two brothers who lived together on a farm in a village. The older brother was lazy and always forced his younger brother to do all the farm work for him. Day after day, he tended to the farm, sowing the seeds and tilling the earth. One day, he saw a small bird with a broken leg on the ground. He carefully nursed it back to health, taking great care of the bird. When its leg was all better, the bird flew off, returning with a single peanut. The younger brother, not sure what to do with it, ate the peanut. After a moment, his stomach began to hurt and he farted, releasing the most fragrant and beautiful smell into their house.

At this time, the older brother returned home with a guest. The guest was amazed and in awe of how wonderful their house smelled, and asked the younger brother why the house smelled so good. The younger brother simply replied, “I farted.” The guest was amazed, asking

if the younger brother would be willing to fart in his house too, even offering money to him to do so. The younger brother agreed, and over time, word of his magnificent smelling farts spread

throughout the village, eventually reaching the richest family in their village. The rich man invited the younger brother to fart his sweet-smelling fart in his house, rewarding him with a small fortune.

The older brother became jealous of his younger brother’s newfound fame and wealth, and asked his brother how he began to fart his good-smelling farts. The younger brother recounted how he helped take care of the bird with the broken leg, and how it returned with the peanut that he ate to have his fragrant farts. The older brother went out to the field, catching a bird and breaking its leg. Then, he nursed it back to health, caring for it until it had recovered. The bird also flew off, returning to the older brother with a peanut. The older brother quickly ate the peanut and ran over to the rich man’s house, yelling that he too can fart wonderful smelling farts just like his younger brother. The rich man let him into his house and the older brother quickly released the pressure in his stomach. The worst smell in the world wafted through the house as the older brother pooped his pants in front of the rich man. Embarrassed, the older brother ran out of the village, never to be seen again.

Context

The informant told me about a story he had heard from his grandmother, who in turn had heard about it from her grandparents. Neither of us could find out the exact origin of folktale, as what scare online sources we could find attributed it to either Taiwan or China. But it still remains a longstanding part of the informant’s family history, evidenced by its generational persistence.

Both the informant and I agree on the story’s humor and absurdity being a core reason why the story has stuck around for so long. It’s very premise earworms itself into your head, and you can’t help but want to pass it around to other people. Despite the silliness of it, it conveys a deep and integral moral of how earnest work and kindness begets good fortune. Most likely this reflects a larger social value that parents seek to pass down to their children, and the humorous nature of the tale ensures that the intended audience remembers it.

The Zodiac Calendar Race

Age: 46
Occupation: Chemist
Residence: Los Angeles
Language: English

Text

The cat and mouse are going to participate in a race to decide the ordering of the Zodiac calendar. The two of them were good friends who decided to go together. They had to cross a river, so the two jumped on the back of an ox. The mouse wanted to win, so he pushed over the cat into the water, which led to the mouse coming in first in the race, followed by the ox. The cat ended up coming in 13th place. From then on, the cat hated the mouse and that’s why the cat is excluded from the Zodiac calendar. And that is why Chinese people believe cats eat mice. 

Context

My informant learned this story in elementary school in Taiwan. She learned it from a teacher in elementary school. She believes that it is a story used to explain why cats eat mice.

Interpretation

This legend is an origin story about a legendary event that explains the order of the Chinese Zodiac calendar and why the cat is not included.Although this event definitely did not occur, the story, it serves as a possible explanation for why cats and mice are often seen in opposition in Chinese culture, as well as across cultures. This story reflects the importance of  values of loyalty, friendship, and honesty and how betraying those values can lead to an unfortunate fate. This story is widely known and taught in schools as a part of Chinese history.


Grandma’s Superstitions

AGE: 20

DATE OF PERFORMANCE: 04/01/2025

LANGUAGE: English 

NATIONALITY: Taiwanese-American 

OCCUPATION: Student 

PRIMARY LANGUAGE: English 

RESIDENCE: San Jose, CA

INTERVIEW SUMMARY:

When asked if there were any particular horror stories or tales, fables, etc. that she grew up hearing as a kid to prevent bad behavior, MS shared that her grandmother loved to tell tales surrounding hair—specifically having long hair.

A lot of the stories she shared, if not all of them, had some connection to do with death or getting hurt in some way.

Interviewer: Could you provide some examples of tales she would tell you?

MS: “Sure. I’m not sure if this is true or not, but there was one tale she told where this lady got clamped down by the train doors because her hair was too long. Another was this lady who was cooking with her hair down and got hurt.”

Interviewer: Are there any distinct superstitions that she shared with you or that you grew up hearing too?

MS: “She would say to not walk over drains because people have fallen through before. And also not to walk under tall buildings because something can fall or drop and kill you.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION:

It’s really interesting to hear superstitions that other people believe. We’ve discussed in class that there’s no distinct reason why one’s believes what they believe, but I think culture and the environment around you definitely play a part in it. In the case of hair, some cultures have very important connections to their hair. While both MS and I were not entirely sure of why in particular her grandmother had so many stories related to hair, I think it plays a role in her deep infatuation with warning tales of that nature. There are also a lot of horror tales and folklore surrounding a woman with long hair and something related to death or injury. After all, people always say hair holds memories.