CK: “So there’s a lot of folklore and children’s stories that I read when my mom was teaching me mandarin at home. There’s one that I like a lot and it’s pretty well known, like I feel like all Chinese people know it, it’s called: The Frog in the Well / The Frog at the Bottom of the Well. From what I remember, basically, there’s this frog and he lives a content life at the bottom of a well. He has company (fish and whatnot) and food and whatever you need to be comfortable. One day a turtle comes by the well and tells the frog that he should come out of the well and the frog is like ‘why would I do that lol my life is awesome and I have everything here I need, I have a beautiful view of the whole sky!’ 

Eventually, he’s convinced to hop out of the well and once he does he sees how vast the sky actually is. He realizes how much of the world he doesn’t know about and how much he hasn’t experienced. Yeah, moral of the story is about being open-minded, venturing out of your comfort zone, in general broadening your worldview, making the effort to learn, and discovering opportunities. 

There’s some idioms that come from it.  

井底之蛙 – jǐng dǐ zhī wā – “frog at bottom of well,” you might call someone this if they are close-minded

坐井观天 -zuò jǐng guān tiān – “gazing/looking at the sky while sitting in a well,” same use case as first one but the act of being close-minded

Oh, and a lot of Chinese idioms are 4 characters it’s like a whole thing.””

context: The informant is a Game designer who studied at USC and recently graduated as of 2025. She is a first generation Chinese American and grew up with a lot of Chinese traditions. Her family is from Southern China, and her parents put a lot of effort into teaching her about her culture’s food, language, rituals, etc.

Analysis: Looking at this children’s folktale through a functionalist lens, its meant to enforce a moral function within children. Its advice on how to go about life, and a warning to avoid being close minded. It also pushes children to get out of their comfort zone in order to gain new life experiences. This is further pushed through the multiple proverbs and idioms that come from this specific tale. the phrase “Frog at the Bottom of the Well” is also esoteric language between Chinese people, since they know the meaning behind the phrase due to most Chinese children growing up hearing this story.