The Water King (Yu the Great)

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: He goes to school here at USC in LA but is from Shanghai.
Performance Date: April 23, 2016
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Description: “Also, it’s in ancient china actually there’s floods. Like overflowing areas. Like the river is filled with like water like and what is spilled over everywhere and there’s a kind of like very kind king who is also skilled at like water engineering and he maybe he studied how to maybe to conduct water so he used his he spent ten years dealing with this problem and finally he succeed like. And he’s like he’s made a legend people person by the after that. Yeah so he engineered to stop floods like.”

2. Great Yu is a character who’s full capabilities may or may not be actually true but we do have a good guess at the validity of his existence. Most believe that he’s true even if some of the stories have been embellished. There are more practical accounts as well.

3.  I walked into his room and asked him if he could tell me some folklore. This was one of the first accounts he told me. This must mean that it’s pretty well renown in Chinese culture.

4. This performance says a lot on the culture and history of China and the minds of the people that live there. Because of the flood, no matter how large it actually was, they obviously really respect the power of water. Historically, the Chinese people have had a knack for engineering. They’ve always honored and respected occupations like that. Because of this, it’s understandable that they would create a god like figure out of him.