Conspiracy Theory/Urban Legend
Chinese Government’s Role in the Spread of Coronavirus
Michael Xiao
San Ramon, California
2020
Informant Data:
Michael is an Asian-American male born in Santa Rosa, CA on April 6, 2000. Both of his parents are immigrants from China, but Michael has been raised in the United States, which has often been a rival to China in great power politics. Michael is fervently pro-US and anti-Communist Party of China and considers himself well-read on global politics. He’s currently a sophomore at Georgetown University.
Contextual Data:
As coronavirus has spread to the United States, President Donald Trump has sought to improve his chance at reelection and secure shelter from political animosity by deflecting blame for the epidemic on the Communist Party of China. In doing so, the president has promoted a theory questioning whether or not the current strain of coronavirus originated from a Wuhan lab that had been studying similar forms of the virus in the months and years prior. This conspiracy theory/urban legend serves a practical, political purpose of aiding reelection and a nationalist purpose for unifying a country in pandemic against a common, tangible enemy.
Item: [Paraphrased version of Michael’s description of the conspiracy theory]
Although I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories, I recently heard of a myth regarding the Chinese Community Party’s role in the spread of coronavirus (note from the collector: I think the more proper term is a conspiracy theory or urban legend, rather than a myth). Apparently a Wuhan lab had been studying coronavirus before the epidemic and it may be possible that the lab had an accident or something that released the virus into the public. Again, I don’t believe the theory, especially without proof, but it’s interesting to think about, especially because the coronavirus may not have been spread at a wet market.
Kevin Xiao, 19
5517 London Way
San Ramon, CA 94582
Dartmouth College
Russ 13
Spring 2020
Genre and sub genre: Customary and Verbal folklore: Superstition and homeopathic magic
Language: Hawaiian/English
Country: USA
Informant Data:
Collected from myself: Marlo Mundon ’20 from the Big Island of Hawaii in 2009 from peers
Contextual Data:
Social Context: Hawaii is generally very rural and people are often surrounded by nature and enjoy hiking, swimming, exploring and the like.
Cultural Context: Most areas in nature have a cultural significance which must be respected. Nature itself is considered sacred and there many protocols and rituals one must perform in order to interact with nature in a respectful way.
Item:
Within the hills of Waimea on the Big Island there is a waterfall that runs into a large pond. It is a popular local hiking and swimming spot. The legend goes that the mo’o wahine lives in the pond and one must always ask her for permission before swimming. To do this, one takes a ti leaf and places it on top of the water. If the leaf floats, it is safe to swim and if it sinks, you cannot swim or mo’o wahine will drown you. Sometimes people also leave offerings for her to show respect and thank her for letting them swim in her pond.
Audio interview:
Transcription:
Michael: What is your name? Tell me about yourself.
Marlo: My name is Marlo Mundon, I’m a 20 from the Big Island of Hawaii in the town of Waimea. I didn’t grow up there but I went to a Hawaiian charter school that taught a lot about the history and the culture. So I learned a lot about all of that in that school and from cultural practitioners, and my peers, and local friends.
Michael: Do you have any Hawaiian superstitions that you would like to share?
Marlo: Yes, in my town specifically there is a lizard goddess, kind of. Her name, well not her name, but she’s called the “mo’o wahine” which means like lizard woman and she supposedly lives in this pond near my house up in the hills and like people like to go there, there’s a pond you can swim in and stuff but it is important to always check to see if it’s safe to swim because it’s the mo’o wahine’s home. So the superstition is you have to place a ti leaf on top of the water and if it floats then it’s safe to swim, and if it sinks it’s not safe, you can’t swim, she’ll drag you down to the depths of the pond and drown you. And so sometimes people also leave offerings on this big rock and uh yeah. That’s that.
Michael: Interesting. So, what is the social and cultural context of that superstition within Hawaii?
Marlo: So socially it’s something that the locals will do, one because it’s normal to do this and if you see tourists going there who don’t know about this, um, superstition. It’s always good to tell them about it, one it’s kind of fun to spook them and two, it’s culturally significant so you don’t want people to disrespect the pond and the lizard woman. Yeah that’s social, and uh cultural… there are a lot of deities, and supernatural beings in Hawaiian legends and stuff like that and they all have specific places where they live or areas that they have power over and this lizard woman lives in this pond and has a lot of influence over the town itself so it’s important for people in Waimea specifically to show respect for her.
Informant Data: Wyatt Smith ’19 is a 20-year-old male caucasian light-weight rower from Hong Kong. He is a long-time rower, having rowed competitively before Dartmouth, and was recruited to Dartmouth’s D150 Lightweight Rowing team.
Contextual Data:
Social Context: Another legend, similar to that of Ian Accomando, is that of Josh Konieczny, who was also a star rower for D150. The D150 Light-Weight Crew team revolves around competition, mainly in the form of races against other college teams. In addition, it is a highly demanding sport that requires near daily practices and continual weight-cutting and exercise. As such, many rowers rely on legends to remind them of past glory and to motivate them to continue with the sport. The legend of Josh Konieczny is told to rowers as they discuss past achievements and compete at races in order to provide motivation.
Cultural Context: Similarly, the legend of Josh Konieczny is passed down verbally from one generation to the next and is an effective way to create a sense of common knowledge and unity within the team. Every team member hears this legend and because the hero is someone that also was on D150, he is easy to relate to.
Item: This item is an oral piece of folklore that focuses on the passing down of a Folk Narrative, specifically a legend, that is suppose to help motivate rowers to live up to the glory of past rowers, and continue their legacy by devoting themselves to the sport. It is shared by every member of the D150 team and is retold whenever rowers need motivation.
Associated media:
Transcript (8:59 – 9:46):
BC: “In regarding the legends for example, right, who are some legends that, um, you guys talk about? Like what did they do and why are they important? And why do you guys keep talking about them?”
WS: “Um… it’s, I think, we all think it’s really important to remember the guys who came before us. Um, especially because a few years ago ten… five, ten, fifteen years ago, we were one of the best teams in the country…
BC: “Right.”
WS: “… and we had some amazing, great rowers on our team. So it’s important – we see it as important – to remember the past rowers who came before us to motivate us to work harder and to remember who were… you know we have this kind of… we have to uphold this legacy that they left us…”
BC: “Right, right.”
WS: “… and to remember them. So some guys that I can name are Josh Sans, Ian Accomando, um, Josh Konieczny…”
Transcript (10:07 – 10:31):
WS: “… Josh Konieczny was in the Olympic boat that came fifth at the last Olympics, um…”
BC: “Right.”
WS: “… and so having him on the world stage, and knowing that he was once in our shoes…
literally in our shoes, and uh…, we’re wearing his kit, um…, is… is really motivational and makes
you work harder. Like you can be this good if you work this hard.”
Collector’s Comments:
Similar to the legend of Ian Accomando, this Alumni Legend also claims to be historical and portrays an actual person or event. Josh Konieczny is a former Olympian who prominently won fifth at the last Olympics, so it’s easy to see this legend using his image and heightening it to build motivation in current rowers.
Informant Data: Wyatt Smith ’19 is a 20-year-old male caucasian light-weight rower from Hong Kong. He is a long-time rower, having rowed competitively before Dartmouth, and was recruited to Dartmouth’s D150 Lightweight Rowing team.
Contextual Data:
Social Context: The D150 Light-Weight Crew team revolves around competition, mainly in the form of races against other college teams. In addition, it is a highly demanding sport that requires near daily practices and continual weight-cutting and exercise. As such, many rowers rely on legends to remind them of past glory and to motivate them to continue with the sport. The legend of Ian Accomando is told to rowers as they discuss past achievements and compete at races in order to provide motivation.
Cultural Context: The legend of Ian Accomando is passed down verbally from one generation to the next and is an effective way to create a sense of common knowledge and unity within the team. Every team member hears this legend and because the hero is someone that also was on D150, he is easy to relate to.
Item: This item is an oral piece of folklore that focuses on the passing down of a Folk Narrative, specifically a legend, that is suppose to help motivate rowers to live up to the glory of past rowers, and continue their legacy by devoting themselves to the sport. It is shared by every member of the D150 team and is retold whenever rowers need motivation.
Associated media:
Transcript (8:59 – 10:06):
BC: “In regarding the legends for example, right, who are some legends that, um, you guys talk about? Like what did they do and why are they important? And why do you guys keep talking about them?”
WS: “Um… it’s, I think, we all think it’s really important to remember the guys who came before us. Um, especially because a few years ago ten… five, ten, fifteen years ago, we were one of the best teams in the country…
BC: “Right.”
WS: “… and we had some amazing, great rowers on our team. So it’s important – we see it as important – to remember the past rowers who came before us to motivate us to work harder and to remember who were… you know we have this kind of… we have to uphold this legacy that they left us…”
BC: “Right, right.”
WS: “… and to remember them. So some guys that I can name are Josh Sans, Ian Accomando, um, Josh Konieczny. And Ian Accomando is now a coach at Harvard and we see him now and then, but he was known to be just this amazing rower who would go and party hard, but he would show up regardless of how tired he was…”
BC: “Uh-huh.”
WS: “… or how busy he was…”
BC: “Right.”
WS: “… and he’d show up and be the best on the team and work harder than anyone else. So it’s showing that you can balance your life, and you can show up and work really hard.”
Collector’s Comments:
These Alumni Legends are interesting because much like the typical legends we see in Folk Narratives, they claim to be historical and are meant to portray an actual person or event. Ian Accomando is an actual person who was on the D150 team, and continues to see the team as a coach at Harvard, so it’s easy to see this legend using his image and heightening it to build motivation in current rowers.
Insert Informant Data Here: Kenneth Moussavian is a 19’ in Dartmouth College. He is on the Water Polo team and has been playing water polo since high school. He was born and raised in Los Altos Hills and both his parents are from Iran.
Contextual Data:
Many sports teams, especially at Dartmouth, tell stories of legends and the greatest players from last years. During the first meeting with the players in the fall the coach tells them about stories of past players to give the team an example of someone they can look up to and aspire to be.
Item:
Insert Item Here: George Benz was a second team all ivy his freshman year in water polo. He was very well respected because of his dedication to the team. He would come to practice even when sick. One day George Benz walked up to the opposing teams captain and snarled “fear me”.
Insert Informant’s Comments Here: The players on the team still talk about George Benz and admire the passion he had for water polo. Ken Mentioned that there are some water polo players who wear the shirt that says “feat me” on the back.
Collector’s Comments:
Insert Collector’s Comments Here: George Benz’s audacity ignited pride in the team. He acts as a role model for all the water polo players. Furthermore, Legends like George Benz instill pride in future players.
James Goldszer was born in Rye, New York on October 22, 1994. He is a 21-year-old male and currently a senior at Dartmouth College. He is an executive member of a Greek organization on campus and currently resides within that fraternity. As a freshman, he had a broad and diverse social network on campus, and thus often participated in gossip regarding freshman activities.
Contextual Data:
After returning from his first-year trip, the informant spent much of his time during orientation week with other freshman who were on his trip that he had grown friendly with. Similar to many other freshman during their initial days on campus, the informant finally felt unshackled from the restrictions on social behavior that come with living at home. He was eager to engage in the college lifestyle, specifically drinking-related activities. While discussing with his friends their plans for acquiring alcohol, he was told a popular campus urban legend that discourages first-year students from potentially dangerous drinking. Freshman accounts of this legend are very similar in that students are told that a friend of a friend was “Good Sammed” (sent to Dick’s House for intoxication) before matriculation and immediately expelled from the College.
Item/Transcript:
“I remember I think it was my second night here at Dartmouth, I was in Foco with a couple guys that I had been on trips with and been hanging out with, and we were talking about how we were going to get alcohol for the night so we could go out in the dorms and have fun, and I remember one of the guys, he said, ‘There’s no way I’m doing that, I’m not gonna be doing any drinking or anything like that until we matriculate,’ and he told us that his brothers friend had been a student at Dartmouth, and he had been “Good Sammed” before he matriculated, and apparently because your not technically a student of the college at that point, they can really kick you out instantly for a little transgression like that, but once you matriculate you’re a lot more protected. It was definitely something where we weren’t quite sure if it was true or not, but it did play around in the back of our minds that we had to be a little extra careful.”
The informant felt that this legend was largely an unjustified superstition, and explicitly stated that hearing this story did not deter him from drinking during the pre-matriculation period.
Collector’s Comments:
Although this is a very popular urban legend known to most all Dartmouth students, its origins are unknown and few believe it to be true. The informants account is consistent with this.
Informant info: Keaton Renta is a current member of the class of 2016. He is 21 years old and from South California.
Type of lore: Urban legend
Language: English
Country of Origin: United States
Social / Cultural Context: Keaton Renta was interviewed inside his room. He has experienced football game four times (once each of his years in college Freshmen, Sophomore, Junior, Senior), and heard about the gille suit-band incident from friends.
Item: Each year, during homecoming there is a football game. It is a tradition at half time for freshmen to hop the banister and rush the field during half time. Usually, the freshmen just run across the field. However, there are stories about how some students took the tradition further one year. They dressed up in a sniper’s gille suit and proceeded to harass the Harvard band attempting to play their half time show.
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Informant’s comments: The informant described the legend from the perspective that he heard from his friends.
Collector’s comments: The informant seem to remember the story very fondly.
Tags/Keywords: homecoming, football, football game, marching band
Infromant: Brian Flint, age 23, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.
Verbal Lore: folk speach, slang- associated: urban legend, Material
English
United States of America
Context: a long narrow house with no hallway and interconnecting rooms found in many neighborhood in New Orleans.
Transcript:
“ The next is a ‘shotgun house.’ That means it is a very long, narrow, house in which there is no hallway and all the rooms are connected by a doorway. It’s thought of that you could shot a- shoot a shotgun all the way through from one end to the other. There is a lot of myths surrounding the etymology of that one but, that story definitely is what most people will jump to.”
Infromant: Erin Fell, age 21, New Orleans, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.
Transcript: “Next is “Shotgun”, as in not the arm, not the fire weapon but a shotgun house. A shotgun house is a long, narrow house where there are generally no hallways, just a big line of rooms in the house. Shotgun houses are super common in certain neighborhoods in New Orleans.”
Collectors Commentary: This item is associated with material lore of the houses in certain N.O. neighborhoods being built a certain way. There is probably an interesting reason why these houses were designed this way that would be good to explore next.
Keywords: New Orleans, Shotgun House, long, narrow, house, no hallways
Verbal Lore: Folk speach, slang- associated: legend
English
United States
Context: The median between two opposing lanes of traffic, sometimes made solely of concrete, sometimes has trees grass or a canal in the middle.
Infromant: Libby Flint, age 59, New Orleans resident of 36 years, originally from Upstate New York and Vermont. Collected May 22, 2016 and recorded on iphone.
Transcript:
“Your second line might extend down into the’ neutral ground’. Many of the street in new Orleans have median strips, grassy areas in between both lanes, these are called ‘neutral grounds’ rather than medians, this tem derives from the 1800’s during that time the French and Spanish creoles settled down river in what area is now called the French quarter, Uptown from this area, the Anglos settled, there was a grassy strip in between which originally was a drainage area, but became Canal street. There was animosity between the Anglos and the creoles and this area between the two was called a ‘neutral area’ or ‘neutral ground.’ Since then Neutral ground has come to mean any median and neutral grounds are a popular area to park your car in during heavy rainstorms cause they tend to be a little bit higher than the street. So you don’t get your car flooded.”
Informant:Caitlin Flint, age 21, Metairie, LA, collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.
Transcript:
“The First Slang Word is the term ‘Neutral Ground.’ Neutral ground is a phrase for the area in between the two- in the middle of the street, very similar to a median. The difference between a regular median and a neutral ground is where a median is usually concrete, a neutral ground usually has, in a lot of cases, grass or trees or a canal or a streetcar running through it. So it tends to be larger. I also only tend to associate neutral grounds with New Orleans. Don’t use the phrase in any other city. Originally the phrase comes from historically from the rather large space- spaces in between the two direction streets of Canal street. Which separates the French Quarter of the city where the creoles and the French and Spanish descendants lived and where the American, white Anglo-Saxon Americans lived. And so since canal street was this dividing line between the two neighborhood it was considered a ‘neutral ground’ hence the phrase is used to describe all similar geographical features.”
Infromant: Brian Flint, age 23, Metairie, LA, Collected on May 22, 2016 and recorded on an iphone.
Transcript:
“ The next is ‘neutral ground’. That can be thought of as the grassy area between two lanes of traffic going opposite ways on your roads. This comes from Canal Street, which was a major division in New Orleans, which actually had a Canal in it until they filled it in, but it separated the Spanish creoles, French creoles population in New Orleans from the Americans, and they Had a Neutral ground in the middle.”
Informant info: (Left to Right) Sadhana Puri, age 20, Jessica Link, age 20, Alex Ledoux, age 21 all from New Orleans, LA
Transcript:
“Jessica: a neutral ground is a median.
Alex: It’s a median, but it’s called neutral ground because like once upon a time New Orleans was like half French half Spanish and they were like split down the middle of like the street. I think it was Canal Street.
Jessica: Well yeah it was Canal Street, but t wasn’t for the Spanish, it wasn’t the French and Spanish, it was the Creoles and Americans. So the Americans were moving into the cb. I’m pretty sure this is what it is. So the Americans were moving into cbd uptown which was on the other side of canal, so like the French lived in the French quarter and also the Spanish I guess too maybe. But mostly the French and like so that street was the neutral ground like in between them.
Alex: They called it the neutral ground because no one group had control over it.
Jessica: Yeah, I think.
Alex: I think that’s what it was.
Jessica: And Canal Street yeah
Katelyn: So you’re saying it was the Creoles-
Jessica: The French and the Americans
Katelyn: or the French and the
Jessica: When I say French I mean the Creoles
Alex: Ok so like the way it works the French and the creoles, actually I talked about this in my history class, well me history of music class because I was doing Jazz. And it was like the French and the Creoles which was like Aristocratic, they were like the fancy New Orleans peoples, and then like recently freed African American slaves who lived on the other side. And yeah they tended be like not affluent and the Creoles looked down on them. But I guess like, I don’t know why I thought he Spanish, I might have made that up.
Jessica: Well it’s confusing because like
Katelyn: So no this is cool because like another thing is that some peoples’ stories will be different and that’s something that is interesting to explore
Alex: OK
Jessica: Yeah, explore that
Alex: there was definitely conflict between the French and Spanish peeps who lived there in New Orleans, but maybe that had nothing to do with that.
Jessica: The French really hated the Americans, that was like a problem at the time in the 1800s. Who were moving in, because they were bringing English and stuff. Stupid language.”
Collectors Commentary: This particular term is mentions by multiple informants as being a traditional New Orleans word that is unique to the city specifically because of its connection to urband legend/ legend/ history. While, there may actually be a history that explains the origins of the word Neutral ground in detail, none of the informants actually had researched the topic, so all of their information for the bakground and context of the term was transmitted orally, this also goes on to explain both the similarities and the slight variations in the stories. Therefore, the back story can be considered legend or urban legend. It is a slang word because it is a word unique to New orleans and popularly used in every day conversation.
