Clean Plates

Title: Clean Plates

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Informant is a fifty year old adult woman, currently living and working in Boston Massachusetts. The informant was born in Taiwan. The informant moved to the United States for graduate school. The superstitions detailed are from her time spent living in Taiwan. Most are passed on from her parents, both of whom are also Taiwanese, though some may have been picked up from other sources through childhood.

Contextual Data:

Cultural Context: Buddhism has historically been a major religion in China. Though there is less of an emphasis on religion now in China after the Cultural Revolution, that is not necessarily the case for Taiwan. The informant was raised with many Buddhist values and beliefs underlying things that were done by her parents.
Social Context: This was something that was told to the informant by her mother and father as a child. It was used to help enforce that she should make sure to be tidy during meals.

Item:

If you don’t finish your meal, and have rice all over the place, you’ll have bumps on your face in your next life.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Transcript:

“There’s a supertition–superstition about not to leave uh food uh cr– uh scrap uh all over the the table and uh Chinese has a belief that um uh afterlife and uh you know you-your soul will move on to the next life and uh life will continue in cycles. Uh and uh there’s some uh superstition if you scatter all the rice around the table and your life you were born with uh uh bumps you know just like rice uh on your face.”

Informant’s Comments:

Collector’s Comments:

This superstition brings religion in by having the bad luck consequence be during your next life, which is an interestingly delayed consequence. It seems like a fairly handy superstition for parents, however.

Collector’s Name: Mia Kobs

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive