Title: Origin Story as Told by Brandon Liao

General Information about this item:

• Notes: My project partner, Alina, interviewed me about the origin story. I used my own interview to collect data for this item.
• Language: English
• Informant: Brandon Liao
• Date Collected: May 20th, 2019

Informant Data:

Brandon Liao was born on October, 29th, 1998. He spent the first 6 years of his life living in Toronto, Canada. His family moved to China consequently and Shenzhen has been his home for the past 14 years. However, he spent most of these 14 years studying abroad in the United States where he attended several boarding schools. Both of Brandon’s parents are from Guilin, China, and completed their college education in China. Brandon graduated Suffield Academy in May of 2017 and is now an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College pursuing studies in Economics and Philosophy.

Contextual Data:

Brandon Liao was born in Canada but moved to China when he was young. He attended primary school in China and was taught about the Chinese culture by both his teachers and also his parents/relatives. Brandon does not believe in zodiacs and most superstitions but finds them interesting to read. Although Chinese zodiacs is not a significant part of Brandon’s life, he is a fan of the stories about zodiacs.

Item:

• The lore most likely originated as a children’s story in ancient China, and it became a large part of the Chinese culture over time. Given China’s long-standing history, it is unclear what the true origin of the story is. The Chinese zodiacs were selected when the emperor at the time decided to host an animal race to see which animal was the fastest. However, the race was not only a test of physical speed, but it also challenged contestants on their wit.
• The emperor originally invited all animals of the kingdom to attend the race, but only 12 contestants showed up to the starting line. To award the contestants who showed up, the emperor designated each of them to a Chinese year. The final results of the race are as follows: Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig.
• The rat was supposed to come to the race with his cat best-friend since the rat promised to wake up the cat before he left for the race. However, he forgot about to wake up his friend because he was too excited about the race. The rat’s betrayal is supposed to be the reason why cats chase rats. The Rat is quite a small animal so he was in the last place until the last part of the race, which challenged the contestants to cross a large, raging river. The Rat knew that the Ox is the best swimmer of all the contestants so he asked the Ox to carry him across the river. The Ox is loyal and has high morals; he was willing to help the Rat because he knew that he would reach the finish line before the mouse because he is a much faster runner. However, before the Ox could get out of the water, the Rat jumped off of the Ox’s back and finished first. The Ox finished second, right after the rat.
• The tiger came in third. He is a quick and athletic animal but he was not a very good swimmer.
• The Rabbit came in fourth. He is a good runner but he almost drowned in the river because he slipped on a piece of stone when he was crossing the river.
• The Dragon came in fifth. Although the dragon can fly, he was also responsible for watering the fields with rain and bringing water to the Earth. He also saw that the Rabbit struggled in the river, so he decided to save the Rabbit’s life. This is the reason why the year of the Dragon is lucky for Rabbits.
• The snake came in sixth. He bit and held onto the horse’s leg until before crossing the finish line, where he jumped and overtook the horse. The horse then came in seventh.
• The Goat, Monkey, and Rooster crossed the finish line one right after the other since they crossed the river as a team.
• The Dog came in 11th because he was too playful in the river and got distracted.
• The Pig came in last because he stopped to take a nap and eat in the middle of the race.

Cultural Context:

The Origin story for the order of the zodiacs is a quite popular story in China that has a few variants. The story gives us insight into why the order is the way it is based on each animal’s characteristics. The animals are not ordered in how fast each of them is, but rather a combination of many other factors.

Collector’s Name: Brandon Liao/Alina Zhang

Tags/Keywords:

• Zodiac, Origin Story, Animals, Great Race