Title: Zodiac Superstition
General Information about Item:
- Conceptual Folklore: Chinese Superstition (Connection between Zodiacs and Personality)
- Language: English
- Country of origin: China
- Informant: Yuxuan Zhang
- Date Collected: May 20th, 2019
Informant Data:
- Yuxuan Zhang is a freshman at Dartmouth. She was born on May 16th, 2000, in Jinan, China. Before coming to Dartmouth, Yuxuan lived in Jinan (a city in the North Eastern part of China) for 18 years. Therefore, the informant is very familiar with the Chinese Zodiacs. She began attending Dartmouth College as an international student in 2018.
Contextual Data:
- Cultural Context: Yuxuan and her family members were all born and raised in China. Her grandparents are believers in the connection between Zodiacs and people’s personalities. Yuxuan has an older cousin, Yunfei, who was born in the year of 1997. According to the Zodiacs, Yuxuan is a “dragon girl” while Yunfei is a “Ox boy”. When Yuxuan and Yunfei were little, they used to stay at their grandparents’ over the summer.
- Social Context: In the Chinese society, dragon is regarded as a sacred animal with great power, and Ox is believed to be hard-working, steadfast, yet stubborn. Therefore, believers in the Zodiacs tend to think that people born in the year of dragon are successful and powerful and that people born in the year of Ox are diligent and stubborn.
Item:
- From 2003-2005, when Yuxuan and Yunfei used to stay at their grandparents’, they often play a game of “who can remember more license plates of cars in the neighborhood”. They would go around the neighborhood for an entire afternoon just to memorize all of the license plates on the parked cars. Sometimes, both of them would refuse to go back into the house for dinner if they haven’t had every license plate memorized. Based on their same behavior, however, their grandparents have two entirely different interpretations, with reference to their Zodiacs. Their grandparents would say that Yunfei does it because he was born in the year of Ox: “that’s about right for an Ox boy, hard-working but sometimes too stubborn. I wish he wasn’t born in the year of the Ox, so that he’ll be a much more obedient child!” On the other hand, they would comment on Yuxuan’s behavior, saying: “Look at our Dragon girl, so curious, intelligent, and patient. That’s exactly how she will become successful in the future!”
Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):
Transcript:
- “My cousin always remembers the story and tells it to everyone in the family. (laugh) He was so confused why our grandparents would mark my behavior as ‘preparing for success’ while commenting his to be stubborn. He does like the the hard-working part though.”
Informant’s Comments:
- My cousin continues to be hardworking in his life. I remember once he spent many days building a structure that made him win an architecture competition. So I guess hardworking/ stubborn is connected to success? Also, looking back at our childhood game, that was so hardcore and nerdy for a 3-year-old.
Collector’s Comments:
- I find this story interesting because Yuxuan and Yunfei used to do the same thing (staying outside to remember every license plate), but their grandparents’ comments are entirely different. I think it reflects how much Zodiac superstitions affect people’s opinion on things.
Collector’s Name: Brandon Liao
Tags/Keywords:
- Conceptual Lore
- Chinese superstition
- Zodiacs