Author Archives: f002vnd

Sweeping and Cleaning on Chinese New Years

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Title: Sweeping and Cleaning on Chinese New Years

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Verbal Folklore: Good luck/ bad luck superstition
    • Customary Folklore: tradition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • The informant was born in Shanghai, China and moved to the U.S. when he was 4 years old. He has since lived in Baltimore, Maryland. The informant currently goes to school at Dartmouth College, and is a sophomore studying economics and government.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: The informant learned this good luck/ bad luck superstition from his parents and observing them during Chinese New Years. The informant’s parents always dusted and cleaned the house the days leading up to Chinese New Year and told the informant and his brother to do the same, but never on Chinese New Year.
  • Cultural Context: The new year brings good fortune and prosperity to a clean home. However, dusting a room during the new year would mean dusting away the good fortune and prosperity, leaving only misfortune.

Item:

  • Dusting with a broom on Chinese New Years is considered bad luck. A dirty house on Chinese New Years will lead to misfortune and disaster for the upcoming year.

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Informant’s Comments:

  • This is a sign of a homeopathic connection because the messy, unkempt room manifests itself onto the person so he/ she too will be messy and unkempt, and will not be able to receive the good tidings that come to a clean home.

Collector’s Comments:

  • It is interesting that this particular piece of folklore is on one hand a good luck/ bad luck superstition and on the other hand, a long held tradition in many Chinese families.

Collector’s Name: Leo Lei

Tags/Keywords:

  • good/ bad/ luck/ Chinese/ new/ years/ year/ beginning/ wealth/ prosperity/ broom/ dusting/ dust/ clean/ cleaning/ messy/ unkempt/ misfortune/ disaster/ tradition

Turtle as a Pet

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Title:Turtle as a Pet

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Example: verbal folklore: good luck/ bad luck superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a current sophomore at Dartmouth College studying Computer Science. He is originally from Italy but lives in Los Angeles now. His parents are from China.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Yifei’s parents told him this superstition. Yifei was not allowed to have a turtle as a pet growing up.
  • Cultural Context: Because turtles are very slow pets, having a turtle as a pet symbolizes your own wealth or business running very slowly. The slowness of the turtle manifests itself in one’s career goals

Item:

  • If you keep a turtle as a pet, it will bring bad luck

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Informant’s Comments:

  • Informant did not offer any more comments other than what was said above.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This superstition is grounded in homeopathic magic, for Chinese people avoid having turtles as a pet out of fear that their slowness would manifest itself in their career goals and slow them down.

Collector’s Name: Leo Lei

Tags/Keywords:

  • good/ bad/ luck/turtle/ pet/ slow/ business/ wealth/ slowly/ money

Dreaming about Toddlers/ Children and the Elderly

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Title: Dreaming About Toddlers/ Children and the Elderly

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Verbal folklore: Good luck/ bad luck superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a sophomore at Dartmouth College studying Economics and History. She is from Kansas, but her parents were first generation immigrants from China and she considers her cultural upbringing to be reflective of the Chinese culture.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: The informant learned about this good luck/ bad luck superstition from her parents. Every time her parents would relate a dream that involved young children to her, they would tell her that it was a dream that would lead to bad luck. They would then stop talking about it and end the conversation there.
  • Cultural Context: In Chinese culture, it is not natural to dream about children, for if a child appears in a dream, he/ she is considered a demon child. On the other hand, a dream about old people signifies good luck because they are wise and are at the end of their life. Longevity in Chinese culture is good.

Item:

  • Dreaming about toddlers/ children up to around age 6 is considered very bad luck. In converse, dreaming about old people is considered good luck

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Informant’s Comments:

  • The informant’s parents always thought something bad was going to happen to them: either an injury or something bad at work after having such dreams involving young children.

Collector’s Comments:

  • This piece of folklore is particularly interesting for it indicates that good luck/ bad luck superstitions can come from a wide variety of places, even dreams. In this sense, dreams are seen to foreshadow future events.

Collector’s Name: Leo Lei

Tags/Keywords:

  • good/bad/luck/superstition/babies/toddlers/children/elderly/grandpa/grandma/demon/wise/longevity/misfortune

Chopsticks

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Title: Chopsticks in Chinese Culture

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Verbal Folklore: Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • The informant is a sophomore at Dartmouth College and is 19 years old. He was originally born in Beijing, China, but moved to Massachusetts, U.S. when he was six years old. He is currently studying economics and mathematics with the intent to pursue a career in finance following graduation.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: When he was eating rice as a child, his parents warned him to not poke the chopsticks to the bottom of the bowl, and especially not to stab them into the bowl such that they stand upright.
  • Cultural Context: when one visits a deceased individual, it is customary in Chinese culture to burn incense. Chopsticks resemble the shape and form of incense.

Item:

  • In Chinese culture, it is said to be bad luck when one puts chopsticks through the rice such that it touches the bottom of the bowl.

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Informant’s Comments:

  • The incense sticks that are burned to mourn the dead is related to the chopsticks that are used to eat rice. By sticking chopsticks down to the bowl, it is believed you or someone related will be dead in the future.

Collector’s Comments:

  •  This superstition seems to be connected with homeopathic magic, for what is done with chopsticks is like what is done with incense because the two are similar in form.

Collector’s Name: Leo Lei

Tags/Keywords:

  • good/bad/luck/chinese/china/beijing/chopsticks/deceased/burn/incense/rice/bowl/ancestors/death

Numbers 8 & 4

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Chinese Good Luck/ Bad Luck Superstition

Title: Numbers 8 & 4

Title: Numbers 8 & 4

General Information about Item:

  • Genre and Sub Genre
    • Verbal Folklore: Superstition
  • Language: English
  • Country where Item is from: China

Informant Data:

  • Informant is 19 years old and is currently a sophomore at Dartmouth College studying computer science. He was born in Beijing, China and lived there until coming to the United States to attend Dartmouth College.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: This is a very widespread good luck/ bad luck superstition in China. The informant equates this superstition to be common knowledge observed from the Chinese language.
  • Cultural Context: The negative context behind the number 4 is because it is a homonym for the word that means death in Chinese (死). The positive context behind the number 8 is because it rhymes with the Chinese word for wealth (发). Thus, the connotations of these two numbers is largely attributed to how they are pronounced in the Chinese language.

Item:

  • In China, the number 8 is considered to be good luck
  • In China, the number 4 is considered to be bad luck

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Informant’s Comments:

  • Socially, when people select license plate numbers for their cars, they usually want the last number to be 8, so the sequence ends with like the number 8. So if you read the sequence, the last number rhymes with like getting rich. While people would avoid having the last number be 4 so when you read the license plate number it sounds like something death. The same applies for phone numbers as people want a lot of 8s in their phone number.

Collector’s Comments

  • It is interesting to see that this good luck/ bad luck superstition take on a tangible form in that people are very particular about avoiding the number four in phone numbers and license plate numbers while trying to maximize the amount of 8s in phone numbers and license plate numbers.

Collector’s Name: Leo Lei

Tags/Keywords:

  • good/luck/bad/chinese/license/phone/four/eight/china/death/wealth