Small Folklores

Folklore rat by me for a zine I did with my friends

    I was listening to the Rehash podcast, hosted by Maia and Hannah from the video essay channel Broey Deschanel. In the episode Chain Mail, the hosts look back on the early internet phenomenon of the chain email and attempt to understand it as a type of "digital folklore".

     The hosts adopt a broad working definition of folklore as "stories and traditions which are passed on among a particular group or culture," including things like "songs, nursery rhymes, recipes, stories, bits of wisdom, idioms, cures that are orally shared, or chain letters." Their discussion  makes me wonder what kind of more local and small folklore I grew up with. What are some pieces of traditions and culture my family and social groups practice that are not necessarily a part of the wider Taiwanese culture or Han-Chinese culture.

    Here's a list of interesting local/small-scale folklore that I remember.

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1. During the summer, when I want to sleep without a blanket, my grandma would urge me to at least cover my belly button, as the cold air would enter the belly button and give me a cold.

 

2.  My parents told me and my sister that if you sit on someone's pillow, you would contract the illness "臭頭" (stinky head).

 

3.  My grandma often insisted that we blow dry our hair after a shower, as leaving the hair to dry on its own would lead to severe headaches later in life. In the 14th century Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the warlord Cao Cao famously suffered from headaches that can only be cured through an unconventional skull-opening operation. It is implied by my grandma that this will be our fate if we do not dry our hair. How every 14th century Chinese person other than Cao Cao gained access to blow dryers is not explained.

 

4.  When I spend time at my great aunt's house, she would make us finish the food by telling us that if we do not do so we will marry "cat-faced wives". I assumed that this just meant women with a literal cat face, but upon researching for this blog post I have learned that "cat-face wife" refers to a woman with freckles, pimples, or blemishes on her face, which is not a very kind thing to say.

 

5.  This Playground Rhyme:

［姓名］的內褲三百六十度

飛上飛下飛到訓導處 

訓導處的阿姨幫你洗內褲

[Name] has a 360 degrees underwear

Flying up and down into the office of student affairs*

The lady at the office washes your underwear

(*the office of student affairs is the department within Taiwanese elementary and secondary schools responsible for the maintenance of discipline of the student body)

 

6. My mom always put a band aid right above my sister's belly button before a long trip, as this is meant to prevent car sickness.

 

7. When we fell ill, my dad would put onions in the steamer until all of the juice is extracted. We would then be made to drink the onion extract twice a day as a cure.

 

8. In sixth grade, the majority of girls in my class started to embody and act out these jointly created continuously evolving characters known as 球球 (balls, but in a cute way). These balls are each acted out through a particular hand gesture, they each have unique, simple and clear characteristics. There was 壯壯 (strength), who looks like 🤙, with the thumb and the pinky finger representing his powerful arms. There was 孫孫 (sun-sun) the pervert in the cast who looks like 🖐️ in a grabbing motion. Sun-sun's catchphrase was "Baha baha...I see sexy babes." There was also 奶奶 (grandma) who looks like 🤛 with the thumb moving up and down to simulate thick, scrumptious lips. Grandma is affectionate, smothering and loves giving huge kisses. There are more that I cannot remember. Periodically one girl would start embodying one of the balls and then it would spread. Before long half the class is making weird sounds and hand gestures at each other.