At five I also know I am a pretty child, for I have heard adults say to Ma so many times how ugly I am. "Isn't she ugly?" her friends would say to her. " What black shinny hair, look at her brown, smooth skin!. That heart-shaped face makes one want to reach out and pinch those dimpled apple cheeks. Look at those full lips and her smile! Ugly!"
"Don't tell me I am ugly!" I would scream at them and they would laugh
That was before Ma explained to me that in Cambodia people don't outright compliment a child. They don't want to call attention to the child. It is believed that evil spirits easily get jealous when they hear a child being complimented, and they may come and take away the child to the other world.
This part of the book reminds me of the Chinese superstitions that my parents had told me about when I was little. The superstition was about a devil coming to murder us. If we are 1 years old as soon as we are born nothing happened to us but, if they said we were not 1 years old the day we are born a devil comes and murders us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
this reminds me of when my parents tell me not to hang out with the wrong crowd. if you hang out with the wrong crowd you will do blah blah blah and blah blah blah would happen. but i always deny it and say shut up, this is how this is connected to this.
ReplyDeleteI connect to this because like Ante said, my parents told me to pick my friends wisely and not hang out with the wrong people. I do think that it is cool how Victoria was able to find similar things between the Chinese culture, and the Cambodia culture.
ReplyDelete