Friday, January 30, 2015

Hakka Folklore - Yung Ga Ma

I've been searching around for documentation of a horror folklore that my grandmother used to tell me when I was a kid, but I can hardly find any. It's about a child-eating granny monster named Yung Ga Ma. The only source I found was here in this link: http://dylansung.tripod.com/sapienti/zunggama.htm

But the version that my grandmother told me was slightly different, so I just thought of documenting it myself so this Hakka folklore gets passed on.

Yung Ga Ma
Two sisters were walking in a forest but they got lost. Night time is nigh and they were getting afraid. By chance, they found a small wooden hut, with a glowing candle shimmering behind the windows. They make haste and sped towards the hut to look for shelter. The older sister knocked on the door and asked, "Are there anybody inside? My sister and I got lost and need shelter for the night so we can continue our journey tomorrow. Can you please let us in?"

Shortly after, the door creaked open, and an old lady walked out. "Why, of course! Come in, come in!" She said, with a frail but high-pitched voice. The two sisters quickly went inside the hut with the old lady. The old lady asked them to sit down at the table and offered dinner to them. "Have some dinner. You must be very hungry. Eat up, eat up."

"Thank you, po po (we call our grandmas and generic old ladies 'po po' in Hakka). What shall we call you?"

"I am Yung Ga Ma." The old lady answered. "Eat, eat. It's getting late, so let's get to bed quickly. I'm old and I can't stay up too late anymore."

The sisters ate their dinner and went inside Yung Ga Ma's bedroom. There is only one small bed that can only fit two people. The older sister let the younger sister to sleep on the bed with Yung Ga Ma while she slept on the floor. The candles were snuffed and they all went to sleep.

"Crunch crunch crunch..."

The older sister was awaken in the middle of the night by a loud crunching noise, as if somebody was eating something hard. She asked, "Who's eating?"

The old lady answered in the dark, "Oh, I'm just eating peanuts, darling. Get back to sleep now."

"Crunch crunch crunch..."

The older sister can't get back to sleep because of the constant crunching noise. Since she can't sleep, she decided to go out and take a dump. "Yung Ga Ma, I need to poop. I'm going out for a while." When she stood up, she saw the lifeless body of her younger sister without her head, and Yung Ga Ma lying beside the body with a bloody mouth and chewing on what's left of her sister's head. Terrified by the sight, she screamed and ran out into the forest. Yung Ga Ma chased her relentlessly.

"For an old lady, she ran nothing like one!" The older sister thought. She thought of an idea to stop Yung Ga Ma and climbed up a tree. Yung Ga Ma followed. "Don't be afraid, I am just eating peanuts. Just come back with me and rest." The old lady said.

"You ate my sister! Why should I follow?" The older sister shouted back.

"No no no, it's just too dark, you didn't see properly. I am just eating peanuts, see?" Yung Ga Ma dug out a few peanuts from her pockets and showed them to the older sister.

The older sister still did not believe in Yung Ga Ma, but inside her head, she knew how to trick Yung Ga Ma so she will not be eaten as well. "Ok, peanuts it is. But Yung Ga Ma, your hair is so messy from chasing me, let me comb your hair for you first before I follow you back to your hut." She said.

Yung Ga Ma let her comb her hair in the tree. While the older sister was combing Yung Ga Ma's hair, she tied the hair to the branches with each stroke of the comb. After she finished combing and tying, she jumped down from the tree and ran off, leaving Yung Ga Ma shouting and struggling on top of the tree.

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