He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness' sake
In the West there is Father Christmas and the threat of no presents to keep kids in line. But what about China? Without Santa watching over children, parents in the Middle Kingdom have come up with a number of tall tales to keep the kids on the straight and narrow. Here are a few of them...
1. If you don’t finish the rice in your bowl, you’ll get freckles on your face
2. Teeth that fall out have to be thrown up on the roof or buried under the threshold
3. If you play with fire, you’ll wet the bed at night
4. When you bite your tongue when talking, it means meat for dinner tonight
5. Open an umbrella in the house and you won’t grow any taller
6. Always eat chicken feet in even numbers, or your hand will tremble when you write and the characters will be illegible
7. Sneezing once means someone missed you; sneezing twice means somebody is speaking ill of you
8. If a chopstick drops when you’re eating, expect a visitor to the house
9. If someone strides over you when you’re sitting or squatting, you’ll stop growing
10. If you eat fish roe you’ll never learn how to count things correctly
11. Eating earwax will make you dumb
12. If a girl is kissed by a boy, she will soon have a child to take care of
13. If you don’t behave a big grey wolf will come to the house and take you away at night
14. Infants can’t eat chicken feet or they’ll tear books when they grow up
15. Two people who share a duck head will soon start quarrelling
16. The red scarf worn by Young Pioneers is dyed red using the blood of martyrs
17. If you don’t spit out melon seeds, a melon will grow in your tummy
18. If someone steps on your shadow, you won’t grow tall
19. If you cut your toenails at night you’ll fall over the next day
20. Wash your face twice or you’ll become a thief when you grow up
21. Don’t point at the moon with a finger, or you’ll get your ears chopped off (children use a fist when pointing at the moon)
22. If you ride a dog the crotch of your trousers will split
23. Eat pig’s tail and your head will never stop shaking
24. If two people wash their faces with one basin of water, they will fight each other later
25. If you do eye exercises with your eyes open, you’ll go blind (Chinese children have to do eye exercises twice a day in school. They hate it as it’s boring and infringes on play time, while teachers are very strict watching them).
26. If you fall over too often your bum will break into two pieces
Missed any you remember from your childhood? Let us know what they were in the comments section!
[All images via Wiki]
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