Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

I was drawn to the Chinese Fairy Tales because when I visited China we heard lots of stories about their history and even fun little fables, but I don't remember hearing any fairytales. I love fairytales and I think it's so interesting how different they are from region to region.

The Panther

What a whirlwind this story was! So much happened in so little time and it was all very strange. I didn't realize that the panther took on a sort of human form when pretending to be the mother until it mentioned him having to change back into a panther so I thought the girls were just really dumb. Also what was up with all those merchants? Who sells scorpions or turtles? Is that a normal thing to sell in China or was it just for the story? I just don't understand why people trust animals in fairy tales because it never works out for them.

Yang Oerlang

I thought this story was really sweet because of how much Yang cared for his mother. I also really like stories that explain how things came to be in the world. This one explains why there is only one sun in the sky and why the portulacca plant can survive in direct sunlight. I don't know how I could retell this story any better! It had a nice happy ending and it was a relatively normal story that was easy to follow. The story even took the time to describe what he looked like after he became a god!

(Yang Orelang, photo from Wikimedia Commons


Bibliography. The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens, links to reading 

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