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Author
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Comment
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jasmine7fl
Registered User
(9/19/03 12:20 pm)
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Chinese versions of fairy tales?
I am specifically trying to find Chinese versions of fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin or anything else that is similar! This is for my college research project and I plan on comparing them to the versions that I know.
I have already found Lon Po Po (Little Red Riding Hood), Yeh-Shen (Cinderella), and Dragon Prince (Beauty and the Beast). I would really appreciate any ideas! Thank you!
Amanda
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Mnemosynehime
Registered User
(9/19/03 4:35 pm)
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Re: Chinese tales
Well, with Alice in Wonderland, I don't know that you'd find a variant per se. It's not really a fairy tale but a fantastical/psychological/whimsical novel, though it does get classed with fairy tale literature quite often. Perhaps look for any Chinese writers who were influenced by Carroll?
The rest I don't know, I can't think of any to really compare to off the top of my head. The story of Heng-O deals with love and trespasses or such. Not sure what you might want to compare it too, but she swallows the pill of immortality and escapes her husband's anger by fleeing to the moon where the rabbit (in Asian culture the rabbit is the prominent moon symbol) protects her until the couple reconcile. This is a common legend so should be easy to find. E.T.C. Werner's book Myths and Legends of China is the source I use.
For The Little Mermaid, do you want mermaid tales or tales with
similar motifs? Many Japanese legends are carry overs from Chinese
ones, but I don't know if that holds true for the mermaid, you'll
want to back track that and see. But the Japanese mermaid at least
is very different from the Anderson. To eat the flesh may give immortality,
and so many versions are more horror tale than fairy tale (or both).
If I can think of any tales though for Chinese versions, I'll pass them on.
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janeyolen
Registered User
(9/20/03 3:44 am)
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Re: Chinese tales
"Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Alice in Wonderland, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin "
You are mixing up actual folktales--SB, Rapunzel, Rumplestiltskin-- with authored works. There may be translations of the authored works. Can you narrow your focus to the folktales?
Jane
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(9/20/03 9:07 am)
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Folktales link
home.arcor.de/marcmarti/y...tale11.htm
Quite fascinating link with various Asian folktales based on the theme of the ogress grandmother. I myself grew up listening to the tale where grandmother is a tiger and eats little children.
Blackwolf
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jasmine7fl
Registered User
(9/20/03 8:03 pm)
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Re: Chinese versions of fairy tales?
Perhaps I should have been more clear...I am not specifically looking
for "fairy tales" necessarily. I am looking for "stories"
that are similar to those which I am familiar with. Since I led
a pretty sheltered "Disney-fied" childhood, I do not know
many other folktales, stories, fairy tales or whatever you want
to call them! If anyone knows of any tales similar to the ones that
I mentioned, I would really appreciate the help.
*Blackwolf, thank you very much for the link. The site looks very informative and hopefully I will be able to find something I can use there.
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