Reading Notes: Chinese Fairy Tales, Part A

(Twin Dragons, Luck)

Reading the first story The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck, I first found it weird that it described the beggar as having dragons crawling through his ears and nostrils. Maybe this is another way of saying something like "a fly"? Or maybe the dragons were a sign of his good fortune. Interesting description nonetheless. I also wonder how the merciless father reacted to the fact that his daughter was now an empress and that the beggar was now an emperor. For him to have such strong feelings towards his daughter's actions, it seems odd that it doesn't touch on him later. This would be a good place to expand the story.

For Cave of the Beasts, I found it odd that the father suffered no consequences of his action. The whole time I expected the daughters to get revenge on him for abandoning them. When he was reunited with them, I also expected for him to have been divorced. Throwing in a divorce to the fold would be a good way to expand on the story.

The Panther reminded me of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. It does make me wonder how a Little Red Riding Hood story would play out if it were the grandma visiting the granddaughter, like the mother visiting the daughters in The Panther.

Reading The Lady of the Moon, I wonder who built the castle on the moon. It seems weird for it to already exist, unless it was the man on the moon who built it. But then I wonder what the purpose of the project was. This could be a good way to expand the story.

I also noticed that many of the stories began with the common "Once upon a time." In addition, many stories seem to be about luck and fortune. These Chinese fairy tales have really strange ways of "explaining" nature, like in The Girl with the Horse’s Head or the Silkworm Goddess. Overall, I find the Chinese fairy tales to be very imaginative and exactly something I would expect to hear as a child.

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The Chinese Fairy Book, ed. by R. Wilhelm and translated by Frederick H. Martens (1921)