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Q: Chinese folk and fairy tales
Hi all.
I'm doing my last unit for my master's degree, and it's on folk & fairy tales in education.
Can anyone suggest some good ones - well, actually, a good book worth picking up? (English language edition, of course!)
I already know about Monkey (and, like, who doesn't???) but others would be nice!
Also - a Q: - Why do you think the Monkey King tale is so damn big here, to the extent that it's in so much advertising and movies - yet a) no other folk takes are so popular, and b) the west doesn't have this to the same extent?
There are tone of English books on the subject on Yahoo-gle:
Chinese folk and education fairy tales
Am not sure, which one is good one.
Shining_brow:
Yeah, the 'good' is actually rather important... I can yahooglingdu just as well as the next bloke.
I think you are slightly misunderstanding the difference between legend, classical book and fairytale.
Monkey King is certainly not a fairytale. I dare to say it's also not the "alegory" as current China education tries to say.
It is a novel written several hundrefs years ago and as such belongs among main Chinese literature heritage deeds.
Together with "Three states" (I've never finished reading due to its complexity and amount of "heroes") and two others I've read.
But!
Ancient China is full of different.fairytales and I really doubt you shall slightest trouble to find them ...
iWolf:
I agree that it is hard to define a fairytale. Myths, folktales, fables etc are all rather similar in different respects.
Shining_brow:
I didn't intend for Monkey to be considered 'fairy' tale - but it is definitely in the category of 'folk' tale.
So is Legend of White Snake.
Three Kingdoms, Red Chamber & Outlaws of the Marsh are obviously straight literature.. not sure if I'd call them 'folk tales' though.
Janosik:
The Journey to the West is actually a novel written by/attributed to Wu Cheng'en.
But irrespective who is the real author it certainly is a novel and not folk myth.
Nevertheless I agree that the barrier is very thin and blurred ...
Shining_brow:
For the purposes of the unit, it should qualify.
I started on it a few years ago, but gave up with the "here is a poem that proves it" too many times. "I do not think you know the meaning of that word"
We also had a Japanese/British version on TV back when I was a kid.
Hotwater:
I remember watching that over-dubbed version as a kid. Never read the book though.
I find the real story of the monk much more interesting. A 17 year journey to bring back Buddhist scriptures from India then the last 20 years of his life faithfully translating them from Sanskrit into Chinese.
the chinese valentines day with the farmer, the angel, the milky way, the mag pies thats a real strange story for the west to understand. love can last for eternity by being together only one day a year. right.
this one was pretty good when i read it last year
http://bittorrent.am/download-torrent/9031491/100//Chinese-Literature--Y...
sorry did not print out the whole address above.
My wife gave me a book of Chinese stories (and of course, Journey to the West). They were interesting and quite ok reading.
Here's the thing, rather than fairytales, it appears that most of these stories are folk tale-ish parables and as such describe various universal truths. Eg; jing wei, si ma guan (sorry if my pinyin is shite), the boy who cried wolf (with chinese characteristics) etc
Others still, are of an allegorical and historical nature such as the hero Hou Yi tale (the hero who shot the 9 suns/sons to save china) which has a cross over to the Chang Er (the chick on the moon with a rabbit) story at the end. - Mr Shining; the Powderfinger video of Sunsets does a very basic rendering of this story...and is a cool song for southside johnnies - I think on Vulture Street album
I don't know where Hua Mu Lan falls....my wife says it is a true story but...you know.
Liu Yi - the dragon king's daughter.
The Chinese creation story about Pan Gu is ok too.
Of course it goes without saying that all the festivals have a myth/fairytale attached.
Shining_brow:
Thanks dude! Awesome info!
I think I downloaded Vulture Street some time back...(and just thinking of that name obviously brings back memories :p Sheesh - hasn't that place changed!!!)
I seem to be the only person in the unit who is actually overseas, and probably the only one in ESL. I think I'll be ok in using some of the folkier (rather than 'fairier') tales.Myths??? Not sure how that will fit in (but then, neither are they :p)
iWolf:
Edit: I used Hou Yi for an english corner type thingy-thing and during my research I found several versions of the story. The students were stoked when they saw the Powderfinger video You could call Vulture Street gentrified nowadays. I was saddened by what happened to The Bat and Ball and the Aussie Nash. Many reckless fond memories from there.
Shining_brow:
And thanks again for the video suggestion - I just watched it. But better to read the story, I think.
You may check the stories about fox demons.
One of the most famous would be Pu Songling and his Strange Tales from a Chinese studio. These are collected folk stories.
Reading it you will also realize that absolute majority of these stories has nothing to do with sex and fox demons are currently absolutely misunderstood and misjudged 
.
Also interesting can be the novel (already not a folk story though) written by Ping Yao Zhuan - The Sorcerors' Revolt - written fro the fox perspective.
Otherwise I also like the criminal stories which in the past were narrated at the markets. And not only those about all time famous Di Ren Jie but also about judge Bao and the others.
Again as an alternative Van Gulick wrote many novels about Di Ren Jie copying this format but even though I find the stories wonderful I like more the original Chinese ones as Van Gulick took the magic and couple of other factors out - but still worthy of reading them.
Shining_brow:
Cool! Thanks, I'll look them up. (unless you have a link...????)
Janosik:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43629?msg=welcome_stranger
http://www.docin.com/p-706636592.html
http://www.docin.com/p-542494333.html
Majority of these books I have in hardcopy as I like them from my childhood so cannot really help much more ...
