Reading Diary A: Chinese Fairy Tales

For this week's reading, I decided to do Chinese Fairy Tales. I was excited about doing this unit because it's one that I had initially expressed an interest in when looking around the UN-Textbook. The unit so far has not disappointed!

One thing I noticed that was kind of funny to me are the similarities of some stories to the stories in Grimm's Fairy Tales. For example, the tale of The Panther is very similar in some aspects to Little Red Riding Hood. The main difference in antagonists is that one is a wolf and one is a panther, but overall the story lines are quite similar. I thought it was particularly gruesome how the panther started combing the mothers hair and then gradually pulled the skin off of her scalp to eat it. I'm not much into gore, and that kind of touched my gore threshold.

The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck was a tale that I had mixed feelings about. Firstly, how weird is it that the beggar has dragons going into his ears and coming out of his nostrils? That's an odd way to show that someone is lucky. To each their own, I guess. I thought the time that the beggar was gone from his wife was just awful. The poor woman had to live without her husband for 18 years! That broke my heart. I also didn't like that he tested her after he became emperor. She gave up everything to be with him, so I thought that was enough to prove her love. Characters in these stories can just be so distrustful sometimes.

(Lucky Twin Dragons)

Overall, I've enjoyed this unit so far. I can't wait to see what other legends I will get to read about tomorrow.