Week 9 reading: Chinese Fairy Tales, part A

The first story from Chinese Fairy Tales that really struck me was The Panther. It reminded me of Little Red Riding Hood; I'm not sure which story came first or if one was influenced by the other, but the similarities were remarkable. In The Panther, instead of the wolf killing the grandmother and imitating her when Little Red Riding Hood came to her house, the panther kills a mother on the way to her mother's house, then goes back to her daughters and imitates her. I liked that, in The Panther, the community was involved with helping the girls, while in Little Red Riding Hood, only the lumberjack helped the girl.

I also enjoyed Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies. Now that I think of it, I've read lots of fairy tales that explain why animals are the way they are (mostly African tales), but I don't think I've ever read a story that explains specifically the relationship between cats and dogs. I thought the theme of betrayal in this story was interesting and infuriating.

Portulaca plant. Source: Wikipedia

Finally, the third story I especially enjoyed was Yang Oerlang. Opposite of the cat and dog story, this story had a theme of justice rather than selfishness. The way that the story was used to explain why there is only one sun and why rain worms dry up in the sun and why the portulaca plant blooms the way it does reminded me of many Greek myths, like that of Narcissus, which explains why the flower is always leaning over water, like Narcissus staring at his own reflection in the river.