German vs Chinese Fairy Tales
A Comparison of German and Chinese Fairy Tales: Examining Social and Cultural Critiques and Ideologies
The fairy tale is traditionally an oral form, anonymously authored, and constantly changing and adapting over time as the familiar tales are passed down over generations. They are a subgenre of the folktale, which exists primarily as a popular, spoken narrative and originated, not among an elite, but among the unlettered ‘Volk’, the common people.[1] Fairy tales can also be referred to as ‘wonder tales’, which Warner believes “catches a quality of the genre more eloquently”[2]. The tales promise riches and offer the hope of escaping poverty, maltreatment, and subjection, the happy ending being one of the generic markers.[3] Like Western folk and fairy tales, Chinese tales were created from civilization’s history and imagination, bearing the stamp of the society and traditions that originally produced them. They illuminate the Chinese social order through the structured relationships that defined it: emperor and subject, father and son, husband and wife, official and peasant, human and beast.[4] Philip Pullman’s Grimm Tales for Young and Old and Moss Robert’s Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, two collections of fairy tales reflective of the German and Chinese cultures, will be explored and compared in this essay. Both collections are translated by respectable and knowledgeable translators that encapsulate effectively the true essence and tone of the original texts. Pullman’s collection of tales contains a selection of stories from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s Kinder-und Hausmarchen (Children’s and Household Tales), published first in 1812 and then again in 1815 for children, adding Christian sentiments and cleansing narratives of erotic, cruel, or bawdy passages.[5] Robert’s collection of Chinese tales spans over twenty centuries and the majority come from the Taoists, philosophers and social critics who represented the subordinate orders and historically opposed the Confucian authorities who were the voice of the superior powers.[6] Although the Grimm fairy tales present an idealised perspective of society that offers moral guidance and hope for the future, the Chinese fairy tales effectively critique their society and give a voice to the powerless, urging action and change. While the Grimm tales create a utopian world for the mistreated lower class to escape into, the Chinese tales address societal problems and offer a solution, inspiring people to challenge the oppressive Confucian ideologies of the time. A more collective morality is also presented, seeking to benefit everyone and display the injustices suffered by the weak and inferior. However, the Grimm brothers fail to give the People a voice, instead altering the oral tales in a misguided effort to ‘improve’ them,[7] and so projecting an individual morality that dictates rather than speaks any truth.
Grimm Tales and Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies present the divided financial attitudes and values of the two cultures. Though both address the universal belief that greed and selfishness are bad, the Chinese tales directly critique those with power and wealth, and utilize the fairy tale form, which was typically scorned and even banned by Confucian authorities, to publicize the crime of the mighty and the injustices suffered by the subordinate order, including children, women, and animals.[8] In the Grimms’ ‘Hansel and Gretel’, the reality of rural poverty and starvation of the lower classes in nineteenth-century Germany is displayed, the parents resorting to abandoning their children in order to survive, “If we don’t get rid of them, all four of us will starve.”[9] Although a sense of real suffering is presented, the Grimms use poverty more as a catalyst for action rather than a social critique of society and the authorities. Instead, blame is placed on the evil stepmother, aligning her with the witch who wishes to demolish the children. As Zipes argues, the Grimms deal with issues of hunger, abandonment, and survival in a “patronizingly Christian way.”[10] Rather than expressing sympathy for the poor, images of greed and destruction intrude on the tale, especially as Hansel and Gretel devour the witch’s house, “they didn’t even think of knocking at the door and asking permission. Hansel broke off a piece of roof, and Gretel knocked through a window, […] and started to eat at once.”[11] Focus isn’t placed on their desperation and hunger, instead the Grimms emphasise the children’s lack of manners as they ‘didn’t even think of knocking’ and ‘asking permission’, and for this they are entrapped by the cannibalistic witch. Bettelheim’s psychoanalytic reading supports this idea, as he argues that, “the house stands for oral greediness and how attractive it is to give in to it”[12], the tale suggesting that “poverty and deprivation do not improve man’s character, but rather make him more selfish, less sensitive to the sufferings of others, and thus prone to embark on evil deeds.”[13] Bettelheim highlights the negative image projected by the Grimms of the poor, suggesting they are more likely to be selfish and greedy due to their circumstances, not once addressing the capability of the upper classes to be just as bad. Instead, the lower classes are taught a lesson, the witch forcing the children to recognise “the dangers of unrestrained oral greed and dependence. To survive, they must develop initiative and realise that their only recourse lies in intelligent planning and acting.”[14] This is a patronizing moral and contradictory when the solution offered at the end of the tale isn’t their ability to ‘plan and act’ but the money they stole, “Gretel unfolded her little apron and shook all the jewels […]. So all their troubles were over, and they lived happily ever after.”[15] Blind hope and wishful thinking for those of the lower class is encouraged through this unlikely conclusion. The Grimms present money as an immediate answer to all their difficulties, although in reality it would in no way solve their initial problem of famine and instead lead to more greed and destruction than a ‘happily ever after’.
In contrast, the Chinese tale, ‘The Scholar’s Concubine’, presents a direct critique of those in power and reveals money as a burden that creates disaster and avarice. The tale satirically comments on the sale of office to the unqualified, revealing the corrupt structure of the bureaucracy in which official appointment was determined by a mixture of factors that included patronage and bribery as well as scholarship.[16] The tale begins with the ideology that “as long as you have the cash at hand, you can get across [any] barriers”[17]. The scholar’s destructive use of money and need to parade his wealth ultimately leads to his demise, drawing attention to himself and provoking the Divine Lord Kuan to expose his lack of skill, “These letters are miswritten and misshapen. The fellow is no more than a speculator, a shark loose in the official hierarchy. How could he govern the people?”[18] The question is directly critical of society, emphasising those affected by the inadequacy of officials in power who manipulate the system for their own benefit, the metaphor of the shark signalling the destruction they cause. The setting of the ghostly realm allows the People to make such a direct critique, distancing themselves from reality. As Bascom highlights, “however accurately folklore may mirror the familiar details of culture, […] the unusual or even the impossible is an important ingredient of myths and folk tales.”[19] The ‘unusual’ and ‘impossible’ assist in carrying messages from the oppressed, which would otherwise be silenced by the powerful. In the end, the scholar is taught an important lesson, “the sum I have saved to purchase office is gone, and wasted at that, and I have been the victim of punishment by the forces below. Still, I could endure it. But not to know where my beloved Ah Lien has been taken is too much to bear in the cold, quiet night.”[20] The tale presents the importance of people and relationships over wealth and money, the loss of his favourite concubine bringing him true grief and money proving of little value in the end. So, while the Grimms dictate to the lower classes on the expectations of behaviour and present money as a solution, the Chinese tales display the corruption of wealth and give those who suffer at the hands of the greedy and inadequate a voice to reveal the truth.
In Grimm Tales, desire for wealth, increased social status, and a beautiful bride are encouraged and presented as key motivators for the protagonists who go to extreme lengths to obtain them. In tales such as ‘The Brave Little Tailor’ and ‘Strong Hans’, the protagonists are rewarded with land and riches, as well as a bride who becomes part of the exchange of property. In ‘Rumpelstiltskin,’ however, the beautiful daughter is not simply a reward for the hero, but a means to creating wealth. She is entrapped by the king, who declares that she must “work all day and all night, and if you haven’t spun all this straw into gold by morning, you’ll be put to death.”[21] His greed and selfishness is evident, but the Grimms don’t characterise him as the villain of the tale, instead Rumpelstiltskin embodies this dramatis personae. Bascom highlights that folklore “tends to preserve the institutions from direct attack and change. There is no difficulty of course in finding instances in folklore where laziness, complacency or lack of ambition and initiative are condemned, but are there any which suggest that the individual destroy or even disregard the institutions and conventions of his society?”[22] Bascom raises a valid question, this tale evidencing how the Grimms avoid critiquing and challenging the bourgeoise and patriarchal institution represented by the king, shifting responsibility onto the fantastical character of the villain. Although relief is felt when the daughter guesses Rumpelstiltskin’s name and doesn’t have to give up her child, the hollow words of the king are not forgotten, “Spin this into gold, and I’ll make you my wife. […] She’s only a miller’s daughter, but I’ll never find a richer wife in all the world.”[23] The fairy tale convention creates the assumption that she will live ‘happily ever after’ as the tale ends, even if she is married to a vindictive, oppressive king who only loves her for her ability to create wealth. His actions are never condemned in the tale, instead he is granted everything he desires, Rumpelstiltskin acting as a distraction from the true corruption of those in power and the suffering they cause.
In comparison, the Chinese fairy tale, ‘The Monk from Everclear’, presents a significantly different attitude towards wealth as desirable, praising the ability to reject luxury for a life of simplicity. When the reborn monk receives gifts from his wife, “he refused all the gold and silk and accepted only a single cloth robe.”[24] This act symbolises the refusal of wealth and social status for virtue and truth, recognising that money and expensive materials aren’t a necessity to a happy life. This is exemplified further at the end of the tale; “on entering a state of magnificent luxury, [the monk] was still able to sever his ties and turn from the world. How different from those ordinary men who fall in the twinkling of an eye and stain their moral record so deeply that they’d be better off dead!”[25] The tale critiques exactly what the Grimms encourage, presenting that the desire for and achievement of wealth and power is ultimately a distraction from what is truly important. As Miller comments, “for many Buddhists the phenomenal world was an illusion, freedom from which only enlightenment could permanently ensure. […] Yet, though sunk in illusion, even ordinary worldlings might occasionally experience a momentary breakthrough, some fragmentary insight from behind the veil.”[26] This is essentially what the tale aims to achieve, enlightening the ‘ordinary men’ of the world and encouraging them to look beyond the veil of greed and appearances to see what is of real value in life, inspiring the improvement of people rather than giving them false hope.
The Grimm Tales and Chinese Fairy Tales present significantly different ideologies of justice; while the Grimms make sure the bad are punished and the good rewarded, the Chinese tales don’t offer such a simple idealisation and instead expose the injustices in society and the deception of the powerful. The Grimms’ ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Snow White’, for example, utilize the heroines’ weddings at the end of the tales to execute the punishments of the villains. Cinderella’s stepsisters are blinded, “the doves flew down and pecked out their eyes. So, for their wickedness and falsity, they were punished with blindness to the end of their days.”[27] And Snow White’s stepmother is made to dance to her death, “when [the iron shoes] were red-hot they were brought out with tongs and placed on the floor. And the wicked queen was made to step into them, and dance till she fell down dead.”[28] Spectacles are made of their punishments, giving them no opportunity to repent or be forgiven, but enforcing capital punishment as an ideal in the Grimms’ utopian society. These supposedly ‘happy endings’ leave the reader with gory images of villainous characters getting what they deserve, something many modern adaptations of the tales have significantly censored. Warner argues that the Grimms “fairytale findings shaped a cultural identity for their country that readers and audiences, interpreters on stage, screen, for the eye and for the ear, recognise and associate with Germany, and not entirely to the advantage of the nation and its place in the cultural imaginary. The callous violence, cruelty, bizarre and extreme solutions produce a shiver no matter how many times you hear or read the stories.”[29] Warner makes a valid argument as these tales, while appearing to present an ideal sense of justice, in fact, only add to the violence that already takes place within society, tainting their cultural identity with cruel images and horrific ideologies of punishment.
However, the Chinese fairy tales address the injustices that take place in society, revealing the wealthy, powerful men that manage to avoid their punishments. ‘Social Connections’ presents a corrupt scholar framing and taking the land of a virtuous farmer who ends up with nothing. The farmer places responsibility on his daughter-in-law for bringing the scholar into their lives, causing her to feel “so outraged that she hanged herself. The son, furious at seeing his wife dead for no reason, also hanged himself. And old Fei, having now neither home nor descendants, put the cord around his own neck too.”[30] The sudden repetitive deaths of the family members poignantly displays the chain of disaster stimulated by the scholar’s selfishness and greed. The tale offers a powerful critique of the those who take advantage of the weak and good natured, while authorities do nothing to prosecute them. Bascom highlights the importance of folklore as “pedagogic devices”[31], the tale utilizing this quality to educate people of the injustices suffered by those of lower status, the verbal medium enabling common people to voice their concerns without being censored or stopped. The collective, anonymous authorship also guarantees that no individual becomes responsible for uttering truths or risks punishment from those in power. Folklore offers the opportunity for the People’s social protest, a tool used to encourage the change of societal values that oppress them.
Moral didacticism is prevalent throughout Grimm Tales, instructing readers, especially children, to follow the moral guidelines embedded in the fairy tales. This is especially apparent in ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, her mother warning her to “be careful [and] don’t step off the path.”[32] But, in order for there to be a lesson, she does; “she stepped off the path, and ran into the trees to pick some flowers; but each time she picked one she saw an even prettier one [and] she went further and further into the wood.”[33] The wood symbolises her disobedience, on entering it she sets in motion a chain of disasters until she is finally devoured by the wolf, the price she has to pay for her defiance. The Grimms present her learning a valuable lesson from her experience, “As long as I live, I’ll never do that again. If mother tells me to stay on the path, that’s exactly what I’ll do.”[34] They shun her independence and individuality, forcing her to conform to society’s expectations and obey authority while following a virtuous path. Tatar suspects that it was the Grimms who injected such moral messages into these supposedly folkloric tales, since the “peasant versions of the tale simply pit a naïve innocent girl against a predatory beast, illustrating the consequences […] of an encounter between the two”[35], mentioning no metaphorical moral path. The folk versions are “less concerned with presenting lessons than with entertaining an audience”, whereas the “Brother Grimm saw to it that the victim was not without blame. Little Red Riding Hood may not deserve her fate, but she is responsible for it nonetheless.”[36] The Grimms victim blaming in such a didactic tale presents an extremely negative message of abuse, especially when applied to major societal issues such as rape and violence. Once again, the voices of the People are suppressed, their entertaining tale replaced with moral messages of obedience, projecting an individual ideal of virtue rather than a collective and subversive moral critique. Ruskin argues that, “the effect of the endeavour to make stories moral upon the literary merit of the work itself, is as harmful as the motive of the effort is false. For every fairy tale worth recording at all is the remnant of a tradition possessing true historical value – historical, at least, in so far as it has naturally arisen out of the mind of a people under special circumstances.”[37] Although it could be argued that the Grimms made sure to preserve the burlesque humour of the original tales even as they taught lessons, ultimately, as Tatar argues, they “promoted a pedagogy of fear and terror”[38], and any ‘historical value’ is eradicated along with the voice of the People.
In contrast, the Chinese Fairy Tales inspire and challenge certain moral ideologies, allowing readers and listeners the freedom to think for themselves and question the world around them. In ‘Drinking Companions’, morals are appended in order to call attention to Confucian inadequacies, ending the tale with an insightful reflection; “To attain the heights of ambition without forgetting the friends one made when poor and lowly – that is what made Wang Liu-lang a god! Nowadays, when do the high and noble in their carriages recognise those still wearing a bamboo hat?”[39] Many of the tales in the collection end with a rhetorical question that points out inequalities and immoral societal values, stimulating the individual to think beyond the fairy tale and reflect on their own and others actions. A lesson of gratitude and friendship is displayed but not dictated, instead the high and mighty are critiqued and their morals challenged, especially those who have forgotten their humble beginnings. The story form itself is a subtle criticism of Confucian ideologies of the time, since they viewed such popular tales negatively, regarding them as fictions of no didactic value.[40] Bascom argues that, “the basic paradox of folklore [is] that while it plays a vital role in transmitting and maintaining the institutions of a culture and in forcing the individual to conform to them, at the same time it provides socially approved outlets for the repressions which these same institutions impose on him.”[41] The Chinese tales embody this paradox to an extent, preserving certain moral teachings of their culture, but in no way ‘forcing’ individuals to conform to the institution’s ideologies. The Grimm tales, however, only seek to maintain their cultural institutions and use fear to force people to obey them, denying an outlet for people’s repressions.
The representation of women in the fairy tale collections differ drastically; Grimm Tales enforces the ideal of a passive, innocent, and silent woman, while Chinese Fairy Tales critique such stereotypes and transcend societal expectations of behaviour, celebrating women’s strength and challenging the Confucian ideal of female subservience. The Grimms’ ‘Cinderella’ presents the perfect pious and virtuous woman who remains silent as she endures her suffering, “she has to sleep on the hearth, in among the ashes and the cinders.”[42] Despite her mistreatment, she never stands up for herself or tries to escape, instead she waits patiently to be rescued, promoting the idea that women who conform to such expectations will eventually be rewarded. As Zipes argues, “the Grimms’ tales, though ingenious and perhaps socially relevant in their own times, contained sexist and racist attitudes and served as a socialization process that placed great emphasis on passivity, industry, and self-sacrifice for girls and on activity, competition, and accumulation of wealth for boys.”[43] Zipes highlights the negative attitudes embedded in the Grimms’ tales, enforcing categorization of the sexes and harmful stereotypes that constrain and suppress people in society. Although Zipes identifies boys as being associated with ‘activity’, Cinderella’s father never intervenes to stop her suffering, his neglect enabling the stepmother and sisters to exploit and degrade her further. Despite the father’s absence, Vladimir Propp categorizes the princess and the father in the same sphere of the dramatis personae in his Structuralist theory.[44] This displays that even within the structure of the tale itself, women cannot escape the dominance of men and are not entitled to their own freedom. As Warner argues, Propp discloses, “unwittingly, the strictly patriarchal character of the traditional marriage plots, the steps by which the narrative moves, the dynamic of the contract made according to her father’s wish”[45]. While the father may be absent in this tale, his actions ultimately dictate his daughter’s life; whether it be exchanging her as an object of reward or marrying another woman who tortures her, he has the authority. The mother, however, is killed by the Grimms in order to preserve her as an ideal symbol of eternal femininity and virtue. She is not given her own dramatis personae, instead, as Warner argues, the “mothers are distributed according to their part in the plot, as donor or villain, rather than their place in the system of family authority, like the father. Their disappearance from the foreground of [Propp’s] taxonomy replicated their silencing and absence from some of the stories themselves.”[46] The female characters are given no authority or voice of their own, instead they are continuously dependent on men, whether it be their fathers or husbands, and are oppressed and excluded within the structure of the tale itself.
However, it could be argued that not all the Grimms’ female characters are silent and passive. In ‘Rapunzel’ she saves both her children and prince, healing him of his blindness, “two of Rapunzel’s tears fell into the prince’s eyes, and his vision became clear once more.”[47] She plays an important part in securing the happy ending of the tale, and though, as Nanda argues, she is “less a character than a head of hair” at the beginning of the tale, after she loses her hair, she uses her voice to find “the way to freedom.”[48] However, any possible critique of women’s oppression in society is overshadowed by the Grimms’ depiction of her as unintelligent, her stupidity causing her own downfall as she asks the witch why she is so much harder to pull up than the young prince. In Pullman’s collection he presents, instead, her mentioning that “every dress [she has] is too tight”[49], since Wilhelm Grimm’s version, censored in the effort to avoid the encouragement of pre-marital sex, makes “her stupid instead of innocent”[50]. As Warner supports, “the scene turns Rapunzel into a ninny, whereas before she was clearly a victim of ignorance, and the tale an unapologetic call for sex education for the young.”[51] Wilhelm’s need to conform with the ideologies of the time transforms the tale, which revealed the suffering of women and a critique of society’s lack of education about sex, into a story about women’s stupidity being the cause of their misfortune.
In contrast, Chinese Fairy Tales transgress the traditional stereotype of the passive and obedient woman, critiquing the Confucian society that views them as worthless and inferior.[52] The tale, ‘Li Chi Slays the Serpent,’ challenges such prejudice as she rejects becoming a victim, “Li Chi herself came up from behind and scored the serpent with several deep cuts. The wounds hurt so terribly that the monster leaped into the open and died.”[53] She rebels against the assumptions made of women, demonstrating bravery and strength that few men possess. She recognises society’s perspective of women as insignificant, declaring to her parents, “you have no one to depend on, for having brought forth six daughters and not a single son, it is as if you were childless […]. What could be wrong in selling me to gain a bit of money for yourselves?”[54] However, the act of sacrificing herself for her family is noble and subverts her words that suggest she is worthless, challenging the conventional view of women and breaking free of Confucian constraints. After she defeats the serpent her tone completely changes; she addresses the past victims and asserts, “For your timidity you were devoured. How pitiful!”[55] She demonstrates the need to defy expectations forced on women by society and transgress oppressive ideologies that limit what they can achieve. Although it could be argued that the message is contradicted by her marriage to the king at the end of the tale, it is not her silence and submissiveness that she is rewarded for, but her heroism. Not only does she achieve a public voice, but she provides more for her family than a son ever could have, her father appointed “magistrate of Chiang Lo county, and her mother and elder sisters […] given riches. From that time forth, the district was free of monsters. Ballads celebrating Li Chi survive to this day.”[56] The celebration of women’s bravery in Chinese culture proves to be a powerful influence around the world; films, such as Disney’s Mulan,[57] presents similar messages of the courage and value of women for young girls, contrasting to the messages presented in their adaptation of Cinderella[58] which continues to enforce piety and passivity. Both Li Chi and Mulan transgress into the male domain and challenge cultural ideologies of the time, breaking the boundaries of societal expectations and continuing to inspire even today.
Grimm Tales presents and encourages rivalry between women, placing pressure on them to meet the expectations of society and appear beautiful and youthful for men. In ‘Snow White’, the queen is described as “a beautiful woman, but she was proud and arrogant, and she couldn’t bear to think that anyone was more beautiful than she was. She had a magic mirror, and every morning she used to stand in front of it and gaze at her reflection.”[59] Her obsessive ritual of gazing at herself in the mirror ‘every morning’ emphasises that her only sense of worth is found in her appearance and ability to attract men. As Warner argues, the portraits of female evil actually supported male interests, “the tales were not merely symptoms but also instruments of strategy: divide women against one another the better to lord it over them.”[60] The Grimms encourage this social control within the tale, comparing the passive, young and idealised Snow White to the beautiful but jealous queen, who’s “envy and pride [of Snow White] grew strong like a weed in her soul, and she felt no peace by day or by night.”[61] She is presented tortured by this competition constructed by patriarchal society, the image of the ‘weed in her soul’ paradoxically describing her emotions as unnatural. As Zipes supports, “Snow White is dangerous competition, not only because her presence devalues the older queen’s status, but because she foreshadows what will happen to the queen in a patriarchal society when she will no longer be beautiful and fertile.”[62] This idea is demonstrated when the queen is killed at Snow White’s wedding; she is punished for her actions, but also her rebellion against the patriarchy, the setting of the wedding symbolising Snow White’s victory in having won male affection. Though, in order to win and become the ideal woman, Snow White had to die. When the prince finds her displayed in a glass coffin, he begs the dwarves to take her, “please give it to me […] I’ve fallen in love with Princess Snow White, and I can’t live without being able to see her.”[63] His reference to her as ‘it’ exemplifies the objectification of women as she is turned into an inanimate work of art for men to admire. As Gilbert and Gubar argue, “Snow White has become an idealized image of herself, and as such she has definitively proven herself to be the patriarchy’s ideal woman, the perfect candidate for Queen.”[64] It is this patriarchal idealisation the Grimms enforce throughout the tale that represents the oppression of women, encouraging impossible expectations only achievable in death as she becomes the silent work of art that men desire.
Chinese Fairy Tales, however, criticizes patriarchal society and depicts women’s experiences with sympathy, revealing their misfortune and powerlessness against authority. ‘The King’s Favourite’ exposes the shallowness of men, and instead of spurring competition between women and pushing unachievable ideals upon them, the tale directly depicts their victimization and abuse under patriarchal dominion. Women are presented as treated like pets by men; anything the king’s favourite concubine does wins his affection, even if socially and legally unacceptable, he ignores it and she suffers no consequences because of her beauty. However, when her looks begin to fade, his favour disappears and he recounts her passed actions that have suddenly caused him offence, “didn’t she once take my carriage without permission? And didn’t she once give me a peach that she had already chewed on?”[65] Although a short tale, the message is no less powerful and succeeds in challenging the hypocrisy of Confucian orthodoxy and critiquing the attitudes of men, especially the aristocracy, who regard women as only valuable for their attractiveness. Instead of encouraging rivalry between women, the Chinese tales expose the route of the problem: the dominant patriarchal society and their unattainable idealisations of women.
Folk and fairy tales have the ability to reflect cultural ideologies and influence thought, while also fascinating and educating those who hear and read them. In China especially, a country without a God-centred religion, philosophies presented in the tales have a great impact on the way people think and live. The fairy tale medium not only entertains but has a practical value, carrying important messages from the powerless and oppressed in order to inspire and stimulate change of societal values and ideologies, as well as critiquing those in authority who abuse their power. Grimm Tales and Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies are two culturally diverse collections of fairy tales which present the utilization of their form for different purposes. While the Chinese tales critique and challenge the strict, oppressive Confucian authorities, the Grimm tales make sure to embody the beliefs and traditions of their society. Instead of displaying the reality of people’s hardships, moral didacticism is central to most of their tales, enforcing teachings of obedience and conformity while the Chinese tales offer freedom of thought and inspire people to take action. The voice of the People is lost through the Grimms’ censoring and editing of the tales in order to encourage Christian teachings and create a utopian world that offers blind hope and wish-fulfilment instead of solutions. Warner acknowledges that, “the more one knows fairy tales the less fantastical they appear; they can be vehicles of the grimmest realism, expressing hope against all odds with gritted teeth.”[66] However, the Chinese fairy tales still encompass the fantastical while simultaneously presenting the true experiences of the powerless, giving them a voice to critique the injustices and harmful ideologies of their Confucian dominated society. The tales inspire the ability to transgress the constraints of society and present a collective morality that doesn’t dictate but teaches valuable lessons beneficial to everyone, changing perspectives and challenging stereotypes. As the Chinese fairy tales fight oppression, the Grimm tales only enforce it further.
[1] Marina Warner, Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), xvi – xvii.
[2] Ibid., xxii
[3] Ibid., xxii – xxiii.
[4] Moss Roberts, ‘Introduction’, Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), xv.
[5] Jack Zipes. ‘Origins: Fairy Tales and Folk Tales,’ in Children’s Literature: Approaches and Territories, eds. Janet Maybin and Nicola J. Watson (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 30.
[6] Moss Roberts, ‘Introduction’, Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), xv.
[7] Alan Dundes, ‘Fairy Tales from a Folkloristic Perspective,’ in Fairy Tales and Society, eds. Ruth B. Bottigheimer (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986), 260.
[8] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), xv.
[9] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 75.
[10] Jack Zipes, Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre (New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006), 195 – 196.
[11] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 75.
[12] Bruno Bettelheim, ‘Hansel and Gretel’, in The Classic Fairy Tales, eds. Maria Tatar (New York: Norton, 1999), 275.
[13] Ibid., 273.
[14] Ibid., 276.
[15] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 84.
[16] Moss Roberts, ‘Introduction’, Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), xvi.
[17] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 158.
[18] Ibid., 160.
[19] William R. Bascom, ‘Four Functions of Folklore’, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 266 (1954), 292.
[20] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 161.
[21] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 221.
[22] William R. Bascom, ‘Four Functions of Folklore’, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 266 (1954), 348 – 349.
[23] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 222.
[24] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 167.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Alan L. Miller, ‘A Stinger in the Tale the "Sudden Awakening" Ending in East Asian Folktales’, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2 (1999), 332.
[27] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 126.
[28] Ibid., 218.
[29] Marina Warner, Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 62.
[30] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 73.
[31] William R. Bascom, ‘Four Functions of Folklore’, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 266 (1954), 292.
[32] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 137.
[33] Ibid., 138.
[34] Ibid., 140.
[35] Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood (Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1992), 36 – 37.
[36] Ibid., 37 – 38.
[37] John Ruskin, ‘Fairy Stories’, in Children’s Literature: The Development of Criticism, eds. Peter Hunt (London: Routledge, 1990), 27 – 28.
[38] Maria Tatar, Off with Their Heads!: Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood (Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press, 1992), 39.
[39] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 182.
[40] Alan L. Miller, ‘A Stinger in the Tale the "Sudden Awakening" Ending in East Asian Folktales’, Asian Folklore Studies, Vol. 58, No. 2 (1999), 327 – 328.
[41] William R. Bascom, ‘Four Functions of Folklore’, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 266 (1954), 349.
[42] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 117.
[43] Jack Zipes, Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006), 60.
[44] Vladimir Propp, ‘Morphology of the Folktale’, in The Classic Fairy Tales, eds. Maria Tatar (New York: Norton, 1999), 387.
[45] Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers (London; Vintage, 1995), 238.
[46] Ibid.
[47] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 62.
[48] Silima Nanda, ‘The Portrayal of Women in the Fairy Tales’, The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Invention, Vol. 1, No. 4 (2014), 247.
[49] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 61.
[50] Ibid., 63.
[51] Marina Warner, Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 135.
[52] Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), 47.
[53] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 131.
[54] Ibid., 130.
[55] Ibid., 131.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook, Mulan (Orlando: Walt Disney Pictures, 1998).
[58] Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, and Wilfred Jackson, Cinderella (US: Walt Disney Pictures, 1950).
[59] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 206.
[60] Marina Warner, Once Upon A Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 133.
[61] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 207.
[62] Jack Zipes, Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre (New York, London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006), 135.
[63] Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm, Grimm Tales for Young and Old, trans. and eds. Philip Pullman (London: Penguin Classics, 2013), 217.
[64] Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, ‘Snow White and her Wicked Stepmother’, in The Classic Fairy Tales, eds. Maria Tatar (New York: Norton, 1999), 296.
[65] P’u Sung-ling et al., Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies, trans. Moss Roberts (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017), 151.
[66] Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their Tellers (London; Vintage, 1995), 225.