Essay Week 6: Chinese Irony Tales

I really enjoyed reading the stories of the Chinese Fairy Tales unit this week.  The stories are definitely not what one would expect from fairy tales.  I know not everything is Disney-esque, but there is always a part of me that expects there to be a happy ending, or at least one that is not so sudden and ironic.

One of my favorite stories was The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck.  The female character really does have the worst luck ever.  She picks the beggar out of the crowd of princes and other good suitors to be her husband because she can see he has good luck.  Not long after getting married, the beggar husband decides he needs to go find his fortune.  He is gone for eighteen years and she almost starves to death.  He finally returns as an emperor and makes her empresses.  Eighteen days later, she dies. The story ends, "But her husband lived for many a long year." After reading the story and hoping that her luck has actually changed, this ending is really surprising.  It's so surprising it's funny because you expect there to be more but there isn't.

I also liked The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away for this reason.  The ending is sudden, but it's not as surprising.  One thing I am curious about is what happened to the ogre after the maiden's brother threw his ax at him and hit him the arm?  Did he sulk in the mountains? Or did he die?

                                                                  Image info: mythfolklore.blogspot.com

I think the information provided at the beginning of this unit in the overview was plenty.  I really enjoyed the Persian Fairy Tales from last week so I was fairly certain I would like these as well.  I was these kinds of stories when I signed up for this class, but I really like reading them!