Old Tales for New Times: Some Comments on the Cultural Translation of China's Four Great Folktales in the Twentieth Century

Title

Old Tales for New Times: Some Comments on the Cultural Translation of China's Four Great Folktales in the Twentieth Century

Author

Wilt L. IDEMA

Page

25-46

DOI

10.6163/tjeas.2012.9(1)25

Abstract

Each of China's four great folk tales (Meng Jiangnu, Buffalo Boy and Weaving Maiden; Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai; and The White Snake) has a long history of transformation and variation in premodern China. When following the rise of the Folklore Movement in the 1920s and its search for alternative authentic traditions of Chineseness these four stories were selected as "the four great folktales" this diversity was denied, as a single version was selected as the true version; the version thus selected was then interpreted in such a way that it was seen to support the modern nation-building project. Rewritings, which in many cases came to replace the earlier versions, drastically adapted these stories in line with the modern interpretations of their meaning. Once the stories had acquired canonical status, they became available for spoofs and parodies and adaptations by marginal groups.

Keyword

folktales, nation building, Meng Jiangnü, Buffalo Boy and Weaving Maiden, the White Snake, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, Dong Yong

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