We know the idea of a princess helplessly waiting to be rescued is outdated, but it wasn’t until I bought a set of classic fairy tales and started reading them to my daughter that the underlying disturbing nature of these stories really began to reveal themselves.

As I read her the Usborne version of Snow White, it occurred to me that the prince stumbled upon a glass casket in the middle of the forest, and instead of moving along or calling the authorities as a normal person would, he decided to open the casket and kiss the corpse of a complete stranger inside. He didn’t know whether or not she was dead, and of what causes…

Then I read her Sleeping Beauty and got to the page where the prince is basically guilty of breaking and entering – plus a whole lot more – when he sneaks into a princess’s bedroom and kisses her without consent while she’s sleeping. And just like that, one of my favorite childhood Disney movies began to feel more like an episode of Criminal Minds.

Fairy tales should teach children life lessons. As the mom of a little girl, I don’t want my daughter growing up believing that as long as she’s pretty and nice, a boy will come along and take care of her for the rest of her life.

With that said, here are a few Chinese folktales that introduce local culture to children and teach them valuable life lessons by sending the right message.

Cheeky Monkey by Xue Lin

This book is a light-hearted story about the Monkey King from Journey to the West, and its moral is all about working hard. The story of the mischievous but faithful Monkey King is one that generations of Chinese have grown up with, and when Journey to the West appeared on my high school’s World Literature reading list, it was a nostalgic throwback to my childhood bedtime stores.

The Great Race: The Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Ling and Eric Lee

This is a delightful origin story for the Chinese zodiac animals and their order, which is based on a race organized by the ancient Jade Emperor. This particular version is written in English with pinyin and simplified Chinese, which is perfect for kids learning to read.

The New Year Beast by Xue Lin

This colorful picture book explains the traditions behind Chinese New Year, and, most importantly, why we celebrate it. Written clearly and accessibly, it helps children understand the meaning behind the festivities and introduces them to the mythical beasts of New Year.

The Story of Wan-Nian’s Calendar by Zue Lin

This bilingual version tells the story of how Wan-Nian – aka the Chinese Lunar calendar – was created. It’s filled with illustrations that are perfect for teaching kids about local culture.

The Lost Horse: A Chinese Folk Tale by Ed Young

This story imparts the age-old wisdom of optimism and the importance of looking on the brighter side of life. In fact, sometimes, what appears to be bad luck might actually be good luck in disguise.

The Greatest Treasure by Demi

This is a Chinese folktale about a rich man who is obsessed with his money, and a poor, humble flute player. However, when the rich man gives the poor man a bag of gold coins to distract him from playing his flute, the result is an interesting lesson about money, happiness, and what’s most important in life.

Fa Mulan by Robert D. San Souci

The story of Mulan started as a ballad that dates back to around 420 A.D. This is the story that inspired Disney’s movies, but unlike Disney, there’s no Mooshu the talking dragon. Rather, this is a simplified version for children and one of my favorite stories for young girls to listen to.

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Sources: www.whatdowedoallday.com/chinese-folktales-for-kids/, www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/features/2018/february/9-brilliant-stories-for-children-celebrating-chinese-culture/
Images: Courtesy of publishers

Once Upon a Time… We asked students to come up with their own Beijing adaptation of their favorite childhood fairy tales. Thank you to all the students who have submitted their work. We’ll be publishing them online and selecting the best story that fits all the criteria to be included in the upcoming issue of Jingkids.

The Three Little Pigs and Snow White

by Giulia Falqui (Age 8)

Once upon a time, not long ago, maybe 5 or 4 years ago, there lived three happy pigs. They were minding their own businesses and lived in their houses made of straw, wood, and bricks.

One sunny morning, the wolf came sneaking down through the beautiful lovely garden path. He banged on the door of the straw house and screamed: “If you do not open, I’ll blow and blow and blow and blow your house down!”

So, the nasty wolf did. The straw flew in every direction. The first little pig ran over to his very clumsy brother’s house and loudly slammed the door behind him.

The wolf followed him and banged the door of the wooden house.

“Open the door! Otherwise, I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down!”

He huffed and puffed until the house exploded very loudly.

The two frightened little pigs ran away with all their strengths and went to their older, mature, sensible, and bossy brother’s house. This time the wolf saw that the house was built out of mega-super-strong bricks, so he gave a mega-big-super-GIGANTIC punch and the house broke into a million-billions-trillion-gazillion pieces.

In front of this scene, the three pigs ran as fast as they could to Snow White’s castle, which was just around the corner. They saw some guards who stopped them and asked: “Are you lost, little cute piggies?”

“No, they screamed super loudly: “There is a big, mean, nasty wolf clearly chasing us!” explained the three pigs.

“Ok, ok,” the guards said, a little surprised and convinced. “Come in. The princess loves and really likes to have visitors, especially little animals like you, cute, little, adorable pigs.”

Princess Snow White was also a big lover of noodles. So were the dwarfs. She adored noodles so much that she could eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and as snacks during the day. Even during a feast! She had become a very chubby princess.

When the three pigs entered the castle, Snow White had just started her seventh bowl of noodles. “Ah!”, she said when she saw the three cute little pigs ”Please, join my absolutely wonderfully delicious yummy noodly feast!”

“We’d love to!”, said the pigs, “Thank you!” The youngest pig said, in a rather scared and frightened way, “Do you like wolves?”

Meanwhile, the wolf had tracked them to the castle, but luckily there were the guards outside. The wolf sneakily said: “I am just looking for three little pigs.” The guards looked at the wolf and said: “We do not allow pigs in the castle.” The wolf replied: “I thought Snow White liked animals. I read that somewhere.”

“Well,” said the guards, “She does like animals, but we do not have pigs in the castle right now. Especially not three little pigs.”

The wolf left growling to himself: “I will plan another way to get into the castle. The guards will understand that I am the strongest, most handsome, and the skinniest wolf that ever lived in the neighborhood.

So, he came back to the castle and tried to go through one extremely tiny but high window; his legs, however, got very tight and stuck into it.

Then he tried to disguise himself as a very peculiar and weird but friendly noodle vendor, wearing some fake mustaches that were almost falling off.

The guards were talking to each other, so it took a while to see the wolf. They finally saw him and let him in. But when he poured boiling hot water over noodles, his mustache fell in the boiling hot water. The pigs recognized him so the servants threw him out of the window.

The wolf climbed up the very golden and shining roof of the castle. This was a bit tricky for him. He then went down through the kitchen chimney. Using the chimney, the best chef in the castle was making noodles and boiling, boiling, boiling, boiling a lot of hot water. Down came the wolf and PLOP he landed right in the middle of the noodle soup: bull’s eye!

The chef was astonished. The servants picked up the screaming wolf with his boiling bottom and threw him out of the window, again.

“Maybe I should get some other pigs for myself,” said the wolf jumping away and holding his bottom. He then ran back to his home and never dared to come back. He already got a burnt bottom which became all black.

Two years later the princess became queen. Snow White was so chubby that she needed to sit on two chairs because on one she would fall off. On her side, there were three chubby-really-chubby pigs, very different from how the skinny wolf would remember them at the beginning of this story.

They all lived happily ever after. Except for the wolf.

THE END

Giulia Falqui is an Italian/Brazilian eight-year-old. She was born in Manila with her twin sister Camilla and has lived in the Philippines and Thailand. Falqui is a G3 student at Western Academy of Beijing. Her hobbies include singing, playing guitar, and piano. She likes to write stories and get inspiration from movies and books that she reads. Falqui feels most happy when she’s traveling with her family and is a lover of spaghetti and parmesan as well as chocolate, carrots, and cucumber.

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Images: Edward Elizondo via Flickr

Once Upon a Time… We asked students to come up with their own Beijing adaptation of their favorite childhood fairy tales. Thank you to all the students who have submitted their work. We’ll be publishing them online and selecting the best story that fits all the criteria to be included in the upcoming issue of Jingkids.

Snow White and The Seven Dwarves (With a Twist)

By: Olivia Li (age 11)

Not so long time ago, we all knew a ridiculously normal tale called Snow White which is about a perfectly ordinary human being that lives in a world where she lost her own mother and lives with her dad and an evil stepmother who is desperately mad because somehow her magic mirror told her that Snow White is more bootaful than her. And she was not letting her win what I call a ‘beauty pageant’ so she decided to have her poisoned and blah, blah, blah. Boring stuff.

But today, you are lucky enough to have me to tell you a more savage, more murder-like version. Well, here goes…

Twice upon a time, there was a spoiled and greedy little brat named Snow White. Her poor father spent ages trying to make her happy by buying her expensive designer clothes, Louis Vuitton bags, Starbucks matcha frappes (with extra whipped cream and sprinkles), and millions of iPhone 12s. But Snow White never stopped asking for more and more things. The person who struggled the most was her not-so-evil stepmother. She was forced to wash Snow Whites’s dirty undies every day, make crème pies with Snow White’s face on them, and clean Snow White’s enormously gigantic room every two hours. So finally, she and Snow White’s dad agreed to set her in a forest to get some peace. They’ve tried hard to convince her but —

“No! Who would go to a moldy forest when I could go buy more Louis Vuittons!?” screamed Snow White.

“Please! Just for one hour!” begged the stepmother.

“Daddy! This maniac has kidnapped me! She wants to break into my Hello Kitty bank and steal my money to buy all the merch at the Korean concert! Waaaah!”

That night, Snow White snuggled up in her blankie and fell asleep, but what she didn’t realize was that a group of dwarves were spying on her. Their names were Grumpy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful, Sleepy, and Sneezy.

“I heard that she has been a very naughty young lady, disobeying her parents,” one said.

“Your right, you know that her poor parents spent hours cleaning up after her ever since she was born.”

“You two chocolate chip muffins! That lady is not her real mum, her actual real mum died years ago because she got electrocuted whilst playing Xbox Mario Kart 2.”

“You dingbat dodo! Firstly, her real mum died of childbirth, which means that after she had her kid, she died, and next, that lady is her stepmother, which means that her father got-”

“Well, Mr. Smarty Pants, I’m sorry to interrupt your five-million-year-long lecture, but I don’t understand why we are here. I’m freezing, and I’ve got a hot pan of soup on the stove, it’s probably burning down our house now.”

“Oh my, everybody quickly! Charge!” said Doc. And then they left.

A few minutes later, they returned back, all a bit dizzy.

“You Ratsnitchit! You burnt our beautiful cottage made from cottage cheese! You evil cow!”

“At least I’ve got my delicious pan of tomato soup and thanks to the burn, it’s now coated with warm cottage cheese”

“Daddy! Daddy! There’s poisonous cheese outside my window! Waaah! And they’re walking and talking! Help!”, yelled Snow White. Her dad rushed in, holding a lacrosse racket from his kindergarten, and then her stepmother came in sleepily, bumping into her Snow White whilst holding onto a slightly wonky fishing net.

“How rude! Why did you bump into me?! You ought to buy me a hundred Louis Vuittons!”

“Oh, I do apologize for bumping into your face, but I will not be buying you one hundred Louis Vuitton bags, understood?”

“No?” asked Snow White, slightly terrified and offended. Her stepmother looked and felt as pleased as if she had trained a lion to use the human potty.

“But….” began Snow White, she was very terrified and even more offended. No-one had ever spoken to her like this before. Suddenly, she squealed and smirked.

“What’s wrong?” her stepmother asked.

“Nothing much.” Snow White hopped away, into her room. She was planning to go somewhere…

She already packed earlier, a camouflaged cape, her phone (fully charged which can last about 10 days), a hairbrush, her Ms. Piggy PJ’s, an apple, plenty of oat bars, fifty cans of canned beans, pens, a couple of note pads, poker cards, rubbing alcohol spray, a fork, an iPad, lucky charms (for luck), an eye mask, 100 packs of hand and body warmers, Miss. Suzy (her pet piglet), hay and pig treats, a lot of water, a blanket and pillows, a small tent, and a pocket knife. She did not bother to bring her toothbrush because who needs to brush their teeth when you’ve got a bag crammed with sweets and goodies? She quickly grabbed her bank full of millions of RMBs and skipped into the forest, carrying her backpack on her back, Miss. Suzy in a designer case in one of her hands, and a flashlight with fresh batteries in the other. She soon found the dwarves in the heart of the forest, building another cottage cheese cottage and decided to pitch her tent and spy on them. It was already getting dark, so she opened one can of canned beans and sat in her tent to eat. She loved that the canned beans have a slight taste of tomatoes, and she also gave Miss. Suzy some dinner. And then, they fell asleep. The next morning Snow White had planned to sneak into the cottage, so she quietly jumped in with her pig and got in. Suddenly, someone got her…

Okie Dokie, where are we, ah yes. Snow White froze. She felt cold and dusty fingers crawling around her, she didn’t dare to turn around, she just froze, as still as a statue.

“Welly well, who do we have here? Little Snow White huh?” said a mysterious voice. Snow White couldn’t talk. She just wanted to run back to her house, back to her room, back to her family. The mysterious figure smiled the creepiest smile.  Suddenly, the dust caught her nose and she achooed, shooting something out onto the bony fingers.

“Of course, if your parents have been teaching you manners, you would have used a hankie,” Mumbled the figure, wiping the bloody snot off its fingers with a yellow duck hankie. Snow White felt slightly annoyed.

“Who are you?” demanded Snow White, crossly.

“I am a professional kid hunter. I hunt kids that won’t listen to their parents and get themselves lost in the woods.”

“I am not a kid. I am eight years old and I’m a grown up now, technically 24 years old, a tweenager,” blabbed out Snow White without thinking.

“Oh, I see,” answered the figure, confused. “And I am the amazing kid hunter um, uh, well…TIREDOFHERKIDSNOWWHITE’SBEHAVIOUR! Uh, in other words, uh step mommy?!” Snow White realised that kid hunter sounded just like her stepmother, and she was ready to rip her wig off to reveal her face even though she had no idea why is she doing it, but she did it anyway.

“Hands off the wig, you!” But it was too late. Snow White had really heavy hands and whilst she yanked the wig off, she also pulled down most of the actual hair. Now we end with a bald stepmother and Snow White who is dead ferocious. Now, do you like my jazzy new version written today, or would you prefer the old classic version? Maybe an even more savage version is coming out in a few years…… hmmmm.

THE END

Olivia Li is an 11 years and 5 months old girl from Beijing but spent her early years mainly in Scotland. She’s currently a Year 6 student at Harrow Beijing. Li’s hobbies include acting, horse riding, reading, looking after her pets (two cats, one dog, nine fish, and one dead mosquito that has been stuck on her bookshelf for a year), adult-sitting, shopping, collecting blind box figures, drawing, fishing, exploring and decorating her room.

Images: Pexels