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RebelliousPrincess

@princessrebelsblog

Hi my name is Amber and I like random things.

Ye Xian: A Chinese tale of Cinderella 

Who’s ready for some fairy tale history? Although Cinderella is often depicted as European there are many versions of the story from different parts of the world. One of the oldest is Ye Xian, which dates as far back as 850 AD China. In this version of the story rather than a fairy godmother blessing Ye Xian with a gown to wear to the ball it was the spirit of a magical fish which Ye Xian had befriended (before her wicked stepmother, not wanting Ye Xian to have happiness; murdered the fish and served it to Y Xian for dinner!? A bit extreme but ok.) Rather than glass her slippers are made of golden fish scales and her dress is made of kingfisher feathers. 

I’ve always been really interested in fairy tales and their origins, but this tale in particular interested me not only because I think it’s WAY cooler than the French version (seriously, the magical koi fish is amazing) but also because it shows just how diverse the histories of these stories can be. I knew immediately after reading this story I wanted to draw it however I did NOT want to be that white person who mixes different periods of Chinese culture with no regard to history so I did my research! I focused on clothing and architecture from the Tang Dynasty, as that is when one of the earliest versions was published in China. Clothing in particular during the Tang dynasty was super interesting because there was a lot of use of color and pattern (not pale yellow though, as it was a crime for anyone other than the royal family to wear that color.) I’m sure I didn’t get everything right, but tried my best to work it all into an artwork that western audiences would still understand as being “Cinderella.”

I’m planning on creating a full wall calendar that incorporates a number of different fairy tales and incorporates some of their more diverse settings and characters. I’ll be sure to share some background info for each of them (like I’m doing with this one.) so if you’re interested please follow along and let me know which stories you’d like to see or hear more about.  Sorry this post was so long, but hopefully you’ve learned something new (and now also want Disney to get off their asses and make a Chinese Cinderella movie please and thank you!)