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William Dolby

Classical Chinese Translations and Research

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18. Chinese Folk-tales

 

Book Details

Chinese Folk-tales are translations by William Dolby of various folk-tales through the ages. The original translations by Bill occurred between 1960-1980 but these were finally brought together in his first self-published soft-backed edition in 2003 and then in this published version in 2016.

  • Paperback: 212 pages
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2 edition (21 Nov. 2016) by Straightback Publishing
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1540478637
  • ISBN-13: 978-1540478634
  • Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 1.3 x 22.9 cm

This work represents the 18th of 33 of the Chinese Culture Series.

Please contact us on availablity of this work

Folk traditions in China have been rich thriving and varied. Here is a selection of tales that are sometimes lusty, sometimes delicate and exquisite, their lively themes involving wit, adventure, ingenious why-so stories, monsters, magic, music, moon-cakes, shape-shifting, dragons, ogres, a catastrophically high-jumping silk-worm, and a bride-snatching maple-leaf demon.

This book presents a selection of folk stories from the Chinese domain. A wealth of Chinese folk-stories exists, and these are but a small glimpse of the rang of such tales, recorded in no doubt very varying degrees of sensitivity and fidelity, some woodenly, some over-laconically, some verbosely and some conveying more fully the sparkling imagination that must have held the traditional listeners enthralled. Owing to both traditional and modern social conditions and educational preferences, rich folk traditions have been largely kept apart from overt influence on orthodox literature, and even written literature as a whole although there have been notable exceptions, such as the tale of Liu Ch’en and Juan Chao in the fairy paradise. The folkloric collecting of the past century or so has revealed both the huge extent of this exclusion and the enormous potential of folk literature for thematic and stylistic inspiration to future creativity in all directions.