INTRODUCTION

When I was a child, I was never tired of listening to my mother tell how two little sis-
ters outsmarted a treacherous big wolf and to my father recount the Herculean deed of a
greenwood hero who subdued a man-eating tiger single-handedly. My mothers story had
been retold to her by my grandmother. My fathers story was one he had read in an ancient
classic. That is roughly how Chinese folktales came to be: from oral as well as written tradi-
tions. That is also how my interest in folktales originated. In a word, my parents sowed the
seed of interest in me at an early age.
The emergence of Web publication gave me a venue in which I can bring this interest
in Chinese folktales into full play. After I came to the United States from China and became
a professor and librarian, I began to turn my interest into a self-assigned duty: I wanted to
play the role of a cultural bridge, sharing the stories I had heard, read, and watched (per-
forming art, like opera, is another way of preserving and telling stories in China) with an
American audience. Extensive research made it possible for me to retell the stories of more
than thirty prominent women found in Chinese folktales, legends, and ancient literature. I
published these tales on my personal Web site. When I learned about the World Folklore
Series produced by Libraries Unlimited, I proposed to write this book.
China has fifty-six ethnic groups. A single story from each would be more than a
200-page book can hold. The largest of the ethnic groups is the Han, so I felt that retelling a
fine assortment of tales from the Han Chinese would be a good start. This was easier said
than done, for, like all the other ethnic groups, the Han Chinese boast a reservoir of count-
less tales. I made sure that tales included in the book are well-known to the Chinese, such as
the four classic folktales Butterfly Lovers, Xu Xuan and His White-snake Wife, Meng
Jiang Wails at the Great Wall, and Cowherd and Weaving Girl. I have also included tales
from renowned classic Chinese fiction, such as the two Monkey King stories and those
authored by a Qing writer from his Make-do Studio. I also selected tales made famous
by the performing arts, such as The Magic Lotus Lantern and A Forsaken Wife and
Her Unfaithful Husband. Legendary demigods, heroes, and heroines, such as Nezha,
Mulan, Mu Guiying, Bao Zheng, and Ji Gong, who have become household names, are
of course covered here as well. I made a research trip to China to collect half a dozen
tales from Chinese storytellers. While making sure that the stories retold in the book are
popular among the Chinese, I tried to cover a broad range of story types and group them
into several categories. I aimed to give the American reader a better perspective on Chinese

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