Reviving China’s Fairy Tales: An Interview with Juwen Zhang
The Dragon Daughter and Other Lin Lan Fairy Tales is a collection of traditional Chinese stories, selected and translated by Juwen Zhang, a Professor of Chinese Studies and Folklore at Willamette University.
Zhang will be hosting an online event at the Yorkshire Festival of Story on the 9th of November to discuss how fairy tales can help build national identity and heal a nation. Ahead of the event, we caught up with the professor to discuss the motivations behind his work and the significance of Lin Lan in the context of Chinese folklore.
Click here to book tickets for this event.
Who is Lin Lan?
Lin Lan is a collective pseudonym for a group of people who collected and published over one thousand traditional Chinese stories in the early twentieth century. Lin Lan began with Li Xiaofeng, a student and advocate for Chinese independence who started publishing literary stories under the alias in 1924. Li Xiaofeng soon gathered other individuals to work together under the name of ‘Lin Lan’, and occasionally even ‘Lady Lin Lan’, on the publication of the tales.
The Grimms of China
Lin Lan sought to achieve Chinese independence by preserving traditional Chinese folklore just as Brothers Grimm had sought an independent nationalist identity in Germany one hundred years earlier. Zhang’s work emphasises just how influential Brothers Grimm were in China and on Lin Lan at the turn of the century. Because of this, Lin Lan has been acclaimed as the ‘Brothers Grimm of China’.
Rediscovering Chinese Folk Tales
Professor Zhang felt inspired to translate the Lin Lan fairy tales when he realised that earlier translations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries suffered from several issues. Many were completed by missionaries who input Christian ideas into the tales, which altered their essence. Furthermore, the small number of translations by non-missionary scholars, such as Wolfram Eberhard, failed to acknowledge Lin Lan’s role in Chinese history. Zhang sought to rectify this through his own translation of forty-two of the Lin Lan tales.
Decolonisation in Translation
Zhang, who is currently completing a book on decolonisation in translation, acknowledged that translated works are often affected by the ‘ideological agenda of the translator’. This is evident in the early missionary translations of the Lin Lan tales: titles, structures, and endings were often manipulated to fit a Christian narrative. Zhang’s translation is markedly different to those completed by missionaries. It contextualises the Lin Lan tales in China’s colonial history, and its writing is thus an act of decolonising literature.
Power to the People
Zhang revealed that his favourite tale from the collection is tale seven, because it showcases how common people can defeat rulers with wisdom and the help of magic. This story is typical of fairy tales where the powerless overcome the oppressors.
Traditional Fairy Tales with Modern Relevances
In terms of the relevance of traditional Chinese fairy tales to modern readers, Zhang pointed to their enduring themes of resistance to social injustice and oppression. He highlighted how these stories contain wisdom that can be applied to contemporary challenges, such as dealing with pandemics like COVID-19.
Speaking Truth to Power through Storytelling
Finally, Zhang touched on the relationship between the Lin Lan tales and the festival’s theme of speaking truth to power. He said that the tales offer guidance on how ancient people dealt with social injustices, resisted oppression, and sought hope through storytelling. Stories like these are not just a form of entertainment but hold cultural and political significance, and festivals such as the Yorkshire Festival of Story are important because they remind us of this.
