The influence of the Chinese Cinderella (“Yeh-Shen”) on the evolving image of Cinderella in the West

Abstract

Abstract Taking Cinderella as an evolving image across cultures, this article compares the image of Yeh-Shen in major English translations to those of Cinderella in the Western classics of Giambattista Basile, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Disney. The study incorporates a comparison of the story types and the protagonists’ family backgrounds, social statuses, and personalities in constructing the evolving image of Cinderella. It is argued that the widely acknowledged story genealogy of “Basile–Perrault–the Brothers Grimm–Disney” is questionable in terms of the phenomenon of Cinderella “becoming of the people’s princess”. Evidence found in both reader acceptance and postmodernist rewritings supports the hypothesis that the story of Yeh-Shen has had a substantial influence on the evolving image of Cinderella. The analysis of its English translation and acceptance from a comparative perspective brings to light the continued legacy of the literary image of Yeh-Shen, illustrates the esthetic complexity and possibilities of image translation, and most importantly, reveals the rich roots of postmodernist themes contained in the Chinese tale that has long influenced the West.