Yeh-Shen A Cinderella Story from China

Louie, Ai-Ling
Young, Ed
Philomel Books, 1982
Fiction, Traditional Literature
All Ages

This story is about a young orphan named Yeh-Shen. Both her mother and father had passed away, and she was to live with her step mother. This story takes place in Southern China, before the Han dynasty. She was a very smart little girl, and very beautiful too. This was a problem because Yeh-Shen’s step mother was very jealous of her. Her daughter was not near as pretty as Yeh Shen. She had one friend and that was her pet fish. She hardly ever had enough to eat for herself but she always found a way to feed her fish. Her evil stepmother heard of her pet fish one day, disguised herself in Yeh-Shens jacket and she stabbed the fish, killing it. Yeh-Shen was so upset and one day an old man came to her and told her not to be upset. He also told her that her stepmother was responsible for the fish’s death. Yeh-Shen became even more upset. Then the old man told her that the fish’s bones had a powerful spirit and anytime she is in need she could go to these bones. The spring festival came around and Yeh-She really wanted to go. Yeh-Shen went and spoke to her fish and the fish granted her wish. She was dressed in a beautiful gown and golden slippers. Then the stepsister thought that she had spotted Yeh-Shen so the stepmother ran home to see if she was there. Yeh-shen ran home to beat her stepmother and fell asleep by the fruit tree. The king was given one of her slippers as a gift and wanted to find who this tiny shoe belonged to. Yeh-Shen went out in search of her lost shoe, tried to take it and they thought she was trying to steal it. The king saw her and saw how sweet she was and asked her to try on the slipper. Sure enough the slipper fit her and she was transformed into a beautiful woman. The king then knew that that was his true love. In the end Yeh-Shen married the king, moved into the palace and her step mother and sister were later crushed by flying stones in their cave.

I really liked reading this book. It was definitely a nice twist to the Cinderella story that I am familiar with. The first thing that I thought was really neat was the calligraphy that was in the beginning of the book. I think that this adds character to the book. I also like how they included a little bit of history in the beginning of the book where they talk about when the story was really written, this gives you an idea of how old this story really is. The story is in block printing as well which I found out was how many of the Chinese books were written. I think that they use this to separate the story up. At first I felt a little bit uncomfortable with it just because I am used to the story flowing together. Then I tried to look at it in a different perspective and I thought it was really cool. They use the blocks to really emphasize things. It seems that the illustrations in this book are a very important part because the pictures are in the largest blocks. I believe that the illustrator uses watercolor to create the images. I liked the Rough Faced Girl better than this version, but I felt like I learned a lot more about culture from this version. There was a lot more detailed information about the story and where it came from in a couple places in the book. I really liked the colors that the illustrator used as well. The bright purples, blues and greens really make them stand out. One of my favorite pictures is the one where Yeh-Shen is holding her hands up towards the sky and there is the man/fish. I like how the illustrator sort of combined the man/fish together to help the reader understand that the old man is the fish. Like the other book I really liked looking at the clothing that the Chinese wear. I think that the colors may be brighter than in the Rough Faced Girl, and the garments are made of silk instead of animal skins. Like the American culture, both the Native Americans and the Chinese wear a lot of jewelry to decorate their bodies. Overall I felt that this was a really great book and I learned a lot about the Chinese culture just by reading this one simple story.

I would definitely use this book in my classroom. I love the illustrations and the colors and I would be sure to point them out to my students. Also we could look at many different versions of the Cinderella story and talk about the similarities and differences. Although all of these stories are considered the “Cinderella story” there are many differences. I think that it is really neat to look at how each culture differs and how they are the same too. I think kids would really enjoy doing activities and reading about all the different cultures.