The Influence of Chinese Cinderella “Yeh – Shen” on the Evolving Images of Cinderella in the West

Abstract

In the 1930s and 1940s, the Chinese Cinderella story “Yeh  – Shen” was discovered and translated into English. In the 1980s, its recurrent popularity made it a household story. As the earliest complete Cinderella  – type story ever recorded, “Yeh – Shen” provided legitimate support for Cinderella’s becoming of “the people’s princess”, a tendency toward a everyday girl image. Based on this argument, the Eurocentric fairy tale genealogy of “Basile – Perrault  – Grimms – Disney” should be revised as “Perrault – Grimms  – “Yeh – Shen”  – Basile  – Postmodern”. Along the new genealogical sequence, the Chinese influence in the evolution of Cinderella images will be revealed, and Angela Carter’s postmodern feminist rewriting of “Cinderella” will provide a convincing text testifying to such influence.