Week 7 Reading Diary: Folklore of Laos

Chinese Fairy Tales
1. The Little Hunting Dog - That was the cutest story I think I heave read in any of the units so far! For a while I wondered if maybe the little soldiers and dogs and falcons were really the fleas and gnats and maybe the man was asleep. I was so sad when the little dog got left behind but even more so that he smooshed the little dog! I would have felt terrible!
2. Fox-Fire - I know that in Chinese and Japanese mythology, foxes are tricksters and are not to be messed with. I am surprised that the fox didn't kill the man for stealing his fire ball and instead let him accumulate his wealth. I also thought the fox would have killed the man because that seems o be the fate for all things that steal when it comes to fairy tales.
3. The Talking Silver Foxes - So I am seeing a trend that the fox spirits are not as mean and tricky as i was lead to believe. Really they are just treated poorly! I wouldn't blame that fox-spirit for never showing itself again! Not after being whipped twice and shot with an arrow and then killed and skinned! I wonder why the magical foxes are called 'Silver Foxes' when their coats are not silver.
4. Retribution - First of all, I wonder if that was the same Wang as in the Silver Foxes story. I doubt it, but it would be interesting.  Second, I wonder why the boy could see the spirit of the water-bearer. Was he special or did he just happen to be at the right place at the right time? I think it was interesting that the boy did get revenge on Old Wang even without meaning to.
5. The Night on the Battlefield - These stories just keep getting better and better! I thought there was something fishy going on when the inn-keeper and everyone there turned the merchant away but I didn't expect the inn to just be a graveyard/battlefield!
6. The Maiden Who Was Stolen Away - I thought for sure that the girl would marry the boy! I was not expecting him to actually be an ogre! These stories are not like the ones I am used to reading and I love how they are written! I was so happy that she got to be saved, but I also thought it was funny that her brother happened to be the biggest and bravest in the land.
7. The Flying Ogre - I liked this story less than the others but I did still enjoy it! It was short, sweet, and to the point. I wanted to know who the sky messenger was as well as whether or not he was telling the truth about the girl being a flying ogre. And why was she so evil?
8. The Sorcerer of the White Lotus Lodge - So were the capsized boat, walk in the dark, and giant all tricks or did the sorcerer actually do all of those things? I can see the first two but I don't know how getting eaten by a giant is a way to trick the soldiers. Unless the sorcerer conjured up the mountain spirit in order to get out. Maybe him and his family were not really eaten?
9. The Three Evils - I was really impressed at how calmly the terror of the neighborhoods took to being called the third evil. I would have thought that, since he got into so many fights all the time, he would have just beat up the new mandarin and been on his way. But no! He took out the other two evils, enlisted as a soldier and atoned for his life when he was the third sin! I wonder if this is a cultural thing in how people respected their mandarins (honestly I don't know what status they held. I am not much of a history buff).
10. How the River God's Wedding Was Broken Off - I am still wondering if it is a cultural thing to not trust sorcerers and witches but hold the political figure to the standards of a hero. That seems to be the theme in most of these stories. I think that is really neat because it has regular humans, not super powered or humans with supernatural strength going off and killing the bad things.
11. Yang Gui Fe - I loved this story! I want to use some of the ideas in it in my own stories! I liked how the magician (note, not a sorcerer) could part with his spirit to walk in the spirit worlds. How there wasn't just heaven and hell but many places in between. I also liked how the two were really spirits sent to the realm of men and still united by love!