Deming An

I read this for the sake of research. Despite a love of mythology, I admit that I'm fairly ignorant about Chinese folktales. One reason this book stood out to me is because it made an effort to go beyond Han mythology and represent some of China's 56 other ethnic groups. Many of the listings include various versions of the same tale or figure, as told by different ethnicities over different periods of time. Some of the source material hadn't been translated from Chinese previously. They also do an excellent job with citations, so I know exactly where to go for more information on subjects of interest like Shennong or Jingwei.

The book overall was fascinating, but trying to read it straight through was something of a chore. It is very repetitious as places, incidents, and figures are cross-referenced. It took me almost a month to read this book, which is very unusual for me. I found it to be a good resource--one I have littered with sticky tabs--but it's most definitely not a casual read.… (més)