Long before mass communication, the Chinese fairy tale of Ye Xian emerged in 850, during the Tang Dynasty. The Cinderella version that comes most easily to people's minds emerged over eight centuries later, in 1697, and the Disney version in 1950.
Folktales emerged from oral tradition, which makes it difficult to identify “the original version” of any tale, but some scholars consider Greece or China the origination point for Cinderella. Yeh-Hsien, an ancient Chinese Cinderella, was first published in the Tang dynasty.
The Cinderella that English speakers know and love can be traced to the French story Cendrillon, first published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, though Chinese and Greek versions of this classic tale go back to the 9th century CE and 6th century BCE, respectively.
Her first book, Yeh-Shen, A Cinderella Story From China, is a folk tale passed down from her grandmother. It is one of the oldest written Cinderella stories in the world and pre-dated the European Cinderella.
From the author of critically acclaimed and bestselling memoir Falling Leaves, this is a poignant and moving true account of her childhood, growing up as an unloved daughter in 1940s China.
Which Disney Princess is based on a Chinese legend?
San Souci, Mulan is based on the legendary Chinese warrior Hua Mulan from the poem the Ballad of Mulan, making her the first Disney Princess not to be based on a fairytale or folktale but rather a legend.
Disney's Ariel is not the same as Anderson's little mermaid. The movie is loosely based on the fairy tale, so Disney has the freedom to give Ariel any skin color they want. In the 1989 movie, Ariel was born in the fictional underwater kingdom of Atlantica, which technically makes her Atlantican, not Danish.
(For an interesting video about the relationship between the Sami, Norway, and the making of Frozen 2, click here.) Anna and Elsa are not white either. They are Northuldra raised Arendellian, aka Native Raised Other. Regardless of where they end up by the end of the movie, they are and always will be Native women.
What is the dark and original story of Cinderella?
But do you know what the original story was like? If you thought the story started the same as Disney made it, then you are right! Cinderella's mother dies and then her father marries her evil stepmother, adding her and Cinderella's evil stepsisters to the family. Lucky for Cinderella, her father doesn't die.
In some stories, Cinderella's real name was Ella, and because she would always lie in cinders, her stepfamily would call her Cinderella. However, in the Disney film, "Cinderella" is truly her name by birth.
The earliest recorded version of the Cinderella story comes from Egypt. The oral tale of Rhodopis and Her Little Gilded Sandals depicts a Greek slave girl who eventually marries the king of Egypt. It was first recorded by a Greek geographer (Strabo) in the first century BCE.
"Ye Xian" (traditional Chinese: 葉限; simplified Chinese: 叶限; pinyin: Yè Xiàn; Wade–Giles: Yeh Hsien; [jê ɕjɛ̂n]) is a Chinese fairy tale that is similar to the European Cinderella story, the Malay-Indonesian Bawang Putih Bawang Merah tale, the Vietnamese Tấm Cám story, and stories from other ethnic groups including the ...
The main similarities between Cinderella and Chinese Cinderella lie with an evil stepmother and mean siblings. Like Cinderella, Adeline is placed at the bottom of the family social hierarchy with her Aunt Baba who is powerless living in her brother's home under the rule of Niang, Adeline's stepmother.
Adeline capitalizes on her victory and convinces her father to let her study in England like her brothers. The last chapter is a letter from Aunt Baba congratulating Adeline on her good turn of fortune and comparing Adeline's life to the traditional Chinese tale Ye Xian (“Chinese Cinderella”).
If Frozen was the story of Elsa's tentative first steps in exploring and accepting her genetic condition and deafness, Frozen 2 sees her dancing and singing into Deafhood, actualizing her Deaf identity, and embracing Deaf culture and ethnicity.
The hiddenness of Anna and Elsa's biracial identity touches on a long history of passing—either voluntarily or non-voluntarily—by many bi- and multi-racial people.
Although Moana is from the fictional island Motunui some 3,000 years ago, the story and culture of Moana is based on the very real heritage and history of Polynesian islands such as Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, and Tahiti.
Rapunzel is a German fairy tale about a young woman named Rapunzel with impossibly long hair and who lives alone in a tower, held captive by a witch. It's also the German name of a vegetable commonly used in salads.
Representation of an African American woman as a love interest and a beautiful being should become natural. This version of The Little Mermaid is great for young people because it allows them to better appreciate diversity and gain a better sense of the world.
One theory is that each of Ariel's sisters represents different oceans that are home to various cultures and ethnicities. It's pretty problematic to have mermaids who all look the same representing such an expansive underwater world.
While some claim Jasmine is Arab because the movie opens with a song called Arabian Nights, others believe that the architecture in Agrabah is clearly based on the Taj Mahal, making Jasmine Indian. It's a debate that has fueled speculation that in Hollywood, Indians and Arabs are interchangeable.
BuzzFeed views Snow White as a German woman, and suggests that a "historically accurate" Snow White would have been raised within the "austere and religious" culture of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century.
Raya is a fictional character in Walt Disney Animation Studios' animated film Raya and the Last Dragon (2021). Created by screenwriters Adele Lim and Qui Nguyen, Raya is the thirteenth official member of the Disney Princess line-up and Disney's first Southeast Asian princess.
