Artist Statement

China’s Four Greatest Folktales

Growing up in Canada, I grew up like any other little girl watching movies like The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White and many more. All of these fairytales have one thing in common – they are all popular European folktales. As I look back on it now, I can see just how huge the lack of representation of people of colour has been in these stories and how it affects what these children are exposed to in Western society.

Over the years I have become engrossed in learning about East Asian culture and what it means to be a member of the Chinese diaspora who had almost no ties with my own culture. I fell in love with the eloquence behind the language as well as the deep history behind the things I once thought nothing of. The more I learned to love the culture, the more I found a sense of myself. One thing I regret the most was not learning to speak and write Chinese in my childhood which prevented me from having conversations with those closest to me. This immersion into my own heritage gives me a sense of pride. Finding a missing piece of who I was has impacted the direction of my illustration style today.

In my illustrated series, China’s Four Greatest Folktales, I tell the four stories from famous Chinese folklore; The Butterfly Lovers, Lady Meng Jiang, The Cowherder and the Weaver Girl, and The Legend of White Snake. These long-lived stories are not as well known as their European fairytale counterparts, but they are just as fantastical. The red strings attached to each character in the illustrations reflect ‘The Red Thread of Fate’ which is a popular belief in East Asian culture representing one meeting their true love. Inspired by the popularity of Cinderella and Snow White, I wish to share the rich culture within Chinese folklore by mixing traditional and modern styles to depict these tragic and romantic stories.