The Luminous Pearl
- Origin
- China
- Source
- The Luminous Pearl
- Retold by Betty L. Torre; illustrated by Carol Inouye
- Orchard Books, New York: 1990
- Note: The story is adapted from Favourite Folktales of China,
translated by John Minford. Beijing, China: New World Press,
1983.
- The Story
- In order to choose a proper husband, the Beautiful daughter of the
Eastern Sea Dragon King, Mai Li, set a task for two
brothers. She would marry whoever brought her a pearl that glowed at
night. The younder and honest brother, Wa Jing, after
keeping his promise to help the village people rid of the flood, found a
black, dull pearl while the older and greedy brother
thought he had found the brightest pearl. At the time of the test, the
dull pearl shone bright while the bright pearl did not give out
any light. The couple were instangly married. The telling is simple and
smooth but the choices of some characters and their
names are not appropriate: Admiral C. Horse just does not sound Chinese
at all. The teller seems to try to be cute here.
- Comments
- In the text, there is no description of the Eastern Sea Dragon King.
However, in the illustrations, this dragon is portrayed as a human with a
draong's head which consists of antlers, green beard and hair that looks
like wavering seaweeds, tiger ears, a huge mouth with boar's tusks, an
animal snout, and two feelers like those of a cat fish's. He is a
good-natured father who is the ruler of the underwater world and
possesses the magical tools to help people rid of flood.
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Introduction/Index