Friday 18 December 2009

Happy Fruit, Sleeping Worm and Encyclopedia?

In my 11th grade class we are moving forward with creative writing. I decided to have them go over traditional fairy tale stories and then re-write them with a little creativity (ala The True Story of The Big Bad Wolf).

But just talking about some of these stories I have found some differences in the way the stories are told or called. One of my favorites is the different names for the 7 Dwarves from Snow White. I asked my students what they were called in Chinese.

The most normal sounding one was KaiXingGuo, or "Happy Fruit" for Happy.
Instead of Grumpy the have AiShengQi or "Angry".
Doc is given the slightly grander name of WanShiTong or "Encyclopedia".
Bashful's name is somewhat similar...HaiXiuGui or "Blush Ghost" (I think ghost here just means that he blushes a lot, like an Alcohol Ghost is someone that drinks a lot).
Sleepy is KeShuiChong or "Sleeping Worm".
Sneezy has the slightly more viscous name BiTiJing or "Runny Nose".
The last is by far my favorite...and I'm not even sure if it's the same type of character. In stead of Dopey they have DaHuZi which means....*drumroll please* "Big Mustache".

I find this especially funny because in the famous Disney version...Dopey is the only one WITHOUT facial hair.

Anyway, thought you all might enjoy that. Here are a couple more I have heard:

Wolves Are Coming!= The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Little Red Hat= Little Red Riding Hood
Bean Princess= The Princess and The Pea


Time for class now, gotta run.

Much love,
Stephanie

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