My mini project comparing and contrasting Cinderella, and Yeh Shen by Max Mosakowski

Background Information on Yeh Shen

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-02 17:59:23 UTC

Yen Shen is an old Cinderella story that originated in the Chinese Tang Empire over a thousand years ago and was later popularized in the 1958s after Ai-Ling Louie wrote this version in the U.S., which popularized it in the anglosphere and around the world.

Summary

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-02 18:13:28 UTC

Much like other Cinderella stories, the story of Yeh Shen follows a similar layout. Yeh Shen is a young, rich Chinese woman. When her dad died, he stepmom took over the estate and made her her stepmom's servant. Even through hard work, Yeh Shen found a way to enjoy her life, finding a beautiful, magical fish. When the step-mother found out she had eaten the fish, and sent her daughter off to meet the king at a dance. The fish turned into a beautiful outfit and went to the dance, stunning the king. The king came to their house and tested the daughter, and stepdaughter, with Yeh Shen being shown to have been the beautiful girl at the dance was taken away by the king, ending the story.

Compare and contrast

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-02 18:19:28 UTC

One of the things that both stories share in common is that both of the main characters go to a royal dance, with the main character being the prettiest and the person that the royalty likes the most. A second one of the things that both of the stories have in common is that both of them have an evil step-mother who doesn't approve of their new step-daughter and doesn't want her success with the king rather preferring their daughters. A third thing that both stories share in common is the death of the main character's dad before the beginning of the story, which leads to the stepmother gaining power over the main character.

Compare and contrast

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 00:30:43 UTC

One of the things that is different in the two stories is the fairy godmother not being present in Yeh Shen, who is instead replaced by a pretty fish who turns into an outfit after its death to assist Yeh Shen in her endeavor to the king's dance. A second difference is the amount of reading, which in Yeh Shen is significantly fewer than in Cinderella, which reflects a concise style of writing that describes a story quickly and effectively while still hitting all the key points. Finally, they differ in that Cinderella has two stepsisters, whereas Yeh Shen has only one stepsister.

Cultural references #1

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 00:42:51 UTC

The story of Yeh Shen is a Chinese story, and how it is written reflects that. A commonly known value about how Chinese stories are written is their conciseness in their writing, which is promoted by the Mandarin language rather than long wordy stories that other cultures tend to have due to their linguistic background.

Cultural references #2

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 00:55:29 UTC

As in most stories, some secret values or themes are hidden in the text. An example of this is how they describe Yeh Shen when she is in servitude to her step-mom as hardworking, even though she was heartbroken, which shows that the story aims to promote hard work even through hardship, which is a prevalent result of many countries' greatness.

Cultural references #3

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 01:07:27 UTC

In such a concise language as Mandarin Chinese, descriptive words can mean a lot in describing what a society values, which, in the case of the story, are highly valued items. Examples of this include a fish with gems for scales, and a pretty dress, all things that in the U.S. and China show value over other assets.

Theme

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 01:23:06 UTC

As in all stories, many themes can be identified, like hard work pays off or honesty will prevail. I would say the theme of this story is that dedication through hardship will result in a better future. This is shown in many aspects of the story, one of which is when Yeh Shen's dad died, and she was still dedicated to helping her grandmother. A second example of this is that she was dedicated to her friend, the fish. After it had died, she continued to honor it by keeping it in a container. Which all paid off when the fish turned into a wonderful outfit, which got her into the king's good graces.

Multimedia

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 01:39:06 UTC

This is a cartoon animation of Yeh Shen's which is a retelling of the story that can be marketed to A U.S. audience, as it opens the great Story of China's Yeh Shen to new audiences, like children or other people who watch TV. That is an interpretation that the U.S. people can enjoy, as it is a unique blend of Chinese and American culture.

Explaining why I chose each of these medias

mmosakowski976 — 2025-10-07 02:14:54 UTC

I will explain why I chose each image in each of my sections. I chose A map of China for the background information as it reflects the country that is influencing and changing the classic story of Cinderella. I chose the cover art of Yeh Shen for the summary, as it shows you what the section is summarizing. I chose the cover art for Cinderella as for its similarities, as it shows what we are comparing Yeh Shen to in the story. Meanwhile, I chose Mandarin Chinese text to symbolize that this is the Chinese version of Cinderella and the differences that come with it. For each of the cultural references I showed images of what each of the references are which are hard work, valuing of gems, and linguistic reflection on the story. Finally the theme image being a generic image about theme that I found about how to create a theme.