Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast Tale

The Dragon Prince: A Chinese Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale featuring the transformation of a dragon into a handsome prince because he finds true love. The artwork in this book is traditional to Chinese customs and beliefs. Rich, bold colors and realistic paintings of the human characters, as

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well as fanciful pictures of the dragon and the underwater coral palace he calls home, grace the pages of this mythical Chinese adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. A daughter of a poor farmer, Seven is the youngest of seven girls in the family. She selflessly saves her father’s life after he is held by a dragon who wants one of his daughters as his bride. After all six of her sisters refuse, Seven agrees to marry the dragon in order to save her father. He takes her to his coral castle under the sea where they truly fall in love. As a result, the dragon becomes a handsome prince and the two are married. After becoming sad and homesick, the prince allows Seven to leave for 10 days to see her family. Upon returning, Three, Seven’s jealous sister takes her sister to the river, hits her over the head and pushes her in. Three returns to her family, confesses and conspires with the family to convince the prince that Three is really Seven, and is now ugly because she fell ill. The prince, not caring about her looks, takes Three home thinking she is Seven. Eventually he figures Three isn’t Seven and begins to hunt for her. Seven has actually been rescued by an old woman with whom she now lives. On his search, the prince discovers some embroidered dragons on a cloth being sold by the old woman in the marketplace and recognizes it to be the work of Seven. He follows the old woman home and is reunited with his true love. The three fly back to the coral palace and send Three back to live with her family. This is a unique way to expose young readers to a different culture while comparing this tale to the one they are more familiar with.

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This is a beautifully illustrated fairy tale, a Chinese Beauty and the Beast. While the sweet maiden sacrifices herself to the beast on her father's behalf, this story goes further. Her hard-hearted sister, on finding that this brought her sweet sister good fortune, underhandedly takes her place.

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Though they look alike, the prince sees their hearts through their actions and knows that this is not his lady. A morality tale wrapped up in a fairy tale. Very nice.

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Laurence Yep has created a new spin on the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. He incorporates Chinese culture into the story, focusing on the daughter Seven's loyalty and love for her family. Although Seven is described as the youngest and prettiest of the seven daughters, her character is able

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to appreciate beauty despite appearance. She also was the only one to sacrifice her life to save her father's, despite having six other daughters who would not. Her happiness with the prince is also not enough, as she misses her family - again focusing on family loyalty. The illustrations by Kam Mak capture the beauty of the story, providing intricate and lifelike pictures.

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This book is a dramatically illustrated Chinese retelling of Beauty and the Beast, with a twist. Seven, the seventh and most beautiful and talented daughter agrees to marry the dragon in order to save her father, after all six of her sisters refuse to sacrifice themselves. Of course, the dragon

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turns into a handsome prince after Seven professes her ability to see what is in his heart, rather than on his face. But, there is more to this fable. The prince is tested to see if his love can also see to the heart. As with most fairy tales, there is a "happily ever after." This book is worth the read to do a compare and contrast lesson with the original or other versions.

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Prolific Chinese-American children's author Laurence Yep - whose Dragonwings (1975) and Dragon's Gate (1993) were both Newbery Honor titles - presents a traditional tale from "Southern China" in this engaging picture-book. When the kind-hearted seventh daughter of a poor farmer, named Seven for her

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birth-order, saves the life of a little golden snake, she has no way of knowing that he is really a Dragon Prince from the kingdom under the sea, or that he will take her father hostage, in order to convince her to marry him (naturally, the farmer asks each of his daughters to make the sacrifice, but only Seven is willing). Rather than being afraid of or horrified by her new bridegroom, however, Seven is filled with wonder, and takes to her new underwater life. Until a visit home, and the jealousy of her sister, Three, puts all in jeopardy...

As will be apparent from its sub-title, this story is a variant of the Beauty and the Beast type tale - specifically: "King Dragon," which is type 433b in the Aarne-Thompson folklore classification system - and is distinctive, in that it features lovers who must each see past false appearances. I appreciated that aspect of the story, and was happy to read a variant of one of my favorite tale types from a non-European culture. Which is not to say that there aren't many non-European variants - see Betsy Hearne's Beauties and Beasts for an international collection - but not all of them make it into picture-book form.

Kam Mak's illustrations are vividly colorful, and quite beautiful, although I think there are one or two paintings here that miss the mark. I loved the depiction of the Dragon Prince, as a dragon, but the human figures were a little uneven. Seven herself sometimes looked soft and young, as when she was freeing the snake; and then sometimes she appeared rather old and tired, as in her scene when her husband is in human form, and she is handing him his slippers. I'm not sure why her appearance changes so markedly, but the unevenness of it distracted me. I also found myself wishing that Yep had given more details about his source material, as the brief note on the colophon only mentioned that the story was from the southern Chinese tradition.

Still, despite these minor criticisms, over all I really do love this book (which I own), both for its story and for (some of) its artwork. Recommended to young folklore enthusiasts, and to readers interested in variants of the "Enchanted Spouse" tale-type.

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