Season 104 · Episode 1 — the opening of the Chinese shelf of KacheliTV World Classics: tales from China, read aloud in the English translation printed in 1921.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
THE BOOK BEHIND THIS EPISODE
The Chinese Fairy Book, edited by Dr. R. Wilhelm and translated after the original sources by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1921). Wilhelm lived and worked in China for many years and gathered these tales from Chinese sources; Martens's translation carries them into English. The book's seventy-four numbered pieces were read and screened under this shelf's content rule before anything was built. Five tales from its opening fairy-tale section are told here. The book's legends of the gods, its tales of saints and magicians, its ghost stories, and its historic and literary pieces stand benched by name for later parts; the tales in which harm is done are excluded by name in the shelf register, and no completeness is claimed for the book.
IN THIS EPISODE
0:35 Introduction
1:46 The Three Rhymsters — a father promises his daughter to the suitor who can rhyme with him; three sons-in-law take up the game, and the youngest one's last rhyme settles everything.
5:02 The Favorite of Fortune and the Child of Ill Luck — two boys are born on the same day under opposite stars; everything the fortunate one touches turns to good, and everything the ill-starred one touches turns to loss, until the Empress sets them both a task.
8:13 Why Dog and Cat Are Enemies — a poor couple's wishing-ring is stolen; the dog and the cat set out together to win it back, and a friendship is broken over who should carry the treasure home.
10:46 The Flower-Elves — a poor student befriends the flower-elves of an old temple garden; one of them, the elf-king's granddaughter, becomes his wife, and the garden blooms as it bloomed in the old days.
18:35 The Dragon After His Winter Sleep — deep under the earth the dragon wakes from his long winter sleep, and the spring rains come.
Narration: Benedetto. Music: the instrumental theme "The Spring Remembers 2" is heard at the opening and at the close, and in a short excerpt between the stories; there is no music under the narration.
