The White Snake. Foolish Grandpa. The Thousand-mile Horse.
These are just some of the characters in a new book about Chinese myths. Author Xiaobing Wang says the ancient stories offer crucial lessons for young people around the globe. CGTN met up with him at the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University.
Images courtesy: DK / Penguin Random House
These are just some of the characters in a new book about Chinese myths. Author Xiaobing Wang says the ancient stories offer crucial lessons for young people around the globe. CGTN met up with him at the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University.
Images courtesy: DK / Penguin Random House
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00:00Meet the man behind the myths. By day, Xiaobing Wang is a lecturer teaching economics. By
00:11night, he writes books for children. Myths of China is full of tales that shape the country's
00:19culture. Wang says it will show readers that China and the West share many of the same
00:25values.
00:26It reflects human nature, our pursuit for happiness, our pursuit for freedom, for love.
00:33This is common. It's shared among Chinese people and many other people, and many of
00:37those stories reflect that.
00:40The book offers some important lessons. There's the story of Pangu, the mythical creature
00:46who turned chaos into order. His story reminds us that life is all about balance. Then the
00:54tale of Nuwa, who repairs the sky. She saves the planet after a battle between the god
01:01of fire and the god of water. That battle sparks a series of natural disasters, a warning
01:08that nature is fragile.
01:11It's a message that matters today more than ever. But Wang says he's not trying to lecture
01:17young people. Above all, he wants them to find their own truth.
01:23You cannot just tell them, do this, do that. No. The first thing is, you love the story,
01:28you enjoy reading the story, or you enjoy your parents telling the story, and then you
01:33feel your imagination has been broadened.
01:38Myths of China is full of compelling characters. The mischievous monkey king Sun Wukong, the
01:45jade emperor and the queen mother Shi Wangmu, a demon who became a goddess, and Chang'e,
01:52the immortal who discovered that life means little without love. These are ancient stories
01:59still finding new audiences, and Wang is hoping they'll help different cultures to find common
02:05ground.
02:07Michael Merillia, CGTN, Oxford, UK.