The Korean Cinderella
"The Korean Cinderella," written by Shirley Climo, is a retelling of a traditional Korean fairy tale that centers around a young girl named Pear Blossom, who faces mistreatment from her stepmother and stepsister after the death of her mother. Set in feudal Korea, the story begins with the joy of Pear Blossom's birth, symbolized by her father planting a pear tree. However, the narrative quickly shifts to her struggles as Omoni, her cruel stepmother, imposes harsh tasks and abuse, while her father remains indifferent to her plight. Throughout her challenges, Pear Blossom receives magical assistance from nature, including frogs and sparrows, which help her complete seemingly impossible chores.
As the tale unfolds, Pear Blossom captures the attention of a magistrate after losing a sandal, leading to her eventual marriage and a restoration of social order. Interestingly, Climo's adaptation omits the darker elements of the original story, such as the tragic fate of Pear Blossom’s stepsister, Peony, making it more suitable for children. The tale resonates with themes of resilience and justice while reflecting societal dynamics in a Confucian context. "The Korean Cinderella" has inspired various adaptations in Korean media, showcasing its enduring popularity and cultural significance.
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The Korean Cinderella
Author: Shirley Climo
Time Period: 1951 CE–2000 CE
Country or Culture: Korea
Genre: Fairy Tale
PLOT SUMMARY
In feudal Korea, a childless old husband and wife long to have a child. One day, a daughter is born to the old couple, and the father plants a pear tree in front of their home to celebrate her birth. The mother names the child Pear Blossom. As Pear Blossom grows up into a beautiful girl, her mother lovingly raises her. Sadly, one day, Pear Blossom’s mother dies.
Following his wife’s death, Pear Blossom’s father approaches the village matchmaker and remarries. His new wife, Omoni, brings along her daughter, Peony. Peony is the same age as Pear Blossom.
Omoni and Peony mistreat and abuse Pear Blossom. Her old father prefers to look the other way. Omoni makes Pear Blossom perform long, arduous household chores. She gives Pear Blossom only used, worn clothes to wear. Peony, who is less beautiful than Pear Blossom, maliciously teases her stepsister. She calls her Little Pig or Pigling.
To humiliate Pear Blossom, Omoni sets a series of seemingly impossible tasks for her to complete. First, she gives Pear Blossom a jar with a large hole in it and tells her to fetch water with it. Pear Blossom worries about how she will accomplish this until a big frog appears. The frog helps Pear Blossom by serving as plug for the hole. Enraged at Pear Blossom’s success when she returns with the water, Omoni abuses her and looks for a new task.
One day, Omoni orders Pear Blossom to polish every grain in a huge sack of rice by the time she and Peony return later that afternoon. Pear Blossom weeps and embraces the pear tree, asking for help. A flock of sparrows flies down from the pear tree and polishes the grains in due time. When Pear Blossom tells Omoni what happened, she sends Peony under the pear tree to catch some of its magic. However, the sparrows fly down and attack Peony. Angry, Omoni starves Pear Blossom for two days.
Pear Blossom is then ordered to weed a huge field before she can join her stepmother and stepsister at a festival. A black ox appears. He quickly eats all the weeds and gives Pear Blossom delicious fruits and candies.
Pear Blossom hastens to the festival. On the way, she moves behind a willow tree to let pass the procession of a feudal magistrate. One of her straw sandals slips off her foot and falls into a creek. The magistrate notices this and sees beautiful Pear Blossom shyly running away from his entourage. He orders his men to retrieve the sandal and falls in love with its unknown bearer.
In the village, the magistrate orders his subordinates to find the sandal’s owner. Thinking that Pear Blossom has stolen the sandal, Omoni turns her in. To her great surprise, the magistrate asks Pear Blossom to marry him. He resolutely refuses Omoni’s demand that he marry Peony instead.
In the spring, the magistrate asks Pear Blossom’s old father for permission to marry her. After the wedding, Pear Blossom is surrounded by sparrows and frogs in her new home. They all call out her name, sounding like E-wah in Korean.
SIGNIFICANCE
In The Korean Cinderella (1993), American author Shirley Climo combines several Korean variants of the Cinderella fairy tale, which, along with the European versions, share their roots with the classic Greek story of the slave girl Rhodopis in Egypt, transcribed by Strabo in the first century CE. In Korea, the fairy tale retold by Shirley Climo in The Korean Cinderella has been popular for centuries. The Korean tale is known by the names of its two principal characters. Depending on how the Korean Hangul script is romanized, Pear Blossom in The Korean Cinderella is called Kong-jwi or Kongji. The evil stepsister, Peony, is called Pat-jwi or Patji.
Climo’s The Korean Cinderella captures the first part of the Korean fairy tale, which exists in many different versions. The inability of Pear Blossom’s old father to stand up for his daughter and her subsequent mistreatment at the hands of her stepmother and stepsister are central elements of the story. They subtly critique what happens in a feudal society built on the Confucian ethos of filial loyalty when the person supposedly at the top of the family hierarchy, the father, becomes too weak to fulfill his duties toward his own daughter. This problem is resolved only when the magistrate becomes Pear Blossom’s husband and restores social and familial order.
However, in Climo’s The Korean Cinderella, the author cuts out the horrific second part of the original Korean fairy tale. Traditionally, the story of Kong-jwi and Pat-jwi continues with Pat-jwi’s murder of Kong-jwi after her marriage. After this, Pat-jwi usurps her sister’s role as the magistrate’s wife, fooling him. Only after several reincarnations does Kong-jwi come back to life as herself. Only then does her husband realize his mistake. In punishment, Pat-jwi is hacked to death. Her pickled meat is consumed by her mother, who dies of shock.
It is obvious why The Korean Cinderella, a book intended for children, omits the traditional ending. Interestingly, the full story of Kong-jwi and Pat-jwi corresponds closely to the Vietnamese version of the Cinderella tale, known as the story of Tam and Cam. Similar to The Korean Cinderella, contemporary versions of the story of Tam and Cam often abridge the story to cut out the ultimate punishment of the evil stepsister and stepmother. The full extent of the vengeance of the original Korean and Vietnamese fairy tales, which deliver a stark moral message, has been deemed too horrible for young readers and listeners in contemporary times.
In Korea, the material rendered in The Korean Cinderella has been adapted into many media. There is the 1951 opera Kongji Patji by composer Kim Dai-Hyun. The fairy tale was turned into Korean movies both in 1958 and in 1967. As of 2013, two television series have adapted the story. My Love Patji (2006–2007), produced by Lee Jin-Suk, irreverently turns the villain into a spunky contemporary heroine. The situation comedy All My Love (2010–11), produced by Kwong Ik Joon, features pop singer Son Ga-in as the Kongji character, called Geumjiin a contemporary setting.
There are other renditions of this Korean fairy tale in English. A reader may look at them to compare their individual focus, but Climo’s text still stands out.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Edward. Korean Cinderella. Seoul: Seoul International, 1985. Print.
Climo, Shirley. The Korean Cinderella. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Print.
Jolley, Dan. Pigling: A Cinderella Story. Minneapolis: Lerner, 2009. Print.
Jones, Horace Leonard, trans. Strabo: Geography. 8 vols. Cambridge: Loeb Classical Lib., 1917–30. Print.
Korean Classical Literature Society. The Story of Kong-jwi & Pat-jwi. Seoul: Baek Am, 2000. Print.
Roberson, Dongwol Kim. Congjui & Potjui: Korean Cinderella. Houston: Good Life, 2009. Print.
Sierra, Judy. “The Story of Tam and Cam.” Cinderella. Westport: Oryx, 1992. 141–44. Print.