Cinderella Notes

But first, what does the term “folktale” really mean?  1. “Folk” refers to people.  2. “Tales” are stories.  3. Thus, a folktale is a story told by folks (people)

How many Cinderella stories?  1. There are more than 340 known versions of the story.  2. They can be found worldwide, in most countries.  3. They represent the culture of the area they originate from.

Where did Cinderella stories originate?  1. The European version, that we are familiar with, dates back to the 1500s or 1600s. There are versions from both Germany and England.  2. This is not the oldest, however.

The oldest is….  1. A story from China, dating back to somewhere between A.D. This means the story is more than 1,000 years old.  2. The girl in this story was named  Yeh-Shen.

Why the glass slipper?  In ancient Chinese culture, people thought of the feet as the most beautiful part of the human body.  Tiny feet were thought to be more beautiful than larger feet.

Chinese Foot Binding Chinese Foot Binding  1. To achieve the beauty of the small foot, Chinese girls had their feet “bound” or wrapped tightly in fabric, at an early age.  2. The toes were folded under and foot bones broken. Binding stopped blood flow. Bones deteriorated. The foot became extremely misshapen.  3. The goal was to have a foot of approximately 3 inches in length.

Bound vs. Normal Feet

X-ray of Bound Feet

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