Aunt Tiger Explained

Folk Tale Name:Aunt Tiger
Aka:Auntie Tigress
Mythology:Asian
Country:Taiwan
Origin Date:16th century
Aunt Tiger
T:虎姑婆
S:虎姑婆
P:Hǔ Gūpó
Poj:Hó͘-ko͘-pô

Aunt Tiger or Auntie Tigress is a Taiwanese folktale with many variations. The story revolves around a tiger spirit on the mountain who turns into an old woman, abducts children at night and devours them to satisfy her appetite. It is often used to coax children to fall asleep quickly. The most well-known version was compiled by Taiwanese writer Wang Shilang, where the setting of the story is in a Hakka settlement in Taiwan.[1] [2]

Legend

A tiger spirit must eat a few children to become a human, so it descends from the mountains to find children to eat.[3] After going down the mountain, it hides outside a house and eavesdropped, knowing that the mother is going out and there is only a pair of siblings in the house, so it turns into an aunt to trick the child into opening the door and entering the house. Sleeping until midnight, Aunt Tiger ate the younger brother and made a chewing sound. The sister asks Aunt Tiger what she was eating when she hears it. Aunt Tiger says she is just eating peanuts, and then throws a piece of the brother's finger to the sister. The sister calmly pretends to go to the toilet then hides in the tree outside the door. When Aunt Tiger finds out and is going to eat the sister, the latter cleverly asks Aunt Tiger to boil a pot of hot water (otherwise it is hot oil) for her, and asks Aunt Tiger to hang the hot water on the tree because she wants to jump into the pot by herself. When Aunt Tiger hangs the hot water to the tree with a rope, the sister asks Aunt Tiger to close her eyes and open her mouth. Then, she pours the boiling water down Aunt Tiger's throat, killing the tiger.[4] One variation is that there are two girls who are sisters instead of the brother and sister combo.[5]

Variations

Similar storylines can also be found in China which the aunt is a wolf or bear.[6] There are also stories with similar plots circulating in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other countries, similar to the story of Little Red Riding Hood in Europe.[7] In addition, such a story with two children and an adult who intends to murder them is also in Hansel and Gretel in Grimm's Fairy Tales. In South Korea, there is a folktale called Janghwa Hongryeon jeon with a similar plot. The purpose of this type of story may be to warn children not to believe strangers who take the opportunity of the absence of adults to enter houses and kidnap children.[8]

Analysis

Tale type

Chinese folklorist and scholar established a second typological classification of Chinese folktales (the first was by Wolfram Eberhard), and abstracted a tale type he indexed as number 333C, "The Tiger Grandma". In this tale type, a child-eating creature (ogress, tiger or wolf)[9] pretends to be an older female relative of the children, and pays them a visit after their mother leaves. The ogress is allowed to enter the children's house, devours one of them, but the survivor escapes to another place.[10] [11] In that regard, researcher Juwen Zhang indicated that type 333C, "Wolf grandma", is an example of local Chinese tale types that are not listed in the international ATU index.[12]

The tale has also been compared to the European tale Little Red Riding Hood,[13] classified in the international index as type ATU 333,[14] [15] [16] and to The Wolf and the Kids (tale type ATU 123).[17] [18] [19]

Adaptations

Animated films

Public Television Service and S4C co-produced a clay animation on this story. In 2000, it won the Children's Jury 1st Prize in the category of Television Animation at the 17th Chicago International Children's Film Festival.[20]

Nursery rhymes

Aunt Tiger's nursery rhyme of the name "Auntie Tigress" was included in the pop music album released by Taiwanese singer Wawa in 1986.

Films

Books

Further reading

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: 王詩琅. 臺灣民間故事. 31 January 1999. 玉山社. 9789578246041.
  2. Chien . Chi-Ru . 2013 . 成大中文學報 . 22 . http://bec001.web.ncku.edu.tw/ezfiles/335/1335/img/1592/4307.pdf . zh:臺灣虎姑婆故事之深層結構─以自然與文化二元對立觀之 . The Research for Structural Analysis and Folk Investigation of Taiwan's Grandaunt Tiger Story . 2016-08-30 . 2016-09-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160913231033/http://bec001.web.ncku.edu.tw/ezfiles/335/1335/img/1592/4307.pdf . dead .
  3. Web site: Tiger Aunt: The Terrifying Child-Eating Monster of Taiwanese Folklore. 1 March 2023 . 23 June 2023 . Bizarre Wonders.
  4. Web site: Aunt Tiger - Taiwan Legend and Nursery Rhyme. 23 June 2023 . LTL Mandarin School . August 3, 2020.
  5. Hulick . Jeannette . Review of Auntie Tiger . Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books . 62 . 6 . 267 . 2009 . Project MUSE . 10.1353/bcc.0.0662. 144937417 .
  6. Book: Li, Jing . Chinese Tales . The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales . I: A-F . Donald Haase . Greenwood Press . 2008 . 197 . 9780313334429.
  7. Huang . Chih-chun . Huang . Chengzeng . Specht . Annette . Lontzen . Günter . Barchilon . Jacques . The Earliest Version of the Chinese" Little Red Riding Hood": The Tale of the Tiger-woman. . Merveilles & Contes . 7 . 1 . 513–527 . 1993 . Wayne State University Press . 41390379 .
  8. Web site: Tiger Aunt: Beware of Strangers. 23 June 2023 . Island Folklore.
  9. Book: Hung, Chang-tai . Going to the People . Leiden, The Netherlands . Harvard University Asia Center . 1985 . 125 . 10.1163/9781684172580_010 . In the final episode of "The Tiger Grandma," the ogress (usually a tiger or a wolf) is killed ... .
  10. Nai-tung TING. A Type Index of Chinese Folktales in the Oral Tradition and Major Works of Non-religious Classical Literature. FF Communications, no. 223. Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1978. pp. 61-64.
  11. Book: Dundes, Alan . Alan Dundes . Interpreting Little Red Riding Hood Psychoanalytically . The Brothers Grimm and Folktale . James M. McGlathery . University of Illinois Press . 1991 . 22 . 9780252061912.
  12. Juwen Zhang. Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. p. 30. .
  13. Book: Hung, Chang-tai . Going to the People . Leiden, The Netherlands . Harvard University Asia Center . 1985 . 125 . 10.1163/9781684172580_010 . "The Tiger Grandma," a Chinese version of "Little Red Riding Hood," carries a similar message. (...) In the final episode of "The Tiger Grandma," the ogress (usually a tiger or a wolf) is killed, just as the wolf is killed by the hunter in the Grimms' version of "Little Red Riding Hood.".
  14. Hung, Chang-tai. Going to the People. Leiden, The Netherlands: Harvard University Asia Center, 1985. p. 125.
  15. Book: Li, Jing . Chinese Tales . The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales . I: A-F . Donald Haase . Greenwood Press . 2008 . 197 . 9780313334429.
  16. Book: The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend . Mercatante . Anthony S. . I: A-L . 2009 . New York . Facts On File . 611 . Little Red Riding Hood is tale type 333, the “Glutton,” and is known in China, Korea, and Japan as “Grandaunt Tiger.”.
  17. Goldberg . Christine . Strength in Numbers: The Uses of Comparative Folktale Research . Western Folklore . 2010 . 69 . 1 . 24 . 25735282 . Similarly, there is an Asian tale about children who are visited by man-eating tiger disguised as their aunt. Although this tale shares motifs with both Little Red Riding Hood (ATU 333) and The Wolf and the Kids (ATU 123), these are actually three separate tales ....
  18. Book: Delarue . Paul . Ténèze . Marie-Louise . Le conte populaire français; catalogue raisonné des versions de France et des pays de langue française d'outre-mer: Canada, Louisiane, îlots français des États-Unis, Antilles françaises, Haïti, Ile Maurice, La Réunion . 1957 . Érasme . 978-2-7068-0623-0 . 1625284 . French . 382 . Et il se retrouve en Extrême-Orient, dans des versions d'un conte bien connu en Chine, Corée, Japon, Le Tigre et les Enfants, qui, par le sujet et nombre de motifs, semble apparenté aux contes du Petit Chaperon rouge et de La Chèvre et les Chevreaux. . One can find in the Far East, versions of a well-known tale in China, Korea, Japan, The Tiger and the Children, which, due to its subject matter and number of motifs, appears to be related to the tale Little Red Riding Hood and The Goat and its Kids..
  19. Book: Dundes, Alan . Alan Dundes . Interpreting Little Red Riding Hood Psychoanalytically . The Brothers Grimm and Folktale . James M. McGlathery . University of Illinois Press . 1991 . 22 . 9780252061912 . The Chinese tale type 333C, The Tiger Grandma, as summarized in Nai-Tung Ting’s A Type Index of Chinese Folktales (1978), presents a curious combination of The Wolf and the Kids (AT 123, Grimm #5) and The Glutton (Red Riding Hood) (AT 333, Grimm #26)..
  20. Web site: BBC ALBA - Sgaoileadh Nan Sgeul, An Tigear Olc/The Bad Tiger. BBC. en-GB. 2020-01-16.
  21. Web site: Hu gu po. 23 June 2023 . IMDB.
  22. Web site: Auntie Tigress. 23 June 2023 . IMDB.
  23. Book: Wang, Gia-Zhen. Auntie Tigress and Other Favorite Chinese Folk Tales. 29 September 2006. Purple Bear Books. 9781933327297.
  24. Book: Yep, Laurence. Auntie Tiger. 1 January 2009. HarperCollins. 978-0060295523.

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