When author Aaron Hwang was growing up, he found books on Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Irish, and even Babylonian myths, but very few from his own Chinese ancestry. Here he corrects that imbalance for current and future kids with stories every bit as fascinating.
Hwang devotes this book's five parts to myths about creation, heaven, earth, humanity, and "outsiders" (oddballs and rebels). Gods, goddesses, heroic humans, and mythical beasts — some of whom you may know, some of whom you probably don't — inhabit these pages: The Jade Emperor; Shennong, the God of Fire; Nezha, the Child Warrior; Guanyin, Goddess of Compassion (also known as Kuan Yin); and many more.
Each part contains three or four chapters designed for seven-to-ten-year-old readers. San Francisco-based illustrator Adela Li, influenced by contemporary art and Chinese line drawing, amplifies the excitement and magic of these stories.
We were intrigued by some similarities to tales of other cultures. Creation takes seven days. Pangu — the first being to hatch from the perfect, boundary-less solitude that was there from the beginning — endures innumerable transformations until his "life force spread over the land, finally free. Everywhere that felt Pangu's breath, life came into being. ... In this way Pangu died, and in this way Pangu continues to live." (Sound familiar?)
But the unique twists, details, and lyricism are what gives this book its great charm. For instance, a stone monkey appears at first to be "a strange accident of heaven and earth." But then he seeks and acquires not only immortality but also a 20-foot-high column that can shrink into a walking stick which he can wield with one hand even though it weighs 13,500 pounds!
And when the God of Water, Gonggong, wrathfully splits apart Buzhou mountain, which helps separate heaven and earth, the sky rips, revealing endless darkness. Nuwa, the Mother of Humankind, needs to remake the sky, which she does by collecting all the colors:
"She took the white light that glints off metal in the sun, the black that dreams in the depth of the ocean, the blue-green blush of a budding leaf, the red that snarls in the heart of flame, and the rich yellow warmth of clay .... These she melted down into a rainbowlike mix and spread it across the sky until it was sturdy and whole once more."
The book concludes with further reading sources and references, and with the author's encouragement for readers to do their own digging into Chinese mythology, only a portion of which he could include in these hundred pages. Readers leave the book inspired to take up their own quests with courage and a touch of genius.
