Tradition and Resilience: Starting from a Story by Feng Jicai and Its Screening

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze Feng Jicai’s short story, “The Miraculous Pigtail” (Chinese Literature, Spring 1986), and the film based on it, “The Magic Braid” (1986), from the perspective of the adaptability of tradition, always ready to face the challenges of an ever-changing history. It examines, besides the characteristics of Chinese popular storytelling, the difference between the author’s ironic style and the inevitably more impersonal language of cinema, the contrast between the description of traditional customs and their visual presentation, as well as the adaptation of the written text to meet the demands of a different art form and a different audience.