[.ca] The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales (ISBN 0887766528)

Amazon.ca:
The Liao-chai is to China what Grimms' Fairy Tales is to Western Europe. In fact, Pu Sung-Ling finished compiling the 500 supernatural stories that comprised his life's work (known in English as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) a century before the Brothers Grimm recorded their first folk tale. As Michael Bedard notes in his introduction to The Painted Wall and Other Strange Tales, the Liao-chai became so popular in China that by the middle of the 19th century virtually every household had a copy. It is easy to understand the fascination of these gem-like Chinese ghost stories. Often no more than two pages in length, they blend the real and fantastical in ways that are startling and yet oddly believable. Bedard, whose critically acclaimed young-adult novels include Stained Glass and the award-winning fantasy Redwork, has selected 32 of Pu Sung-Ling's tales, beautifully adapting them for young English-speaking readers. In his capable hands, stories like "The Tiger of Chao-cheng" (in which an elderly woman is befriended by the tiger that killed her only son) and the mystical "Planting a Pear Tree" (about a Taoist priest and a stingy fruit vendor) express the eloquence of classic Chinese literature. The sheer range of this anthology is also impressive--it includes everything from moral fables and fairy stories to encounters with the occult and journeys into the land of dreams. Children as young as eight will enjoy these succinctly told tales at bedtime, while older readers will also appreciate the biographical tidbits about the impoverished Chinese scholar who transcribed them. --Lisa Alward

Chinese folktales:
I happened to pick up this book on a whim, and was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. Many people refer to Liao-Chai's writings as similar to Grimm's Fairytales (which I have been fond of for years). My favorite story in this collection is "The Tiger of Chao-cheng." Shapeshifters, magical creatures, gods, priests, greedy men, and more wait to be discovered in this unique collection of folktales.