Monthly Archives: September 2008

Haiwang Yuan’s new book Princess Peacock: Tales from Other Peoples of China has been published!

China, the most populous country in the world, is also a nation of great diversity. In addition to the majority population of Han Chinese, there are 55 officially recognized national minorities–including Tibetan, Mongol, Manchu, Zhuang, Dai, and Gaoshan. The folklore of these minorities is often obscure and difficult to find in the English-speaking world, as is information about the people, their cultural histories, and their traditional customs. This book fills a gap by offering more than 50 representative folktales from China’s minorities, as well as background information on each of the ethnic groups.

Princess Peacock is a companion to Yuan’s The Magic Lotus Lantern and Other Tales of the Han Chinese, published in 2006. Carefully selected from the fathomless reservoirs of Chinese folklore, the tales from the books combined give the American reader a glimpse of the richness and diversity of a folk literature from an ancient and yet fast-modernizing China, which will definitely play an increasingly important role in world fairs, particularly after its successful hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Chinese Students in ethnic costumes

Listed in Marquis’s 2009 edition of Who’s Who in America and currently working on his two-volume encyclopedia on Chinese ethnic groups, Yuan is also serving on the editorial board for and contributing to the five-volume Berkshire Encyclopedia of China.