Where did Cinderalla came from?

The answer? China!

Yes, the very first version of Cinderella came from a Tang Dynasty scholar named Tuan Cheng Shih, and it was published in a magazine-like book called You Yang Za Zu. Apparently it was the trend them for scholars to travel around and collect strange and interesting tales from their travels, and the story came from the

The story and the main character is called Yeh Hsien, and she was an orphan who was cruelly treated by her stepmother. She only had a fish as a pet, and one day her evil stepmother made a good meal out of it. Poor Yeh Hsien collected the bones and put it in a box, and that night the box started glowing, and the fish's spirit granted her wishes. The rest of the story is pretty much the same as Cinderalla, and you can read about it at this blog.

Apparently a few hundred years after that, a similar story appeared from an Italian writer, before the rest of the world each got their own versions. Apparently stories as well as goods were exchanged through the Silk Road. And how did I get to know this? I watched a documentary about this on National Geographic!