A Christmas Day Surprise

Do you ever get one of those surprises that just makes your day?

The phone rang Christmas morning and I answered it, expecting it to be one of my sons or perhaps one of my sisters on the line.

Instead, it was the creator of the blog Chinese Folktales, Fred Lobb, calling to wish me a Merry Christmas. It was a pleasure to hear his voice and be able now to read his blog with his voice in my mind.

If you have not visited Fred's blog, take a minute to stop by. Fred translates stories from the Chinese and most are stories that are new to me. What intrigues me most is that these tales do not necessarily wrap up tidily, or at least it seems that way to my Western mind. So the reader is left to decide if right did indeed triumph (and even more interesting, what is right?) or if the "hero" really is that, or something more complicated.

Then there are the proverbs (Fred posted a new group of them just recently). Anyone who's read my blog for a while knows how much I like folk sayings, and the Chinese have a wealth of them apparently. Like this one, from his recent post: "Reputation is to people what bark is to trees. (Both reputation and bark protect and insulate their respective hosts.)"


As a storyteller, I appreciate the stories; as a folklorist and librarian, I like the citations to sources and other information about the stories and folklore posted at Chinese Folktales. Much of what we find online is unsourced and therfore (in my opinion) not reliable information. When I read Fred's blog, I know he's done his homework.

Thank you, Fred, for the great blog and the Christmas surprise! I look forward to another year of good stories and interesting posts at your blog.