Back; Papers Graded

So I'm done grading the first papers for this class I'm the TA for, "The Fantastic in East Asia: Ghosts, Foxes, and the Alien." The first paper for this class could be either an essay on the readings or a story written in imitation of the readings.


Since our readings were mainly stories from the Chinese and Japanese tradition of fairy tales, with a special emphasis on tales of the supernatural, students who chose to write a story had to adapt characters, tropes and themes from fairy tales, and they had to write in a fairy tale idiom. For example, a common theme that many of the students seem to identify with is that of the young scholar who fails the exams. Oh, the shame! His life is ruined! But on his way home, the guy runs into something really weird -- usually some kind of beautiful girl who is more than she seems to be. One student creates a girl who is a bunny spirit:

While traveling on the road, he [a young man] saw a bunny. Since he was traveling alone, he took care of the bunny until it healed...[later the bunny goes away. Still later, he meets a girl.] Along the road, he found out her name was Ma, Yuanzhen. He also realized that the girl was really intelligence too. However, what he found awkward was that Yuanzhen only ate carrots.

Doesn't this make you want to write your own fairy tale? This is a great assignment because even the kids with sort of poor written English have a chance to show off what they've learned from the readings. I don't take points off for bad style unless it's really distracting. Here's some lines from various student-written stories that I liked:

"After Zheng nursed the wounds on the fox, he used his blade to cut down some branches to make a little hut so the little fox could stay for the day." Aww, kawaii!

"But Wu being a good confusion scholar felt it was his duty to bring his fellow officials back into the light..." A good confusion scholar? That's so my new band name.

"Mei Feng was a beauty among beauties but no man dared to woe her." Que lastima!
"Her pink dress was seductive as it seemed to flow after her when she glided about the garden as she showed him the house." I need a dress like that.

Down to the nitty-gritty:

“Why should such a handsome young man like yourself be alone at night?” she said. “It hardly seems right that anyone should undertake such lonely endeavors.” The student, having never taken a wife, could hardly believe his good fortune, and before long, they were making love on the observatory floor.

"As she looked at him he knew the spell worked and they fell into a state of copulation neither had ever experienced before."