Lady White Snake

What fate awaits a thousand-year-old white snake that travels from its sacred mountain to the human world, only to fall in love with a mortal? Such is the unusual beginning of this tragic love story, one of the most popular in all of Chinese opera.

Lady White's marriage and selfless devotion to her beloved husband Xu Xian is considered by Fahai-the abbot of a nearby temple-as heresy and an abomination. Fahai attempts to separate the couple, and in a spectacular battle, Lady White Snake musters all her powers to remain with her husband. Although our heroine prevails in the end, time is sadly not on her side.

Retold by Aaron Shepard
Illustrated by Song Nan Zhang
For ages 9 and up - HB 32p


Editorial Reviews ...

Grades 2-5--Shepard and Zhang present a tale from Chinese traditional literature in the form most Chinese would know it-as an opera performance. Shepard's text, written in vivid, engaging prose, tells the tragic tale of an immortal white snake that is transformed into a lovely woman in search of love. With her companion blue snake, she visits the beautiful West Lake in Hangzhou and meets a handsome, caring young man, an orphan without prospects. They marry and live happily until a zealous monk interferes. Then Lady White must call on a host of immortals to help her fight for her own life as well as her husband's. Lady White and Blue prove to be formidable women warriors. Zhang's illustrations, depicting characters dressed in opera costumes and makeup, yet acting against naturalistic settings, recall the many opera movies made in Chinese film studios. Zhang's color work and skill in composition perfectly complement the dramatic, action-packed text. Versions of "The White Snake" appear in Yin-lien Chin's Traditional Chinese Folktales (M. E. Sharpe, 1989) or Tao Tao Liu Sanders's Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology (Schocken, 1983; o.p.). Shepard identifies specific translations of one particular libretto as the source for his retelling. This picture-book version of a famous Chinese story cast in a unique Chinese art form offers American children an authentic encounter with this rich and ancient culture. -- School Library Journal / March 2001.