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Chinese Folklore for Modern Times: Three Feminist Re-visions of The Legend of the White Snake

ABSTRACT Folktales function as a form of cultural heritage in contemporary society and offer models for interpreting experience in everyday practices, but the beliefs and values conveyed by many folktales are ingrained in a patriarchal discourse. Thus, the models they offer are challenged by the modern prominence given to women’s perspectives. This article applies an intertextual analysis in a broad cultural context by exploring how the White Snake story has been transformed to cater to modern progressive attitudes on gender and sex. By focussing on the modern adaptations of the White Snake legend by three female authors – Hong Kong author Li Bihua’s novel, Green Snake (1986), American–Chinese writer Yan Geling’s novella, White Snake (1999), and Canadian author Larissa Lai’s novel, Salt Fish Girl (2002) – this study examines how contemporary Hong Kong and Chinese diasporic female authors incorporate and adapt old folktales in their separate narratives. By adapting the well-known folktale through female voices, the three novels challenge the inherited literary and cultural tradition, interrogate and question its gendered discourse defined by the heteronormative patriarchal family structure, and suggest ways in which non-normative sexuality and gender roles can be imagined and practised by female members of the society.