Geumbee Chandler Ahn - Jeju
Cinderella is the story of how a prince afflicted by a grave case of prosopagnosia and a beautiful but mistreated maiden manage to find each other with the aid of a pair of glass slippers that mysteriously refuse to vanish with the rest of the maiden’s abracadabra fineries. The maiden’s glass slippers, acting as both the catalyst and the ultimate link between the prince and the unfortunate damsel, play a central role in the fulfillment of the couple’s happy ending. The same can be said for Cinderella’s dedicated band of rodents who aid her in completing her endless pile of chores and free her from her imprisonment in the towers, allowing her to knock out her evil Stepmother and slide a dainty foot into her slipper as proof of her identity. As ingenious and inventive as this Disney-adapted classic may be, however, Cinderella is hardly the only shoe-redemption fairytale of its kind. South Korea’s centuries-old folktale Kongjwi Patjwi is an exact reflection of the sentiments and morals that Cinderella contains – it even has the step-sisterly rivalry down pat to an art form, with the ugly, jealous sibling meeting her untimely demise by being chopped up and delivered to her mother in a ceramic pot in some bloodier retellings of the legend.
Cinderella and Kongjwi Patjwi are both adaptations of the classic ‘beautiful-lady-loses-a-shoe-and-meets-rich-husband’ trope, with over 500 separate retellings of the picture perfect cliché available in print across the globe today. Rhodopis’ story about a slave girl in Greek who goes on to wed the king of Egypt when her shoe is stolen by a bird and dropped in the King’s lap is usually considered to be the earliest known variant. Cinderella and its
Korean counterpart, however, are not completely identical to each other although both are thought to be descendants of Rhodopis’ Egyptian Cinderella. Certain features of the stock
characters and plot differ in reflection of the virtues that the societies they were respectively situated in promoted at the time. The seemingly insignificant differences between the two stories telegraph volumes of information about Korea’s cultural idiosyncrasies and fundamental beliefs.
Cinderella’s lovable gang of rodents were indebted to her. She fed them, clothed them and dismantled the deadly jaws of the steel traps for their safe passage. The rodents, in turn, as a payment for the kindness and generosity that Cinderella had unfailingly directed towards them, aided her in her frequent moments of plight and later helped her snag the marriage opportunity of a lifetime. Kongjwi’s helpers, on the other hand, the cow, the toad and the merry band of grain-picking sparrows – were virtual strangers who appeared out of nowhere to rescue Kongjwi from her troubles. They had had no previous affiliation with Kongjwi but still made their choice to voluntarily contribute their services for her happy ending. This is an indicator of the virtue of service that the Korean society promotes, where assistance given out of the kindness of one’s heart rather than as simple reciprocity for a favor is identified to be noble and worthy of commendation. Individuals must unerringly invest their best efforts in extending a helping hand to others, even when no benefits can be returned from the other person’s end.
Another difference between Kongjwi Patjwi and Cinderella is the way that these two heroines capture the hearts of their future husbands. Cinderella attends a ball that was specifically held for the purpose of selecting a bride for the prince, and he initiates a nationwide search for the maiden that he fell in love with at first sight. Kongjwi’s link with her husband, however, can be found in a series of events that can only be described as fate. Upon Kongjwi’s loss of her beautiful new slipper in the stream, the governor, passing by, orders the shoe to be fished out of the water. As he sees that the shoe is surrounded by a magical aura, he decides to search for its owner out of curiosity for the kind of person she may be. As opposed to Cinderella, therefore, Kongjwi Patjwi’s version of How I Met Your Mother has a lot more to do with providence and luck. Cinderella is clear on what she wants – she wants to attend the party, wants to marry the prince, and wants to escape a lifetime of pandering to the mercurial whims of her evil stepmother and stepsisters. Kongjwi, however, takes every single misfortune that befalls her in stride. She never complains nor wants for anything, and as reward for her contentment is gifted everything she could ever have dreamed of. This is a reflection of how the Korean society at the time believed greed and excessive ambition to be detrimental to one’s character, and how being constantly thankful despite the destitutions of one’s circumstance would ultimately lead the individual towards happiness – in Kongjwi’s case, through divine intervention and marriage.
The “Shoe Story” is one of the most popular folk tale adaptations in the world, and the way that Cinderella and Kongjwi Patjwi have each embodied their own virtues and morals to be learnt are fascinating in both their resemblances and variances. The Korean cultures and conventions in a staple bedtime story are truly breathtaking - something to keep in mind for the next time you come upon yet another of its spin-offs, concerning a maiden who loses her shoe and a crew of evil step-siblings who seize the opportunity to bully some humility into her. Try looking for the subtle details in a “Shoe Story” that can’t alternatively be found in either books, articles or scholastic journals. You might be pleasantly surprised.
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