Dungan Folktales and Legends

Dungan Folktales and Legends is a unique anthology that acquaints English-speaking readers with the rich and captivating folk stories of the Dungans, Chinese-speaking Muslims who fled Northwest China for Russian Central Asia after failure of the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877) against the Qing dynasty. The most comprehensive collection of Dungan folk narratives, available now in English for the first time, this volume features translations of oral narratives collected in the former Soviet Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the twentieth century, and first published in Dunganskie narodnye skazki i predaniia (1977), which was edited by the internationally renowned Russian sinologist Boris L. Riftin and compiled by his prominent Dungan colleagues Makhmud A. Khasanov and Ilʹias I. Iusupov. The Dungan folk narrative tradition is a vibrant and fascinating tapestry of Chinese, Islamic, and various Central Asian cultural elements.

The present volume is comprised of a chapter introducing the Dungan tale and three chapters containing 78 folk stories organized in the following categories: wonder tales and animal tales; novelistic tales, folk anecdotes, and adventure stories; and legends, historical tales, and narratives. Also included are appendixes, a glossary, an index, the original notes to the texts, and translator’s notes aimed at an English-reading audience. This volume will be of interest to general readers, as well as students and scholars of folklore, ethnography, anthropology, comparative literature, Chinese studies, and Central Asian studies.

"The Russian-language edition of Dungan Folktales and Legends was a substantial contribution to comparative folklore studies when it first appeared in 1977. The book, based on several decades of field research, provided readers a glimpse into the complex tapestry of Dungan storytelling. Built upon several traditions, the tales of the Dungans merge multiple motifs and plots from the wide Eurasian folklore space. This most welcome translation will benefit not only folklorists and sinologists but also anyone with a liking for a good story."

—Aglaia Starostina, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences

"Dungan Folktales and Legends is a very refined work that represents the research carried out by Soviet sinologists. This is undoubtedly a must-read for those interested in Sinophone literature in general, as well as the folklore preserved among Sinophone Muslims. Additionally, this piece illustrates the complexity...read more...