The Legend of Meng Jiangnu: Adapting an Ancient Chinese Legend in the Modern World

The popularity of the traditional story of the legend of Meng Jiangnu is increasing in modern culture: every year there are more and more literary, theatrical and cinematographic references, and the number of films, TV series and music videos is multiplying. Culture reacts sensitively to any changes in society — new forms of embodiment of traditional stories appear, in which, nevertheless, familiar images continue to exist and develop. The purpose of this study is to explain the changes and transformations that led to the version of the story that remains popular and in demand today. The author gives a brief history of the development of the legend in the Chinese literary tradition to show the reader that different film adaptations correspond to different stages in the development of the story. The embodiments of the legend in contemporary screen culture are analyzed, which include films, silent films, TV series and animated works. The article uses the method of narrative analysis to identify invariant (static) and variant (circumstance-dependent) elements of the narrative. It traces the development of images through the embodiments of the story of Meng Jiangnu in different contemporary art forms such as cinema and animation. It is concluded that the legend of Meng Jiangnu has not only “survived” to the present day, but also “acquired” new meanings.

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