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Japanese Cat Lit and Cosy Cat Fiction
Happy International Book Lover’s Day! This seems like the perfect intersection to talk about our favourite things – animal tales, books, cats (International Cat Day was yesterday) and translated fiction by women (a month long celebration)! Now, you’ve probably seen them everywhere- books with cats on them welcoming you into a bookshop, a night library, a regular library, a convenience store by the sea, a cafe (of the pottery or full-moon or time travelling variety) or a restaurant of sorts. There has been a boom in translated works, namely from Japanese and Korean authors, that feature ‘cats’ on the cover…
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The Shamans and Swords of K-Pop Demon Hunters
The Shamans and Swords of K-Pop Demon Hunters Welcome to Tales from the Box Office where Fox and Sparrow moonlight as TV and Movie reviewers who focus on the myths and monsters behind the fictional folklore fanfare! In this part, we will focus on Shamanism and Huntr/x. K-Pop Demon Hunters is the blockbuster of the summer and it was only just released in June! The movie which was produced by Sony Pictures Animation and co-directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans features a fictional K-Pop girl group called Huntr/x who just so happen to also be demon hunters. This post…
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Beware of Auntie Tiger
Hóo-Koo-Pô Taiwan, 7 minute read So, this story is one that I found months ago when I was looking at folk horror from Korea, Taiwan, China and the Philippines. Specifically, the story I chose is based on the Aunt Tiger or Auntie Tigress folklore and the most well-known version is by Taiwanese author, Wang Shilang. A long time ago, many people in Taiwan believed spirits and Gods roamed among us. They believed that animal spirits could transform themselves into human beings to trick other humans before devouring them. This sets the stage for our story of the Tiger Witch, the…
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The Story Bag: Korean Folklore
The Story Bag. In the spirit of the Lunar New Year, our story will be from Korea! Lunar New Year has many different names and countries like China, Korea, Vietnam, and Malaysia all celebrated January 22nd, 2023! We do cover the story of the Moon Goddess from the Mid-Autumn festival so if you want more festive stories then do check out that story here. This tale comes from So-un Kim’s “The Story Bag; a collection of Korean folk tales.” He was a prominent storyteller and essayist who wrote many books detailing Korean folktales and fairy tales! His politics, however, were…
Tales from the Enchanted Forest 