Here’s our list of fairy tales, fables, ghost stories, myths, legends, and sacred tales, classified according to land of origin. Many of the stories are available online; others can be found in folktale collections in libraries. Feel free to use these, or any of your own choice outside of this list.
MALAYSIA/SINGAPORE/INDONESIA
Sang Nila Utama and the founding of Singapore
Lancang Kuning
Singapura Dilanggar Todak (The Legend of the Swordfish and Bukit Merah)
Sang Kancil, the Clever Mousedeer
Mahsuri, the Maiden of Langkawi
Bangsat and the King of the Crocodiles
CHINA
Nü Wa creates humans and repairs the sky
Hou Yi shoots the sun, Chang’er flies to the moon
Nian and the Story of Chinese New Year
The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl
Lady Mengjiang and the Great Wall
The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea
Journey to the West (aka Monkey King)
Liang Zhu: The Butterfly Lovers
The Fox Fairy (and anything from Strange Tales of Liaozhai)
The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety
Mulian Rescues his Mother From Hell
Tales from Justice Bao (e.g. the Civet for a Crown Prince)
INDIA
Tales from the Life of the Buddha
The Mongoose and the Jackal
Tales of Suppandi
WEST ASIA
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Seven Wise Princesses
JAPAN
Hanasaka Jiisan, the Old Man Who Made the Cherry Blossoms Bloom
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (aka The Moon Princess)
O-Jizo San, the Grateful Statues
The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya
KOREA
The Story Bag
The Mirror and the Villagers (aka The Bridegroom’s Shopping)
The Disowned Student and the Field Rat Spirit
The Three Princesses and the Land-Below-the-Earth
PHILIPPINES
Alitaptap, the Princess who became Fireflies
The Creation of the Banana Tree
The Creation of the Rose
THAILAND
Manohra, the Kinnari (Bird Maiden)
VIETNAM
This is a collection of Asian folktales, fairytales, myths, and legends. Good for mixing things up from the usual Greek and Roman variety. I would personally recommend Siti Zubaidah, the Chinese creation myths (Pan Gu and Nü Wa), Journey to the West, the Japanese creation myths (Izanami and Izanagi; Amaterasu and Uzume), Tokoyo, and Kiyohime.
The original post only listed all of this, so I added links for almost all of them (some I couldn’t find resources for). Found this while I was looking at a Singaporean indie publisher.
(Source: easternheathens-blog-blog)
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