Aunt Tiger

{{Infobox folk tale

|image = Auntie_Tigress.jpg

|caption = Aunt Tiger performed by glove puppetry

|Folk_Tale_Name = Aunt Tiger

|AKA = Auntie Tigress

|Mythology = Asian

|Country = Taiwan

|Region =

|Origin_Date = 16th century

|Published_In =

|Related =

}}

{{Infobox Chinese

|title = Aunt Tiger

|t=虎姑婆

|s=虎姑婆

|p=Hǔ Gūpó

|poj=Hó͘-ko͘-pô

}}

Aunt Tiger or Auntie Tigress ({{zh|c=虎姑婆|p=Hǔ Gūpó|poj=Hó͘-ko͘-pô}}) is a Taiwanese folktale with many variations. The story revolves around a tiger spirit on the mountain who turns into an old woman, abducts children at night and devours them to satisfy her appetite. It is often used to coax children to fall asleep quickly. The most well-known version was compiled by Taiwanese writer Wang Shilang, where the setting of the story is in a Hakka settlement in Taiwan.{{cite book| author=王詩琅| title=臺灣民間故事| date=31 January 1999| publisher=玉山社|isbn=9789578246041}}{{cite journal |last=Chien |first=Chi-Ru |date=2013 |journal=成大中文學報 |volume=22 |url=http://bec001.web.ncku.edu.tw/ezfiles/335/1335/img/1592/4307.pdf |script-title=zh:臺灣虎姑婆故事之深層結構─以自然與文化二元對立觀之 |trans-title=The Research for Structural Analysis and Folk Investigation of Taiwan's Grandaunt Tiger Story |access-date=2016-08-30 |archive-date=2016-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913231033/http://bec001.web.ncku.edu.tw/ezfiles/335/1335/img/1592/4307.pdf |url-status=dead }}

==Legend==

A tiger spirit must eat a few children to become a human, so it descends from the mountains to find children to eat.{{cite web |title=Tiger Aunt: The Terrifying Child-Eating Monster of Taiwanese Folklore|url=https://bizarrewonders.com/tiger-aunt-the-terrifying-child-eating-monster-of-taiwanese-folklore/|date=1 March 2023 |accessdate=23 June 2023 |website=Bizarre Wonders}} After going down the mountain, it hides outside a house and eavesdropped, knowing that the mother is going out and there is only a pair of siblings in the house, so it turns into an aunt to trick the child into opening the door and entering the house. Sleeping until midnight, Aunt Tiger ate the younger brother and made a chewing sound. The sister asks Aunt Tiger what she was eating when she hears it. Aunt Tiger says she is just eating peanuts, and then throws a piece of the brother's finger to the sister. The sister calmly pretends to go to the toilet then hides in the tree outside the door. When Aunt Tiger finds out and is going to eat the sister, the latter cleverly asks Aunt Tiger to boil a pot of hot water (otherwise it is hot oil) for her, and asks Aunt Tiger to hang the hot water on the tree because she wants to jump into the pot by herself. When Aunt Tiger hangs the hot water to the tree with a rope, the sister asks Aunt Tiger to close her eyes and open her mouth. Then, she pours the boiling water down Aunt Tiger's throat, killing the tiger.{{cite web |title=Aunt Tiger - Taiwan Legend and Nursery Rhyme|url=https://ltl-taiwan.com/aunt-tiger/ |accessdate=23 June 2023 |publisher= LTL Mandarin School | date=August 3, 2020}} One variation is that there are two girls who are sisters instead of the brother and sister combo.{{cite journal |last1=Hulick |first1=Jeannette |title=Review of Auntie Tiger |journal = Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books |volume =62 |issue =6 |pages = 267 |date = 2009 |publisher= Project MUSE |doi=10.1353/bcc.0.0662|s2cid=144937417 }}

==Variations==

There are also stories with similar plots circulating in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam and other countries, similar to the story of Little Red Riding Hood in Europe.{{cite journal |last1 = Huang |first1 = Chih-chun |last2 = Huang |first2 = Chengzeng |last3 = Specht |first3 = Annette |last4 = Lontzen |first4 = Günter |last5 = Barchilon |first5 = Jacques |title = The Earliest Version of the Chinese" Little Red Riding Hood": The Tale of the Tiger-woman. |journal = Merveilles & Contes |volume =7 |issue =1 |pages = 513–527 |date = 1993 |publisher= Wayne State University Press |jstor=41390379 }} Similar storylines can also be found in China in which the aunt is a wolf or bear.{{cite book |chapter=Chinese Tales |first=Jing |last=Li |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales |volume=I: A-F |editor=Donald Haase |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2008 |page=197 |isbn=9780313334429}} In addition, such a story with two children and an adult who intends to murder them is also in Hansel and Gretel in Grimm's Fairy Tales. In South Korea, there is a folktale called Janghwa Hongryeon jeon with a similar plot. The purpose of this type of story may be to warn children not to believe strangers who take the opportunity of the absence of adults to enter houses and kidnap children.{{cite web |title=Tiger Aunt: Beware of Strangers|url=https://islandfolklore.com/tiger-aunt/ |accessdate=23 June 2023 |website=Island Folklore|date=6 May 2021 }}

Analysis

= Tale type =

Chinese folklorist and scholar {{ill|Ting Nai-tung|zh|丁乃通}} established a second typological classification of Chinese folktales (the first was by Wolfram Eberhard), and abstracted a tale type he indexed as number 333C, "The Tiger Grandma". In this tale type, a child-eating creature (ogress, tiger or wolf){{cite book |last=Hung |first=Chang-tai |title=Going to the People |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |date=1985 |page=125 |doi=10.1163/9781684172580_010 |quote=In the final episode of "The Tiger Grandma," the ogress (usually a tiger or a wolf) is killed ... }} pretends to be an older female relative of the children, and pays them a visit after their mother leaves. The ogress is allowed to enter the children's house, devours one of them, but the survivor escapes to another place.Nai-tung TING. A Type Index of Chinese Folktales in the Oral Tradition and Major Works of Non-religious Classical Literature. FF Communications, no. 223. Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1978. pp. 61-64.{{cite book |last=Dundes |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Dundes |chapter=Interpreting Little Red Riding Hood Psychoanalytically |title=The Brothers Grimm and Folktale |editor=James M. McGlathery |publisher=University of Illinois Press |date=1991 |page=22 |isbn=9780252061912}} In that regard, researcher Juwen Zhang indicated that type 333C, "Wolf grandma", is an example of local Chinese tale types that are not listed in the international ATU index.Juwen Zhang. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QS1LEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22333C%22+%2B+%22wolf+grandma%22&pg=PA30 Oral Traditions in Contemporary China: Healing a Nation]. Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. p. 30. {{ISBN|9781793645142}}.

The tale has also been compared to the European tale Little Red Riding Hood,{{cite book |last=Hung |first=Chang-tai |title=Going to the People |location=Leiden, The Netherlands |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |date=1985 |page=125 |doi=10.1163/9781684172580_010 |quote="The Tiger Grandma," a Chinese version of "Little Red Riding Hood," carries a similar message. (...) In the final episode of "The Tiger Grandma," the ogress (usually a tiger or a wolf) is killed, just as the wolf is killed by the hunter in the Grimms' version of "Little Red Riding Hood."}} classified in the international index as type ATU 333,Hung, Chang-tai. Going to the People. Leiden, The Netherlands: Harvard University Asia Center, 1985. p. 125. {{doi|10.1163/9781684172580}}{{cite book |chapter=Chinese Tales |first=Jing |last=Li |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales |volume=I: A-F |editor=Donald Haase |publisher=Greenwood Press |date=2008 |page=197 |isbn=9780313334429}}{{cite book |title=The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend |editor-last=Mercatante |editor-first=Anthony S. |volume=I: A-L |date=2009 |location=New York |publisher=Facts On File |page=611 |quote=Little Red Riding Hood is tale type 333, the “Glutton,” and is known in China, Korea, and Japan as “Grandaunt Tiger.”}} and to The Wolf and the Kids (tale type ATU 123).{{cite journal |last1=Goldberg |first1=Christine |title=Strength in Numbers: The Uses of Comparative Folktale Research |journal=Western Folklore |date=2010 |volume=69 |issue=1 |page=24 |jstor=25735282 |quote=Similarly, there is an Asian tale about children who are visited by man-eating tiger disguised as their aunt. Although this tale shares motifs with both Little Red Riding Hood (ATU 333) and The Wolf and the Kids (ATU 123), these are actually three separate tales ...}}{{cite book |last1=Delarue |first1=Paul |last2=Ténèze |first2=Marie-Louise |title=Le conte populaire français; catalogue raisonné des versions de France et des pays de langue française d'outre-mer: Canada, Louisiane, îlots français des États-Unis, Antilles françaises, Haïti, Ile Maurice, La Réunion |date=1957 |publisher=Érasme |isbn=978-2-7068-0623-0 |oclc=1625284 |language=French |page=382 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Od7WAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Et+il+se+retrouve+en+Extr%C3%AAme-Orient,+dans+des+versions+d%27un+conte+bien+connu+en+Chine,+Cor%C3%A9e,+Japon,+Le+Tigre+et+les+Enfants%22 |quote=Et il se retrouve en Extrême-Orient, dans des versions d'un conte bien connu en Chine, Corée, Japon, Le Tigre et les Enfants, qui, par le sujet et nombre de motifs, semble apparenté aux contes du Petit Chaperon rouge et de La Chèvre et les Chevreaux. |trans-quote=One can find in the Far East, versions of a well-known tale in China, Korea, Japan, The Tiger and the Children, which, due to its subject matter and number of motifs, appears to be related to the tale Little Red Riding Hood and The Goat and its Kids.}}{{cite book |last=Dundes |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Dundes |chapter=Interpreting Little Red Riding Hood Psychoanalytically |title=The Brothers Grimm and Folktale |editor=James M. McGlathery |publisher=University of Illinois Press |date=1991 |page=22 |isbn=9780252061912 |quote=The Chinese tale type 333C, The Tiger Grandma, as summarized in Nai-Tung Ting’s A Type Index of Chinese Folktales (1978), presents a curious combination of The Wolf and the Kids (AT 123, Grimm #5) and The Glutton (Red Riding Hood) (AT 333, Grimm #26).}}

Adaptations

=Animated films=

Public Television Service and S4C co-produced a clay animation on this story. In 2000, it won the Children's Jury 1st Prize in the category of Television Animation at the 17th Chicago International Children's Film Festival.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01p6njv|title=BBC ALBA - Sgaoileadh Nan Sgeul, An Tigear Olc/The Bad Tiger|website=BBC|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-16}}

=Nursery rhymes=

Aunt Tiger's nursery rhyme of the name "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ms0Xq6hbHU Auntie Tigress]" was included in the pop music album released by Taiwanese singer Wawa in 1986.

=Films=

In 2005, the movie Hu Gu Po directed by Alice Wang ({{ill|王毓雅|zh}}) used the folklore as its plot.{{cite web |title=Hu gu po|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0788017/ |accessdate=23 June 2023 |website= IMDB}}
In 2007, the movie titled Auntie Tigress, directed by Wei Ling Chang, also based its plot on this folklore.{{cite web |title=Auntie Tigress|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135476/ |accessdate=23 June 2023 |website= IMDB}}

=Books=

In 2006, Aunt Tiger's picture book drawn by Taiwanese illustrator Eva Wang ({{ill|王家珠|zh}}) was published.{{cite book| last=Wang| first=Gia-Zhen| title=Auntie Tigress and Other Favorite Chinese Folk Tales| date=29 September 2006| publisher=Purple Bear Books|isbn=9781933327297}}
In 2009, American writer Laurence Yep published the book titled Auntie Tiger, in which he recounted the famous Taiwanese folklore.{{cite book| last=Yep| first=Laurence| title=Auntie Tiger| date=1 January 2009| publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0060295523}}