The Gyeongseong Mermaid. By Na Yoonhee
When you think of fairy tales, what do you think of? For some people, fairy tales are associated with Disney films that begin with “Once Upon a Time” and end with “Happily Ever After.” Others might think of fairy tales as the dark, cautionary tales of mortality as told by the Grimm Brothers. However, perhaps another way to think of fairy tales is as stories that are considered “timeless” and yet are constantly evolving through adaptations and retellings in order to resonate with new audiences. Even fairy tales that are considered “timeless” often have slight variations to them due to different oral accounts being transcribed. This is what some folklorists refer to as “contamination,” which points to new or foreign that may have been added to or have seeped into what appears to be an original narrative. However, contrary to the word itself, contamination is something that’s considered positive. By contaminating an oral folktale or a literary fairy tale is to enrich the original story by adding new motifs, themes, words, expressions, proverbs, metaphors, and characters to transform a story and give it a new essence.¹ This contamination process can also be seen in fairy tale adaptations and retellings.
This raises the question, what is the difference between an adaptation and a retelling? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, an adaptation is “a composition rewritten into a new form.”² An example of an adaptation is Disney’s 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid. Whereas a retelling is a “new version of a story”.³ Meanwhile, an example of a retelling is the manhwa, The Gyeongseong Mermaid: The Whale Star is one example.
Adaptations and retellings allow readers to understand or explore a specific narrative through different perspectives. For example, Disney’s take on the Hans Christian Andersen tale ends on a happier note than the original. In Disney’s adaptation, the little mermaid, known as Ariel, falls in love with a human prince, exchanges her voice for legs, and after a climactic final battle, marries the prince and lives happily ever after. Meanwhile, the original fairy tale has a much more ambiguous ending.
The Little Mermaid. By Edmund Dulac
Disney and Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid: Is Not Getting a “Happily Ever After” Really a Tragedy?
When comparing Disney’s adaptation to the original fairy tale, one could argue that the original ending is a tragedy. The biggest reason being that the little mermaid does not end up with the prince, and instead kills herself due to unrequited love. This raises a couple of questions. What exactly is it about the original that makes the tale a tragedy? And how does this influence The Whale Star’s retelling of the tale?
In Hans Christian Andersen’s version of the tale, the little mermaid experiences greater suffering than her Disney counterpart. The little mermaid gives up her voice in exchange for a pair of legs. However, as part of the bargain, she will experience pain akin to walking on sharp knives when on land in exchange for being a beautiful dancer. Additionally, in order to gain human legs, she must drink a potion that will feel like a sword piercing through her body.
One of the biggest differences from the Disney version is that mermaids do not have an immortal soul. The little mermaid wants an immortal soul, and will only gain an immortal soul if the prince falls in love with and marries her. Later, the little mermaid learns that the human prince is betrothed to a princess from a neighboring kingdom. Furthermore, she learns that the prince is in love with the princess because the princess was the same woman from the temple who found him after he was rescued by the little mermaid.
Upon learning that the prince is in love with the princess, the little mermaid is heartbroken over the pain she endured for someone who does not reciprocate her feelings. The little mermaid’s sisters visit her and present her with a dagger gifted to them by the sea witch in exchange for their hair. They tell her that if she kills the prince and the blood drips onto her feet, she will become a mermaid once more and her suffering will end. However, the little mermaid can’t bring herself to kill the prince upon seeing him asleep with his new wife. Instead, she throws herself overboard and turns into sea foam. Even though her physical body dissipates, she is turned into a spirit, giving her an opportunity to obtain an immortal soul if she works for 300 years.⁴
Since the little mermaid does not end up with her prince in the original version, it makes sense why Disney changed the ending when they adapted the tale in order to better fit their brand. Since Disney’s primary demographic is families, having a fairy tale that ends in marriage is consistent with previous fairy tale adaptations such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Furthermore, Disney’s ending to the fairy tale enforces the idea that a conventional heterosexual marriage equals happiness. This makes any fairy tale not ending in a marriage a tragedy in the eyes of Disney and the company’s primary consumers. However, even though the little mermaid does not end up with the prince, she still has the opportunity to one day gain an immortal soul, which was something that she desired from the very beginning. Because the little mermaid fails in her initial goal, but still has the opportunity to one gain something else she has always longed for, it can be argued that the Hans Christian Andersen’s version of The Little Mermaid does not have a tragic ending, but rather, it has an ambiguous ending.
However, despite the tale's ambiguous ending, the little mermaid’s grief over the pain she experienced for someone who never loved her in return has elements of a tragedy because there is a focus on suffering. Therefore, the true tragedy of The Little Mermaid is not because the little mermaid doesn’t end up marrying the prince, but rather, because of how much suffering she has to endure for something that was never going to happen, as the prince was already in love with someone else. Due to the presence of tragic elements in the original fairy tale, The Whale Star has more in common with the Hans Christian Andersen version of the tale because there is an emphasis on personal suffering and suffering under colonization.
Significance of Adapting The Little Mermaid
“The Little Mermaid Statue” By Xuanxu.
This leads to the significance of Na’s decision to adapt The Little Mermaid in order to tell a story about Korea’s suffering under Japanese rule. Adaptations and retellings of fairy tales are not a new concept. However, if a fairy tale is being adapted into a manhwa format, one has to consider the manhwa’s audience. The Whale Star was first published on Naver in 2019, which is a Korean online search platform. However, the manhwa was translated into English and released for an international audience on Webtoons in 2022. Given that many international readers especially western readers may not be as familiar with Korean history as Korean readers would be, adapting a well-known western fairy tale to provide the framework for a story about Korea under Japanese occupation allows western readers to learn about a history they might not be as familiar with within the context of a story that they are already familiar with. Similarly, even if the audience isn’t familiar with Hans Christian Andersen’s version of the tale, due to the prevalence of the Disney adaptation, most western readers know the general plot of the fairy tale.
One thing that makes Na’s retelling of The Little Mermaid so significant is to look at the cultural origins of the fairy tale. Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid originated out of Denmark in 1837. While overshadowed by the colonial legacies of the British and the French, like many modern-day European nations, Denmark has a history of colonization. Throughout the 17th century to the 20th century, the nation colonized islands in the Caribbean, regions of West Africa, parts of India, and Greenland. Even though Denmark never colonized East Asia, the Scandinavian nation can be seen as a broader reflection of Eurocentrism that has influenced contemporary western society. This influence extends to fairy tales that are familiar to western societies. One of the main reasons why fairy tales that originated out of Europe are able to stay in the public consciousness is because of how these stories are constantly being adapted and retold for new audiences. One could make the argument that there is a privilege in regards which type of stories get adapted and retold over others (think of how many Romeo and Juliet adaptations and retellings there are over myths like the Chinese legend of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl).
Na’s retelling of The Little Mermaid continues this legacy of adaptation and retelling, but situates the fairy tale outside of Europe and in Joseon (modern-day North Korea and South Korea). Set in the year 1926, the story follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Su-a Heo who works as a handmaiden for the daughter of a wealthy Pro-Japanese man. While by the water one day, she discovers an unconscious Korean Independence Fighter named Uihyeon Kang, and nurses him back to health. Uihyeon entrusts her with a note to give to his comrades, but after Su-a accidentally overhears sensitive information, one of Uihyeon’s comrades, Haesu Song, forces her to drink a bottle of lye in an attempt to kill her. She survives the assassination attempt, but loses the ability to speak. Seeking revenge, Su-a travels to Gyeongseong and gets taken in by the Korean Independence Movement who are using a teahouse called “The Whale Star '' as their hideout. During her time at the Whale Star, Su-a builds relationships with members of the organization, their love for Joseon, and the lengths they will go for that love.
This focus on love for one’s home country can be seen as a “decentering” of a traditional European narrative not only because of the change in geographical location but also because of the type of narrative that The Whale Star portrays. The Whale Star is a work of historical fiction that is narrated by a young girl who is a citizen of a colonized nation rather than the colonizer. Additionally, the characters’ patriotic love for Joseon contrasts the loss and suffering brought about by colonialism. Through these losses, the manhwa shows how the original fairy tale’s exploration of loss and love as interchangeable is applicable to other forms of love beyond a desire for romantic love.
Loss and Love as Inseparable in The Whale Star
In The Little Mermaid, the most evident form of physical loss is explored through the little mermaid’s loss of voice, and this can also be seen in The Whale Star in regards to Su-a’s loss of voice. However, Su-a’s loss of voice is also symbolic of loss experienced under colonization. After losing her voice, Su-a has to learn how to live with the aftermath of this loss while also being illiterate. The loss of Su-a’s voice could be seen as a metaphor for the Korean peoples’ loss of voice under Japanese occupation and how Korean citizens had to adapt to living under Japanese rule.
“Long, Long Ago, In the Ocean.” By Na Yoonhe.
This notion of colonial violence can also be seen in episode 1 of The Whale Star, “Long, Long Ago, in the Ocean.” While out swimming, Su-a discovers a whale that has died on the beach, presumably due to loss of blood and suffocating on the land.⁵ The dead whale is a metaphor for colonization and Koreans living under Japanese occupation. The scene demonstrates how citizens living in a colonized nation suffocate when they are removed from their cultural identity, similar to how a whale will die by suffocation if it is out of the water for too long.
The experience of loss and violence under colonization is also shown through the various members of the Korean Independence Fighters. Haesu Song, Uihyeon’s comrade, lost his mother and brother after his home was invaded by Japanese soldiers due to his father’s involvement with Korean resistance movements in Russia. Yeongyeong Han, one of the other members of the organization, lost her husband after Japanese soldiers tortured him, and is now a widow who has to raise her infant son. Nokuju, the adopted daughter of Mrs. Sumin–the owner of the Whale Star and a senior member of the organization–lost her biological family after Japanese soldiers raided her village. It’s these personal losses that fuel the members' determination to regain the greatest thing lost to them: their homeland of Joseon, even if it costs them their lives.
“If You Ask Me to Walk. (1)” By Na Yoonhe.
Throughout the story, like the little mermaid who falls for the prince in the original tale, Su-a develops romantic feelings for Uihyeong. However, Uihyeon doesn’t reciprocate her feelings. Instead, Uihyeon’s greatest love is his love for Joseon. In episode 23, Uihyeong describes this form of love to Su-a as “the kind of love that you try to ignore, but can’t help but acknowledge.” Uihyeon tells Su-a, “I love the people of this country. I love each blade of grass and every handful of earth in Joseon. I love the moon that I saw from a faraway country because there must have been at least one moonbeam that shined onto this land.”⁶ Uihyeon develops an attachment to Su-a because she is an ordinary citizen of Joseon. While he implies he loves her, It could be argued that Uihyeon doesn’t love her as an individual, but rather for what she represents, and because he feels indebted to her for saving his life as seen in episode 100, when he admits that he can’t do anything for her, even after she has saved his life countless times.
At this point in the story, Su-a feels as though her presence reminds Uihyeon of everything he has lost, including his homeland, Joseon. For Uihyeon, love and loss are inseparable. He left his Pro-Japanese father’s home because of his love for Joseon, and when he is given the task of killing his father, he agrees to do it even if it means ending his father’s life. However, at the end of the story Su-a chooses to carry out the mission to kill Uihyeon’s father so that Uihyeong won’t have to, and ends up dying in the process. Her sacrifice signifies how she has chosen to put her own feelings towards Uihyeon aside because she understands the depth of his love for Joseon.
Conclusion
The Whale Star’s retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid demonstrates how the original tale’s themes of love and loss as inseparable from one another can be applied to a colonial context. By situating the story in colonial Korea, readers gain a new perspective of the fairy tale while using a framework that is familiar. It is this familiarity with the narrative of a girl who finds herself in a world bigger than she ever imagined that allows the manhwa to continue the legacy of retelling and adaptation.
Works Cited
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Grimms’ Fairy Tales.” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 11, no. 1
(41), 2000, pp. 77–93. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43308420.
Accessed 12 Apr. 2023.
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"retelling." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2023.
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4. Andersen, H. C. (Hans Christian), 1805-1875. “The Little Mermaid.” New York:
Harper & Row, 1971.
5. Na, Yoonhe. “Long, Long Ago, In the Ocean.” The Gyeongseong Mermaid: The
Whale Star. Naver, 2019. Digital.
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Images
Dulac, Edmund. “The Little Mermaid.” Stories by Hans Andersen,
with Illustrations by Edmund Dulac. 1911.
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17860/pg17860-images.html
Na, Yoonhe. “Long, Long Ago, In the Ocean.” The Gyeongseong Mermaid: The
Whale Star. Naver, 2019. Digital.
Na, Yoonhe. “If You Ask Me to Walk (1).” The Gyeongseong Mermaid: The
Whale Star. Naver, 2019. Digital.
”The Little Mermaid Statue.” 28 Jul, 2009, Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/xuanxu/4435567587/in/set-72157623502399387/
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