Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio

“…Strange Tales does stand in the tradition of rusticated scholars in East Asia collecting the folklore of their home region, a tradition stretching back perhaps two thousand years. Consequently, it is an important source of raw material for anyone looking for comparative, historic information from eastern Asia.” –The Folklore Society

Songling Pu, 1640-1715, was an author of China’s Qing Dynasty. He spent the bulk of his life working as a private tutor, during which time he collected the stories that were to be published to great acclaim as Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

Herbert A. Giles (1845-1935) was one of the most acclaimed Sinologists of his era and the Chair of Chinese at Cambridge. He is one of the creators of the “Wade-Giles” system of romanization, the author of several Chinese-English dictionaries, and translator of numerous classics, such as Gems of Chinese Literature and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

Victoria B. Cass received her doctorate in Chinese language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is the author of Dangerous Women: Warriors, Grannies and Geishas of the Ming and In the Realm of the Gods: Lands, Myths, and Legends of China.