Hello and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Bei Bei.
Today I'm going to answer the question, how did people come about the Chinese way?
In the last episode, we created the world.
Well, at least Bangu did.
The giant Bangu melted into the earth and the entire globe was like one super global reserve park.
It was free from human consumption, destruction, and contamination.
How green!
How clean!
And how boring!
There was nobody on Earth except one lady goddess, who was also a giant.
This lady giant was called Nuwa.
You might be wondering, Was she the wife of Pangu or her sister?
No, not really.
I don't think they're related in any way, except they both happened to be two Chinese giants in the ancient mystical times.
So Nuwa was all by herself.
Every day, she watched the beautiful sunrise and the sunset.
And then the moon rises and the moon sets.
A man might be quite satisfied with all this loneliness and maybe some hunting on the side, but a woman has got to talk, to communicate and to express herself.
Nuwa tried talking to the mountains, but the mountains didn't answer.
She tried talking to the clouds, but the clouds just drifted by without a peep.
The world was a stunning sight, but no one was there to share the view.
This, for Nuwa, was not just loneliness, but simple devastation.
The goddess roamed around the world in search of someone or something to talk to.
She climbed mountains and walked across the prairies.
One day, she was tired out from all this walking around and sat down by a lake.
The lake was clear and peaceful, like a clean mirror, reflecting the blue sky above.
Nuwa looked into the water and saw her own reflection.
She saw shiny eyes shimmering with light.
She saw a nose that could breathe and a mouth that could talk.
She liked what she saw, unlike a lot of women these days.
And an inspiration dropped into her mind.
If I can make more people like me, I won't be so lonely anymore, she thought.
It seemed like a brilliant idea to Nuwa, and there was no one around to say no anyway.
Nuwa grabbed some mud from the riverbank and kneaded it in her hands.
Then she molded it according to her own image.
It had big eyes, curvy eyebrows, a little nose, and a little mouth.
She was so happy with her creation and she set the little statue down on the ground to admire her work.
And here was when the magic kicked in.
Upon touching the ground, the little statue came alive.
He waved his little arms and breathed through his little nose, and then opened his mouth and cried out, Mother!
Mother! while he ran toward Nuwa.
Now, wasn't that just the most irresistible sound for a lonely woman?
In that instant, all the loneliness vanished, and Nuwa was filled with ecstasy.
A chubby little one just called her mother.
She almost couldn't contain the intense delight she felt.
The little one was so cute that one simply wasn't enough.
It's the same logic with pretty shoes and handbags.
So anyway, Niwa grabbed more mud and made another one.
This one was smaller, but had everything that was needed.
She put it down on the ground and it came alive too.
Now this was too much fun.
Not the ten months that we have to go through to make a baby that can't talk and can't walk.
Nuwa wasn't going to stop now.
She made one mutt statue after another.
Girls and boys, tall ones and short ones, chubby ones and skinny ones.
They jumped and pranced and sang songs and danced.
At night, they huddled close to Nuwa while they all slept together.
Finally, Nuwa wasn't lonely anymore.
In fact, she would probably be begging for some peace and quiet pretty soon.
Though these mud babies were small and weak compared to the goddess, but they could think and learn and they could work together and help each other.
They were so much smarter than all the other animals.
Nuwa loved these human babies.
The world is so big, she thought.
I want these little cute things to fill up the world.
So all day long, Nuwa made little people from mud.
Getting a bit excessive now.
After many days of intense baby making, Nuwa was so exhausted that she could hardly lift her hands.
But she still wanted more and more human babies.
What to do?
One day, Nuwa broke a long and willowy branch from a nearby tree.
She dipped the branch in mud and then struck it on the ground.
Drops of mud flew in the air.
And guess what?
As the drops fell on the ground.
Arms and legs grew from these mud drops, and then eyes and ears and mouths.
They became little people.
Nuwa was thrilled.
Now this was mass production time.
Nuwa swung the branch around and around, and mud drops fell like rain.
They all became little people.
It was quantity over quality now.
But the process was certainly efficient.
The world was soon filled with people.
This is the story of how humans came about in Chinese mythology.
And the goddess was to save the humanity later in time.
In fact, we could say that in Chinese culture, all the other myths followed that of Nuwa, the goddess.
This was also a reflection of the matriarchal society in ancient China, where family life evolved around the mothers.
Nuwa was worshipped as the mother of all humans and is certainly a very important deity.
In fact, she's even prayed to nowadays by some women who need divine assistance, especially when it comes to fertility issues.
As I mentioned earlier, the creation of humans is not the only story of Nuwa.
So we'll talk about how she saved her human babies at a later time.
But that's it for now and hope to see you later.
Bye for now.
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