The story that I chose was “The Story of Tam and Cam” from Vietnam. Some aspects that are familiar in other cinderella stories are evident right away. Tam, the protagonist of the tale, is locked away in her room, while her father and new bride celebrate their marriage by hosting a banquet in their house. Later on in the story, the father and Tam’s new step mother have a new baby girl named Cam. The stepmother loves Cam and despises Tam. Soon, Tam’s own father starts to hate Tam because of the lies that his wife had been feeding him about Tam.

We later learn that Tam is physically abused by her step mother, and made to do physically grueling work in hopes that Tam accidentally dies. From these events, the reader can make the connection to other Cinderella stories where the protagonist is neglected, abused, and has a wicked family.

One aspect that was unfamiliar was when Tam was reincarnated into a songbird. Not only that, but she was also reincarnated into a tree and a fruit later on in the tale.  

What I found most surprising of this tale was when Tam died. When I watch, read, or listen to a story, I have become so accustomed to the main character never being able to be killed, even when the situations they were in would almost certainly guarantee death, so this part of the story was very unexpected.

The most telling part of this tale was when Cam wanted to become as beautiful as Tam. Cam asked Tam how to become as white as her. Tam suggested taking a bath in boiling water to become as white as her. This was very telling of the beauty values of Vietnam, and suggested to me that white skin is considered very attractive in Vietnam.