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| The Butterfly Lovers | |||||||||||||
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 Monument to Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai near the Tomba di Giulietta in Verona, Italy | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 梁山伯與祝英臺 / 梁山伯與祝英台 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 梁山伯与祝英台 | ||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai | ||||||||||||
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| Liang Zhu | |||||||||||||
| Chinese | 梁祝 | ||||||||||||
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The Butterfly Lovers is a Chinese legend centered around the tragic romance between Liang Shanbo (梁山伯) and Zhu Yingtai (祝英臺), whose names form the Chinese title of the story. The title is often abbreviated as Liang Zhu (梁祝).
The story was selected as one of China's Four Great Folktales by the "Folklore Movement" in the 1920s—the others being the Legend of the White Snake (Baishezhuan), Lady Meng Jiang, and The Cowherd and the Weaving Maid (Niulang Zhinü).[1][2]
Six cities in China collaborated in 2004 on a formal application for the Proclamation of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity[3] on the legend at UNESCO,[4] submitted in 2006 through the Chinese Ministry of Culture.
- ^ Idema (2012) notes that this term neglects the variations and therefore diversity of the tales, as only a single version was taken as the true version.
- ^ Idema (2012), p. 26.
- ^ "Proclamation of Masterpieces: UNESCO Culture Sector". portal.unesco.org. Archived from the original on 19 June 2004. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
- ^ UNESCO Item 7 Archived 3 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine