Taiwei Chang

One day, an environmentalist found the wonderful lamp coincidently. In the beginning, he did not know what it is. After he scrubbed the ashes on that lamp, an elf appeared in his view. "What do you want? I could fulfill one of your wishes, remember, just one."  After a period of thinking, the environmentalist said, "Could you clean all the pollutions that exist on the earth?"  The elf laughed, "Wow, such a noble spirit! I am so proud of you dude! But, I'm sorry. Although I can do that for sure, your wish cannot be realized."  "What? Wait! What is that mean? You just told me a paradox." The environmentalist felt confused.  Answered by the elf, "I would like to prove what I just said after I fulfill your wish. Now, let's do it!" The elf snapped its fingers, then, all pollutions on the earth disappeared.  The elf continued, "I have the power to time travel. It is time to show you what would happen on earth after your wish has ...

This story is part of the Arabian Nights unit . Story source: The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). I have read Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp when I was a child. Although this version has some differences with the story that I have read before, I really enjoy reading it. The best part of this story I think is the existence of the wonderful lamp. In my opinion, the main point of the Aladdin story is not propagandizing kindness or peace, but depict a specific situation - what would a poor man do when he gets the god's power? This is also one of the reasons that I enjoy reading this story. In reality, many people would like to own countless wealth and infinite power, even though that is impossible. However, in the story, an unreal world, the author and reader could both imagine that. For a deeper understanding, the goal of the stories could not be an advertisement of positive values, it could also be a medium to realize impossibl...

This story is part of the  Arabian Nights unit . Story source:  The Arabian Nights' Entertainments  by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1898). In this part, Scheherazade uses several stories to persuade Sultan Schahriar not to kill any ladies. I really like how this story builds the characters' personalities during some small details. Scheherazade is politic, beautiful, and knowledgeable. She would like to stick to her thoughts even though there are dangers waiting for her. Also, she is brave enough to voluntarily confront the dangers. In terms of Sultan Schahriar, although he is rude and merciless, I realized that he is also rational and sober when I reading the plots about him. For instance, when the grand-vizir said that he agrees to sacrifice her daughter. His performance was surprising and incredible. Besides, he agrees that Scheherazade's request to tell her story. After the first story, he even shows curious about the following stories, which means t...