There are two Chinese classic stories telling about star-crossed lovers.
The Both stories tell of star-crossed lovers. In “The White Serpent”, a young man falls in love with a beautiful girl and marries her but, unbeknown to him, she hides a dark secret – she is actually a huge white serpent disguised by a magic spell. The two lovers are then split asunder when a local monk betrays her secret.
“The Butterfly Lovers” has often been compared to the tale of Romeo and Juliet, except with a considerably greater degree of cross-dressing. Here a young woman disguises herself as a boy in order to secure an education. She spends three years sharing a room with a male classmate who never guesses her secret. She, however, falls in love with him.
When the truth is finally out, the two decide to marry, but their happiness is short-lived. The girl’s father insists she marry another and the young man dies of a broken heart. The two are ultimately united when the girl visits her dead lover’s tomb on her wedding day and the couple are transformed into a pair of butterflies.
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