Before Hollywood was churning out movies faster than the speed of light, forbidden romance was already a popular trope for centuries, manifesting in many different ways. And today, we’re going to be examining two stories from centuries ago that follow the very familiar forbidden lovers trope that we’ve really grown to love today: Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and it’s Chinese counterpart, The Butterfly Lovers, or LiangZhu in Chinese, after the two main characters.
Romeo and Juliet is a story that has been told and retold in many adaptations today, from the first 1968 film, to the second 1996 film, until we got so many different movies and TV shows that it’s hard to even wrap our heads around! So instead, let’s first consider the lesser known Butterfly Lovers to determine what exactly this story entails. Commonly nicknamed the Chinese Romeo and Juliet, this story follows a pair of lovers, who, like Romeo and Juliet, are forbidden to be in love.
The Butterfly Lovers: A Summary
Our female lead, Zhu Yingtai is the ninth child and the only daughter of the well-established Zhu family in the Zhejiang province of China. She longs to receive an education of her own, and despite it being forbidden for women at the time to study, Yingtai manages to get her father to allow her to travel to Hangzhou for education if she disguises as a man. On her way to Hangzhou, Yingtai stumbles upon another scholar, Liang Shanbo. At the first meeting, the two feel a strong affinity for each other and sign an oath of fraternity.
The two arrive at the school in Hangzhou and study together for the next three years. As the time passes, Yingtai gradually falls in love with Shanbo, who, due to his studious nature, continuously fails to notice Yingtai’s femininity. The two spend all three years in this peacefully mundane school life.
Suddenly one day Yingtai receives a letter from her father urgently requesting for her to come home. Confused, Yingtai complies anyway and Shanbo escorts Yingtai on her travels back to Zhejiang. Along the way, Yingtai continues to try to hint at her true gender. After many failed attempts, Yingtai finally devises a different plan, where she tells Shanbo that she will try to play matchmaker for him and her “sister” who waits at home. They part ways at a pavilion in Changting.
When Shanbo arrives at Yingtai’s home in Zhejiang months later, it is finally revealed to Shanbo that Yingtai is the so-called sister. With this new revelation, the two enjoy a few months of passionate love. Unfortunately, disaster strikes once again, as it is revealed that Yingtai is betrothed to a wealthy merchant. Despaired by this new revelation, Shanbo falls ill from grief and heartbreak and dies in his office a few weeks later as a magistrate.
Finally, as Yingtai is on the way to her wedding, the wedding procession is halted by strong winds, and it is unable to pass the site of Shanbo’s grave. Yingtai requests to pay her respects to Shanbo, and she bitterly prays for the grave to open up. A clap of thunder reveals a crack in the grave, and Yingtai jumps in. The grave closes, and their spirits come out as two butterflies that flutter out and away, never to be separated again.
But, is Butterfly Lovers really the Chinese Romeo and Juliet?
The main storyline already reveals many similarities, from the forbidden romance, to the self-sacrifice. Even the Yingtai and Shanbo’s love at first sight story seems like an excerpt straight from Romeo and Juliet!
As we get to know both stories, it’s eye-catching to any reader that the main theme is the power of love, where the characters in both stories are driven by their love and desire for their counterpart. For example, Yingtai, driven by her love and grief from losing Shanbo willingly falls to her death in her lover’s grave, while Romeo, believing that Juliet is dead, takes his own life as he remains unwillingly to live without her. And even further than that, the sacrifices that all characters make to be with their love, with Romeo and Juliet defying family orders, and Shanbo passing away from heartbreak, unable to get over the grief of his lover marrying another.
But differences arise too, namely in the power dynamic between the lovers in both stories. The ages of Romeo and Juliet have often come up as a point of contention, as Juliet is said to be around 13 years old, while Romeo is already an adult. Quite the age gap isn’t it? Despite the literature of the story, there’s already an inherent power gap between the two lovers.
That’s where the two stories take a turn. The Butterfly Lovers is set in ancient China, in a time where women are subjected to gender inequality and certain gender-based constraints, including, as stated in the story, the inability to gain an education. But Yingtai manages to maneuver this setting-based power dynamic by pulling a Mulan and dressing as a man to get her education. Through this loophole, the couple in The Butterfly Lovers thoroughly manages to avoid the power dynamic between the two lovers, with Yingtai dressing as a man and Shanbo being unaware and clueless throughout the beginning and the middle.
Another key difference that arises is the character portrayal, especially as the stories reach their main conflicting climaxes. In Romeo and Juliet, everyone would agree that both Romeo and Juliet are portrayed as those who defy. They rebel against the norm of their family, they defy the expectations that are set in place for them from their families, and they ignore the ongoing conflict that their families have had for decades. On the other hand, Yingtai and Shanbo comply in the Butterfly Lovers. Yingtai does not resist her father when he asks her to leave her education to come home and she complies when she is asked to marry the rich merchant. It is only until the coincidental blowing wind gives Yingtai the opportunity to visit Shanbo’s grave, that she finally acts in the name of love.
Overall, that’s the key reason why, when we consider both Romeo and Juliet and the Butterfly Lovers, we see fateful lovers but in two very different ways. On one hand, we have Romeo and Juliet who are often described as star-crossed lovers. This term generally applies to two people who seem like they are fated to be unable to be together for anyways – or in other words, the stars are not in their favor. On the other hand, it seems that in the Butterfly Lovers, Yingtai and Shanbo are fated to be together. From their coincidental meeting on the way to school, to the perfectly timed winds preventing Yingtai’s wedding procession from preceding, the heavens continue to bless the two lovers, ensuring that they reach their happy ending – even if not in the form of humans, but instead in the form of butterflies.
To conclude…
As the Butterfly Lovers continue to gain more traction and popularity now in the modern world, with adaptations like a ballet and an orchestral theme, it’s important to understand the connections and disconnections to Romeo and Juliet. Though the two stories seem eerily similar from the get-go, only a simple examination will unveil the true parallels between the two stories.
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